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History of Hull's cream phone boxes - and a Hollywood connection

Sally Fairfax,in Hulland
Paul Johnson,East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire
KCOM Three people - a man and his parents - stand either side of a cream mid-20th Century telephone box in a broad high street. The phone box is decorated with a colourful poster featuring a picture of the actor and the words: "Hometown heroes - acclaimed actor Rob Aramayo has blazed a trail from right here in East Hull to Hollywood". The man is wearing a green hoodie, black jeans and black trainers. He is smiling as he looks at his parents. His father is leaning against the phone box and wearing a cream jacket, white shirt, black jeans and white trainers. His mother, who has strawberry blonde hair, is wearing a blue top, matching jeans and brown boots.KCOM
Film star Robert Aramayo (right) with his parents Mike Aramayo and Lisa Dawson at a cream phone box decorated in his honour in Holderness Road, Hull

The red telephone box has been a British icon for the past century, familiar up and down the land.

Except in Hull.

The Yorkshire city is instead known for its cream phone boxes – and they have become an enduring source of local pride, as the Hidden East Yorkshire podcast has been hearing.

Earlier this week, the Bafta-winning film star Robert Aramayo posed with his parents outside one decorated in his honour.

"I grew up around here and I remember walking down this street to get my bus to school – and now there's a phone box with a picture of me on the corner. It's mad really," he says.

So how did Hull come to stand out from the rest of the country?

Listen to Ian Sheperdson telling the story of how Hull’s phone boxes came to be cream

The city's cream phone boxes are a legacy of a time when it was the only place in the UK to have its own telephone network.

While the Post Office, which ran most of the national network, was rolling out red phone boxes in the 1920s and 30s, Hull was ploughing its own furrow.

"At the turn of the century, we were allowed to stand alone," says Ian Sheperdson, from Kcom – the company that grew out of Hull's Corporation Phone Department.

"In 1902, they gained a licence to set up the first telephone exchange in Hull."

Keystone/Getty An archive, black-and-white, wartime photo showing a woman making a telephone call while standing in the entrance to a phone box, which is surrounded by stacks of sand bags on all sides and the roof. The woman is wearing a dark-coloured uniform and tin hat with a white "W" printed on it. Keystone/Getty
An air raid precaution (ARP) warden uses one of the Hull telephone exchange's well-protected cream coloured telephone boxes in the early years of World War Two

But why cream and not red?

"The colour actually comes from what was used in the telephone exchanges, which is called light straw," Ian explains.

Today, Hull has 289 phone boxes. Many are in the classic K6 design – a rectangular kiosk with a domed top – which was introduced 90 years ago.

"It was first designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott," adds Ian, who is the company's chief technical officer.

"It's about the Silver Jubilee of King George V. It's about a classical design."

A cream mid-20th Century telephone box with glass sides and domed roof stands on the edge of allotments under a blue sky. Rows of green houses and shrubs can be seen. The tiled roofs of red-brick houses can been seen in the distance.
The iconic K6 was introduced in 1936 and remains a familiar sight around the UK

The other defining characteristic of Hull's kiosks – apart from their colour – is the absence of three crowns on the side of the dome.

"Because we were never part of the Post Office, owned by the crown, we actually ground off that royal crest, so we are completely different from the rest of the country," Ian says.

Over the past few decades, phone boxes have become somewhat obsolete, but Ofcom regulations mean a certain number must be kept in working order.

"It is something that we have to report on to Ofcom annually, so people can make emergency phone calls."

What they will not do these days is take incoming calls, which Ian says is to stop them being used for illegal activity.

Getty Images A woman and a man dressed in a black and amber football shirt pass close to the camera with cream phone boxes behind them. The man is drinking from a green water bottle. Other fans dressed in the same shirts stand behind him. A black and amber flag is waved. The phone boxes include a green sign reading: UK City of Culture 2017.Getty Images
Hull City fans pass cream phone boxes in London - designed to promote Hull's year as UK City of Culture - before the 2014 FA Cup final

Seven of Hull's cream phone boxes are listed by Historic England, including two near the old post office on Lowgate and one on Alfred Gelder Street.

They have become something of a tourist attraction – ideal for selfies – and in recent years have been adapted to celebrate local success stories.

Along with Rob Aramayo, phone boxes have been adapted to celebrate local heroes Bee Lady Jean Bishop, who raised nearly £125,000 for Age UK, and nurse Cath Lyon, who retired from the NHS aged 80.

Some even found their way to London to promote Hull's year as City of Culture in 2017.

For Ian, who is Hull born and bred, the unique phone boxes are a big part of local culture.

"I work all over the country and, when I come back to Hull, the cream boxes always gives me a huge sense of pride, knowing that we are different," he said.

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