This image I have passed numerous times and either not had the camera or the traffic was to busy to for me to stop. I do not see many red phone boxes or even red lamp boxes let alone the two side by side. What I like about this set up is the post office have managed to keep the lampbox maintained with the red paintwork yet BT seem to have failed in their job of maintaining a clean and tidy shop ( IMHO ). From what I remember the two was once one. until around the early eighties when the telecomunications of the Post Office became British Telecom. 
The Red telephone box, a public telephone kiosk designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, is a familiar sight on the streets of the United Kingdom, Malta and Gibraltar, and despite a reduction in their numbers in recent years, red boxes can still be seen in many places. The rainy British climate necessitates protection of callers from the elements. The colour red was chosen to make them easy to spot.
Lamp boxes were introduced on an experimental basis in September 1896, being used in parts of London as an inexpensive means of supplementing the existing Pillar box network. By July 1897 these boxes had proved successful and from then on their use spread to rural areas where the greater expense of a Ludlow wall box was not justified.
Posted on July 11th, 2008 by
Filed under: Daily Photography
Am I the only person in the world who thinks that the red telephone box is NOT a good design?? The newer BT boxes are much more elegant, although the recent practice of using them for advertising is awful.