London’s red telephone boxes are iconic symbols of the city, as much a part of the fabric of the place as black cabs or Bobbies. But some of them will be red no more. They are going green, literally and figuratively. They are to be transformed into free, solar-powered mobile chargers. The “solar box” can charge phones, tablets, and other mobile electronic devices. The retro-fitted phone booth was invented by Kirsty Kenney and Harold Craston, two students from the London School of Economics. “In our modern world, where hardly any Londoner is complete without a raft of personal gizmos in hand, it’s about time our iconic boxes were update for the 21st Century, to be useful, more sustainable,” Johnson said.
The move makes sense when you consider that hardly any Londoner has any use for a public telephone anymore. If the solar box is a success, and I can’t see why it wouldn’t be, expect the scheme to be expanded to other cities in Britain, making the familiar red boxes a thing of the past and an increasingly rare sight. Good news for collectors, not so good news for this telephone enthusiast, or this guy.
