Description

BENSON

565/0/10008 CLAY LANE
01-OCT-10 (West of)
Two K8 telephone kiosks at RAF Benson

II
Two K8 telephone kiosks, 1968 or after, designed by Bruce Martin. Cast iron and toughened glass; concrete floor.

DESCRIPTION: The two kiosks stand side by side outside the air base's shop and post office building. Each is a cast-iron box, with tall windows of toughened plate glass in the door and the two side walls. The solid rear wall, on which the telephone equipment is mounted, has a blind panel in place of a window. The upper section has slightly curved corners, and displays on all four sides glazed signage panels marked 'TELEPHONE', lit by a neon strip set into the roof. (Three panels, one on the left-hand kiosk and two on the right, have lost their original lettering.) The floor is of concrete.

HISTORY: The K8 telephone kiosk was designed in 1965-6 by the architect Bruce Martin, and emerged as the winner of a 1965 competition to produce a successor to Sir Giles Gilbert Scott's classic K6 kiosk of 1935. Production began in 1968, with around 11,000 K8s ultimately being manufactured. In contrast to the still-ubiquitous K6, only a small percentage of the later kiosks now survive in public use, although others have passed from British Telecom to private site owners.

REASON FOR DESIGNATION: The two telephone kiosks at RAF Benson are designated at Grade II for the following principal reason:
* They are intact examples of the K8 model kiosk, an inventive Modernist adaptation of Sir Giles Gilbert Scott's classic K6 design.

Reasons for Listing

The two telephone kiosks at RAF Benson should be listed at Grade II for the following principal reason:
* They are intact examples of the K8 model kiosk, an inventive Modernist adaptation of Sir Giles Gilbert Scott's classic K6 design.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26673126

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  Yorkshire: York and the East Riding (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 6: Westminster (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England): Westminster v. 6
• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  Nottinghamshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)