Are RED UK Phone Boxes Useless Now? Learn English Ep 816
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Hi there and welcome to this podcast. If you look at tourist posters of the UK, you'll see red post boxes and red telephone boxes everywhere. You could even get them on a key ring. These are what you might call iconic images of the UK. I-C-O-N-I-C. I'm

And indeed, these red post boxes and red telephone boxes are everywhere in the UK. But are they still used? Hello, I'm Hilary and you're listening to Adept English. We will help you to speak English fluently. All you have to do is listen. So start listening now and find out how it works.

Well, despite the fact that we have many ways to message people these days, the red post boxes are still used, mainly for birthday cards, official documents and official letters. And you may remember a while ago, I did a podcast on Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee. That was her 70th anniversary as Queen in 2022. In that podcast,

I mentioned the tradition of the post box topper or cover. This is where members of the public make covers for the top of red post boxes. And if you go to our website, adeptenglish.com,

go to lessons, put number 543 in the search bar. That's the number of the podcast. It will bring that podcast up. And if you page down, you can see a photograph of a lovely Queen's Jubilee postbox topper that was just down the road from my house. So the red postboxes are still used. But what about the red telephone boxes?

Well, these are largely unused in the era of mobile phones. In fact, in the whole of the UK, there are only about 3,000 red telephone boxes still with a telephone inside.

At their peak, there were around 132,000 red telephone boxes in the UK. So what's happened to them? What are they being used for now? I think you'll be surprised. Let's answer this question in today's podcast. It's a bit of British culture and some great English language listening practice. It's a nice story and it may cheer you up.

Much better than listening to the international news at the moment. Don't forget if you're enjoying our free weekly podcast and it's the right level for your English language learning, but you'd really like to learn much more quickly, then sign up for our paid subscription service. Eight extra audio podcasts per month. You know that would make a huge difference to your English and you'll enjoy the variety of topics.

even more varied than the free podcasts. We get into all sorts of subjects. So if you know that that will help your English learning, go to our website at adeptenglish.com and click on the yellow box which says subscription. So what are all those red telephone boxes now being used for? As I said, most don't contain a phone.

I certainly know one close to where I live, which is simply filled with silk flowers. Well, another example, in the small Suffolk village of Mellis, that's the name of the village, residents, meaning people who live there, along with a local artist, Hilary Beale, have created a colour therapy phone box.

The idea is that you can go and sit inside the phone box to calm yourself down if you're having a bad day. The windows of the phone box have all been replaced with stained glass. That's coloured glass, the kind of coloured glass windows that you see in churches. That's stained glass. How beautiful. The glass panels in this telephone box feature pictures of mushrooms, bees,

fish and buttercups. That's a yellow flower found very commonly in the UK, a buttercup. And there's a seat inside this phone box so that you can sit and admire the stained glass windows. So if you're anywhere near the village of Mellis in Suffolk and you're having a bad day, you need to take time out to calm down, then the Colour Therapy phone box will be a great place to go.

Another example, up in the wilds of Scotland, in a remote village, remote means far from anywhere, called Cladditch, near Inverary in Argyll. There, a small local company called Cakes in the Coal Box was opened recently by Holly Ford and Bron Campbell. They say that their village is so small that there's no pub, no

no church, and only about 30 people living there. So using the box to distribute their cakes has given this little village, this little community of people, a focal point. In this telephone box, you will find very reasonably priced cakes. Lemon drizzle cake, ginger cake,

as well as a selection of jams and chutneys, all on sale. You just take what you fancy and you leave the money. It's called an honesty box. And are people honest? Well, the owners of the business, Cakes in the Call Box, say that they haven't had a

a single day so far where the honesty box, the place people leave the money, didn't exactly match with the number of cakes sold. Lovely. I like stories like that. Another telephone box in the north of the UK, in Brankston, Northumberland this

time? Well, this one commemorates a local battle, a piece of history. The telephone box is home to a tiny exhibition, in other words, all about local history. It commemorates or remembers the Battle of Flodden.

F-L-O-D-D-E-N, in 1513, where 10,000 Scottish men died. The telephone box contains walking maps of the area so that you can visit the battleground. And there's a button to press if you want to hear a three-minute audio guide to the story of Flodden. This telephone box has been called the world's smallest visitor centre, unless, of course, you let us know about a smaller one.

that you know. Another red telephone box found this time on Eastbourne Pier on the south coast in the UK. Well, this one has been converted to a small cafe. You can make yourself a cup of tea or coffee. Instant, I'm afraid. But there's also an ice cream machine and a hot dog machine. What a brilliant idea. And how appropriate for the British seaside. Tea, coffee, hot dog,

and ice cream. One very common use of an old red telephone box across the UK, they're being used as tiny little libraries. A library, L-I-B-R-A-R-Y, is a place from which you can borrow books, often called lending libraries. You can take a book, but

but you don't own it. You read it and then you put it back. You return it to the library. So there are lots of old red telephone boxes that have had shelves fitted and to which people donate or give their books, books that they no longer want. This means that other people who live in the same place can take out the books and read them, put them back and maybe donate a few of their own.

Again, that's a lovely idea. And finally, one idea for using red telephone boxes. And I've seen this in a number of places, including up the road in a red telephone box near my sister's house in Staffordshire. Red telephone boxes are now being used to house defibrillators. That's a difficult word for me to say. Defibrillator. That's D-E-F-B-I-L-L-A-T-O-R.

I-B-R-I-L-L-A-T-O-R. Difficult to spell as well. If you're medically trained, you'll know what a defibrillator does. It's a machine used to save people's lives. A defibrillator is used when someone has a cardiac arrest.

or their heart stops, in other words. If someone has a cardiac arrest, there's usually not time to wait for the ambulance or for medical assistance. To save that person's life, you need to restart their heart as soon as possible. Let's practice some numbers or statistics.

and these ones are quite frightening, apparently British ambulance staff attend some 30,000 cardiac arrests each year. That's people whose heart has stopped. And they are able to save only 10% because usually it's too late. So in 90% of cases, the person dies of cardiac arrest because there's no defibrillator nearby.

The chance of surviving cardiac arrest goes down or decreases 10% for every minute that there is no defibrillator to use, meaning more than 25,000 people die from cardiac arrest every year in the UK. You've a much greater chance of surviving if you have one in a hospital. So those statistics, if you have a cardiac arrest outside of hospital, are pretty dire. Only 10% survive.

But if a defibrillator is used within one minute, 90% of people survive. So you can see why having more defibrillators for public use is really important. So using old red telephone boxes to house defibrillators

What a great idea. There's a scheme running between BT or British Telecom, the owner of the red phone boxes in the UK, and an organisation called the Community Heart Trust or CHT. BT and CHT. With a Venmo debit card, you can Venmo more than just your friends. You can use your balance in so many ways. You can Venmo everything.

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The Venmo MasterCard is issued by the Bancorp Bank and is pursuant to license by MasterCard International Incorporated. Card may be used everywhere MasterCard is accepted. Venmo purchase restrictions apply. Are working together to help communities turn their old red telephone boxes into small local medical centres with defibrillators for anyone to use. Telephone boxes are very suitable places. Defibrillators can be stored in a well-recognised,

safe and weather protected location. And BT have promised to provide electricity free of charge for the first seven years for all red telephone boxes with defibrillators in them. So another fantastic use of old red phone boxes.

and one that surely will save people's lives. So if you live in the UK and you can think of a new use for an old red telephone box, apparently you can adopt one for a pound from British Telecom and you can repurpose it. Give it a new purpose in life. I love this.

And I wonder if it's an idea that's happening in other countries. You too probably have old, unused telephone boxes that could perhaps be put to a different purpose. Or maybe it's already happening. Get in touch and let us know. Enough for now. Have a lovely day. Speak to you again soon. Goodbye.