What does my phone box say about me?
Paul has spent nearly a decade restoring this old phone box at the bottom of his garden in south London. “It says that I hate it when quality things go to waste. I enjoy repurposing old objects, like old gas lamps and railway sleepers. I find it very satisfying.”
And what it really says
The red phone box: an icon as picture postcard British as Tower Bridge, as the Queen, as a mohawked toddler punk-flicking the Vs. On the way out now, though: only tourist sites require the classical K series red phone box, descendent of the 1920 K1. The rest of us rely on the mobile in our pocket, or those ugly post-1985 grey booths where the black handset dangles from its silver tube, knackered and useless.
Paul’s phone box – which looks like a K6 – is still used, though it’s no longer taking calls. Instead, it houses a garden umbrella, bits and bobs of plastic equipment. Paul’s phone box is now a pretty shed. It’s also a finished project. Paul has restored it. Restoration of once-functional equipment is a painstaking hobby, and one that only those with time on their hands can manage. Hobbies are for the under 20s and the over 55s. By the look of the trees, this is a mature garden, and Paul, too, is mature, knowing the true value of something that might first appear as though it has no further use. Restoration is a combination of nostalgia and faith in the future, of caring for something others have discarded.
There’s something nice about having a phone box in your garden. Something Doctor Who-esque, as though it’s a modern Tardis just here for a short visit, nestled between the mulcher and the concrete slabs. I hope that Paul gets even more into his restoration hobby. That phone box needs an old ice cream van next to it, or a taxi, or one of those moon-shaped outdoor bars. Maybe a double-decker bus, though I’m not sure if there’s room. Once Paul has a full set, it will be time for a party. Give him a couple of years.
If you would like Miranda to cast an eye over your favourite possession, email a photograph to magazine@observer.co.uk
