Photos: History calling - the many faces of the iconic phone box

Phone box 1908

From wooden huts and thatched mushrooms to glass coffins - via the classic red phone box...

Kids today are unlikely to be regular visitors to pay phones - they've grown up owning their own mobile phones. But the humble phone box has been part of the British landscape for more than 100 years, and it still hasn't entirely gone away.

In that time, the phone booth has changed shape several times - with various design revisions ushered in, including lasting ones such as the iconic red Jubilee phone box but also a few experimental models that only survived a handful of years.

The first ever phone boxes were not standard designs. Pictured above is one of six call-office cabinets which opened in Nottingham in 1908.

These free-standing kiosks were typically wooden, resembling guards' boxes. Some were even manned by an attendant who would admit customers, set up their call via the operator and take payment.

Photo: BT