KX telephone boxes

The KX series of telephone boxes in the United Kingdom was introduced by BT (British Telecom) in 1985. Following the privatisation of BT in 1984, the company decided to create a newly designed and improved take on the British telephone box, which at this point consisted of predominantly red telephone boxes which BT had recently acquired, the most common being the iconic K6 box. These red boxes were considered flawed in parts by BT for several reasons, including cost, lack of ventilation, accessibility and maintenance. After a series of trials and an earlier aborted project, BT announced they were to spend £160m on a series of new phoneboxes, new computer chip controlled payphones and the phasing out of all older red telephone boxes. The KX Kiosk range was designed for BT by Warwick based DCA but were engineered by GKN in Telford. The main telephone box in the KX range is the KX100. Upon launch, there were two further production models - the KX200 and the KX300. The boxes were produced at a rate of 5,000-6,000 a year between 1986-1996. In 1987, the smaller 'vandal resistant' KX410 and KX420 pillars joined the range (but neither were built by GKN and never high numbers). In 1990, the indoor KX500 pillar/wall range was designed, having several sub variants. In 1996, the KX100 was adapted into a 'new' model called the KX+. The KX+ kiosks were produced at a rate of 5,000 a year, with the total count of all BT-owned public phones (including the pillar and wall mounted KX500 series) reaching 137,000 by 1999. This number has since decreased to around 15,000 (2024 BT figures) and continues to fall annually.

Whilst the updated functions of the KX housings were praised, the designs were widely criticised and were seen as stylistically inferior to the red telephone boxes. The plan to replace the red boxes was also criticised, and this led to a successful public campaign by the c20th Society to save many of the red kiosks.

Most of the main KX series had their branding livery revamped after BT changed their corporate logo in 1991. Occasionally old branding resurface on elevations hidden for decades when one of a pair of kiosks is removed. Production of the KX100/200/300 range stopped in 1996 when the KX+ was launched, attempting to address the criticisms that the original KX100 had received by lowering the door handle, brightening the interior and enlarging the upper windows. The biggest revision was the addition of a red roof dome - reminiscent of older phone boxes. Later versions of the KX+ incorporated broadband connection and blue domes. BT was reported to have stopped making enclosed telephone boxes altogether in 2001. From 2007 BT Payphones continued to be installed in modified KX100/KX+ that had beef converted to ATM cash-dispensers. From 2007 BT started to introduce the semi-open JCDecaux advert pillar called the ST6 (Street Talk 6). Later advertising pillars followed, with side mounted keypad public phones, then digital touchscreens.