Endangered Species

They are still around, but one has to wonder for how much longer. In an era of mobile phones, emails and social media, how long will public telephones and post (mail) boxes continue to exist? Both of these symbols of Britain, usually painted red, are recognizable to citizens and travelers alike. Increasingly though I have noticed that many telephone boxes are empty shells, devoid of telephones. In Britain some telephone boxes might be around for a long time simply because they are iconic and tourist love to take pictures. But what of the long term? Will public telephones be confined to museums?

This trend raises a question: How many public pay telephones are used around the world these days? And, who exactly are using these phones? (I cannot tell you the last time I used a pay phone or how much a telephone call might cost…in any country.)

Since I have been in Scotland during this trip, the telephone boxes do remind me of the great Scottish film, Local Hero (1983). In the film an oil executive desperately wants to maintain connections with his life back in Houston while he is on a business trip to Scotland. He uses the payphone in a small Scottish town to keep himself “connected” to his friends, only to find that he has a real connection with local townsfolk. The film was popular enough that many people actually traveled to the town of Pennan just to see the phone booth from the film. We might suppose that the mobile phone makes us feel more connected; however, as with the spirit of the film, I have my doubts.

Post boxes, perhaps, have a longer life ahead of them. I find it paradoxical that the older hardware (post boxes) will likely survive the “newer” technology (but I digress). It seems that there has been a drop in “snail mail” but I reckon that there will continue to be a need to physically send materials for the foreseeable future. Post boxes in Britain (and Ireland) carry historical references on their sides. The old style receptors have the initials of the reigning monarch on the side. In Ireland, which was a part of the British Empire until 1922, there are still a number of old post boxes that carry the initials of late nineteenth or early twenty century monarchs. The difference is that the Irish boxes got a coat of green paint rather than the traditional red.

Irish Post Box from the George VI era

Post Box from the Victoria Era

Perhaps all of this is nostalgia, but it does make me think of the changing aspects of travel, communications and the world.