Industrial History Online
K6 telephone kiosk
Key Words :- telephone box
Address :- High Street, Guildford, Surrey
Grid Ref :- SU 99883 49516
Co-ordinates :- Lat 51.236095 , Long -0.570668
Local Authority :- Guildford Borough Council
Pre 1974 County :- Surrey
Site Status :- Listed - Grade II
Historic England List No - 1029261,
Description and History of Site:-
Cast-iron telephone kiosk type K6. Designed 1935 by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott. By 1960, there were 64,000 of which 11,700 survive and 2,000 are listed.
Comment on Historic England site (Neil Johannessen):
'This kiosk - or, rather this kiosk site - is one of the oldest remaining continually occupied site in the UK. It may even be the oldest.
'The existing kiosk (a post-1955 K6 Mk2, most probably manufactured by the Macfarlane Company) is, at the very least, the third telephone kiosk to have sat on this spot. Before that, and most probably replaced by it, there had been a concrete 'Kiosk No.3 Mk234' and that must have been erected there sometime between 1929 and 1934.
'But that K3 had itself replaced a pre-existing telephone box - perhaps a short-lived K1, but almost certainly an even earlier wooden model that will have been erected sometime between around 1908 and 1912 by the then National Telephone Company. A type known as the 'Wilson', there were only ever comparatively few of them, and this is the only confirmed original site that I am aware of on which there has been a telephone box ever since.'
Further Reading and References:-
https://www.thek6project.co.uk/
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Grid Ref :- SU 99883 49516
Co-ordinates :- Lat 51.236095 , Long -0.570668
Local Authority :- Guildford Borough Council
Pre 1974 County :- Surrey
Site Status :- Listed - Grade II
Historic England List No - 1029261,
Cast-iron telephone kiosk type K6. Designed 1935 by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott. By 1960, there were 64,000 of which 11,700 survive and 2,000 are listed.
Comment on Historic England site (Neil Johannessen):
'This kiosk - or, rather this kiosk site - is one of the oldest remaining continually occupied site in the UK. It may even be the oldest.
'The existing kiosk (a post-1955 K6 Mk2, most probably manufactured by the Macfarlane Company) is, at the very least, the third telephone kiosk to have sat on this spot. Before that, and most probably replaced by it, there had been a concrete 'Kiosk No.3 Mk234' and that must have been erected there sometime between 1929 and 1934.
'But that K3 had itself replaced a pre-existing telephone box - perhaps a short-lived K1, but almost certainly an even earlier wooden model that will have been erected sometime between around 1908 and 1912 by the then National Telephone Company. A type known as the 'Wilson', there were only ever comparatively few of them, and this is the only confirmed original site that I am aware of on which there has been a telephone box ever since.'
https://www.thek6project.co.uk/
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Contributor :- Robert Mason - 29 April 2026
Copyright :- cc-by-nc-sa 4.0 © Robert Mason
Copyright :- cc-by-nc-sa 4.0 © Robert Mason