K2 Telephone Kiosk (In Front of No. 75)

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

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