K2 TELEPHONE KIOSK (IN FRONT OF NO. 75)

K2 TELEPHONE KIOSK (IN FRONT OF NO. 75), HAMPSTEAD HIGH STREET

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1393572
Date first listed:: 10-Aug-2009
List Entry Name:: K2 TELEPHONE KIOSK (IN FRONT OF NO. 75)
Statutory Address:: K2 TELEPHONE KIOSK (IN FRONT OF NO. 75), HAMPSTEAD HIGH STREET

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1393572
Date first listed:: 10-Aug-2009
List Entry Name:: K2 TELEPHONE KIOSK (IN FRONT OF NO. 75)
Statutory Address 1:: K2 TELEPHONE KIOSK (IN FRONT OF NO. 75), HAMPSTEAD HIGH STREET

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:: K2 TELEPHONE KIOSK (IN FRONT OF NO. 75), HAMPSTEAD HIGH STREET

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County:: Greater London Authority
District:: Camden (London Borough)
Parish:: Non Civil Parish
National Grid Reference:: TQ 26474 85675

Reasons for Designation

The K2 telephone kiosk on Hampstead High Street is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * The K2 represents a milestone in industrial design, a highly successful adaptation of architectural tradition to contemporary technological requirements designed by a leading C20 architect, and is thus of special architectural and historic interest. They were not produced in very high numbers and are now relatively scarce * The K2, almost exclusive to London, is a highly distinctive feature of the capital's streetscape * Group value with Nos. 73-76 Hampstead High Street and several listed buildings in Hampstead High Street.

Details

798-1/1/10368 HAMPSTEAD HIGH STREET 10-AUG-09 Hampstead (Southwest side) K2 telephone kiosk (in front of No. 75)

II K2 telephone kiosk, c1927, designed by Giles Gilbert Scott.

The K2 follows the standard design: square, cast-iron and painted red, covered by the distinctive shallow domed roof with pendentives. There are 18 glazed rectangular lights to the door and sides; each side is framed by a shallow, reeded strip with small paterae to the angles. On each face of the frieze there is a rectangular white glazed panel bearing the word 'TELEPHONE' in black. Each segmental pediment of the sides of the dome has a perforated crown, the symbol of the GPO.

EXTERIOR: The K2 follows the standard design: square, cast-iron and painted red, covered by the distinctive shallow domed roof with pendentives. There are 18 glazed rectangular lights to the door and sides; each side is framed by a shallow, reeded strip with small paterae to the angles. On each face of the frieze there is a rectangular white glazed panel bearing the word 'TELEPHONE' in black. Each segmental pediment of the sides of the dome has a perforated crown, the symbol of the GPO.

HISTORY: In 1923, the General Post Office (GPO) launched a competition organised by the Royal Fine Arts Commission to design a new telephone kiosk to improve upon the first standard design, the K1, in service from about 1921, which was widely deemed unsatisfactory and resisted by the London Metropolitan boroughs. In 1926 the winning entry was finally selected: a neo-classical design by Giles Gilbert Scott (1880-1960), already a leading architect whose commissions had by then included Liverpool's Anglican cathedral. The shallow-domed top of the K2 is reminiscent of Soane's design for his tomb in St Pancras Churchyard (Scott was a trustee of the Soane Museum). Approximately 1,700 K2s were erected, mainly in Metropolitan London, and just over 200 are thought to survive. It was succeeded by Scott's K6 design in 1935, which was installed nationally.

This kiosk was relocated from the ABC Bakery in Camden Street on redevelopment in the late 1980s.

REASON FOR DESIGNATION: The K2 telephone kiosk on Hampstead High Street is designated for the following principal reasons:

* The K2 represents a milestone in industrial design, a highly successful adaptation of architectural tradition to contemporary technological requirements designed by a leading C20 architect, and is thus of special architectural and historic interest. K2s were not produced in very high numbers and are now relatively scarce * The K2, almost exclusive to London, is a highly distinctive feature of the capital's streetscape * Group value with Nos. 73-76 Hampstead High Street (qv) and several listed buildings in Hampstead High Street.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:: 506051
Legacy System:: LBS

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.