Iconic red phone boxes across Fife up for grabs for just £1

The famous K2 phone boxes are about to celebrate their centenary, but with a huge decline in people using them they are no longer needed by BT.

It has already seen around 500 phone boxes given new leases of life under its ‘Adopt A Kiosk’ programme - and Fife’s seven are part of a batch of 162 being made available across Scotland.

Redundant phone boxes have been adopted and turned into a range of facilities over the years, from defibrillator units and libraries, to mini art galleries and local museums. Details on how to do it are at BT’s Adopt A Kiosk page.

Fife-based artist Lada Wilson turned a redundant red phone box in Strathkinness into a mini art gallery. Since opening in 2018, there have been more than 25 exhibitions in the mini art space which showcases community-based, contemporary art by local, national and international artists.

Lada, artist-curator and founder of the 201 Telephone Box Gallery, said: “It has been great to take this historic and underused, iconic red kiosk and turn it into a community asset. The gallery turned five years old earlier this year and as an artist-curator, I'm really proud of the role it’s played in bringing contemporary art to the village.”

Lada said that the aim of the project was about giving back to the community, and added: “I've been really pleased with the level of support it gets and I've had people coming to me from across the country asking how I did it. Thanks to BT's Adopt a Kiosk scheme, we were able to make it happen in the first place, so I'd encourage any other communities interested in doing so.”

Michael Smy, head of street at BT, said: “With the iconic red kiosk about to turn 100, it's a great opportunity to remind communities that would still like to retain their local kiosk to take it on for just £1 through our Adopt a Kiosk scheme. We’ve already seen some great kiosk conversions across the UK that have become valuable community assets.”