Phone boxes have become a thing of the past but a handful in Cardiff have been given new leases of life as tiny libraries.
Residents across the city have come together to transform their local phone boxes into colourful miniature libraries during lockdown.
Three have popped up in Roath and Heath over the past few weeks and are now well stocked with dozens of donated books, CDs and DVDs.
People can visit whenever they like and take a book which they should either replace or bring back.
One phone box library on Albany Road in Roath was set up by Liz Sanders.
Liz, who lives on Waterloo Road, said: "I saw one had appeared near Roath Pleasure Gardens and I just thought it was a great idea.
"That one is a little bit too far away for me to walk, so I thought 'well, why don't I set one up closer to home?'.
"I went down one day with my broom and cleared it out, and then I put about 20 old books I had in there. There were quite a few different ones I left - there were an Alan Sugar autobiography and some novels.
"I went back a few days later they had all gone and been replaced with new ones, which is fantastic. Someone had dropped off a load of children's books. I think there's a collection of Twilight books in there at the moment.”
Liz said she hopes other members of the community will chip in to keep the library clean, tidy and well-stocked.
"I work full-time, so I won't be able to go down all the time,” she said. “But we're all adults, so I'm hoping others will help keep it going.”
Tania Thomas, who also lives in Roath, said she was keen to get involved when she discovered her nearby phone box was now a library.
She said: "I was pleasantly surprised to see it. I think it's a wonderful thing for the community.
"I've donated a bag of books. I put a mixture of fiction, cookery books and A Level psychology books that I didn't need anymore.
"I also saw a novel I'd been wanting to read for a while so was pleased to pick that up.
"It would be so nice to see them in every phone box. It's things like this that make this a lovely place to live."
Two more phone phones boxes - one on Alder Road by Roath Pleasure Gardens and another on Whitchurch Road in Heath - have also been converted into micro-libraries and are already proving popular.
Dawn Fergurson, who visits the Alder Road box, said: "It's a fab idea for the community.
“I visit with my mum, who's 75. She's a bookaholic but can't visit the library at the moment. She was very impressed. As well as books there are puzzles and some DVDs.”
BT runs an Adopt a Kiosk scheme which allows the community to retain its iconic phone boxes and turn them into some new.
Some in Wales have been converted to house defibrillator machines while others in the UK have become tiny art galleries, coffee shops and even cinemas.
To find out how to adopt your local phone box, visit buisiness.bt.com.
