K8 Public Telephone Kiosk (Mark 2), Seacroft Hospital

Summary

A K8 Mark 2 telephone kiosk. This type was designed for the GPO by Bruce Martin and introduced from 1968. The Mark 2 version was produced from 1976 to 1983.

Reasons for Designation

The K8 Mark 2 telephone kiosk on the Seacroft Hospital site is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as a nationally rare survival of the Mark 2 model of K8 kiosk first introduced in 1976;

* as an example of Bruce Martin’s competition winning design which simplified and updated Sir Giles Gilbert Scott’s iconic design for the K2 and K6 kiosks to achieve a modern appearance, designed for easy re-assembly, and ease of maintenance and repair.

Historic interest:

* the K8 is the last generation of the 'red public telephone box' and makes an important contribution to the understanding of the historic development of the telecommunications industry in England before the introduction and subsequent widespread use of mobile phones.

History

The K8 telephone kiosk was designed by Bruce Martin following a competition held by the General Post Office (GPO) in 1965. Martin (1917-2015) studied engineering at the University of Hong Kong before qualifying in architecture at the Architectural Association and then working for the architectural department at Hertfordshire County Council.

The main requirements of GPO’s K8 design brief were that the kiosk should be easy to re-assemble on site and to maintain and repair . It also stated that the kiosk had to last for at least 50 years and that it should be recognisable as the United Kingdom’s next generation of red telephone boxes. As a result, Bruce Martin analysed Sir Giles Gilbert Scott’s K6, meticulously simplifying and reducing the number of its components, and making them interchangeable to enable flexible configuration. There was no royal crown on the kiosk design.

Martin proposed aluminium for the construction, but the GPO refused to switch, instead again using cast-iron. Components were cast by the Lion Foundry Co Ltd and the Carron Manufacturing Co. An initial order of 1,000 kiosks was commissioned and the first was installed in Westminster on 12 July 1968. A further 10,000 were installed over the next 15 years. In 1976 Lion Foundry Co Ltd requested that the roof design be modified as they had difficulty in casting this component without cracks appearing, resulting in the Mark 2 design, which has a roof dome with thickened lower edges incorporating the lozenge-shaped framing of the name signage. The K8 was the GPO’s final kiosk with production ceasing in 1983. Surviving examples are rare nationally, particularly the Mark 2 design, as very few were retained by British Telecom following privatisation.

The K8 telephone box stands at the south-west corner of the hospital’s Transport Department building, near to the main entrance on York Road (A64). Date of erection is unknown but it has been in this position since at least 1999. It was decommissioned during the 2010s.

Details

K8 Mark 2 telephone kiosk near Seacroft Hospital entrance.

Square plan on a narrow concrete base. It is built of six cast iron parts and has an aluminium door. Three sides, including the door, contain three-quarter length sheets of toughened glass set in rectangular frames with rounded corners. The rear panel has a blind rectangular frame with rounded corners and below is an attached cast iron manufacturer's plaque with CARRON / COMPANY in relief. The four sides of the roof dome have rectangular signage panes with rounded corners, glazed with toughened glass, each with TELEPHONE in black sans serif type on a white background. The moulded frames to each of the signage panes have concave curves to the lower corners and wrap around the roof dome to form a thick base. Painted red.

Sources

Websites
Kiosk No 8, K8 in The Telephone Box, accessed 28 October 2025 from www.the-telephone-box.co.uk/kiosks/k8/
Kiosk No.8 (K8) from Bobs Telephone File: A historical web site about United Kingdom Customer Telephone Apparatus & Systems, accessed 28 October 2025 from www.britishtelephones.com/k8.htm

Other
Linge, N, Sutton, A, Hurley, A and Johannessen, N, In celebration of the K8 telephone kiosk - Britain's last red, cast-iron phonebox, article in Industrial Archaeology Review, 42.2 (2020), available at https://salford-repository.worktribe.com/output/1353987/in-celebration-of-the-k8-telephone-kiosk-britains-last-red-cast-iron-phonebox, accessed 28 October 2025
APGB, orthorectified aerial photography layer 25cm 1999, https://www.apgb.co.uk/

End of official list entry

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