Old blue enamel 'TELEPHONE' signs

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TS
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Joined: Wed Mar 26, 2008 17:18
Location: Bournemouth

Old blue enamel 'TELEPHONE' signs

Post by TS »

I wonder if there is an appetite for these in the Street Furniture forum - I've done a search and can't see a thread for them.

I spotted this one a couple of years ago, and I know surviving examples are peppered around the place, but this seemed an unusual place for one to have survived because it is not a village or a town-centre location, instead very suburban.

Somehow, I imagined that these would almost all have been erected in villages and, most likely, at or near the post office, but there was never a post office in this immediate neck of the woods.

It is at the junction of Vicarage Road and Stanley Green Road, Poole. The second picture shows it in the context of the payphone towards which it points.
51370724673_72c0b386fb_c.jpg
51370724653_ff5b2472d6_c.jpg
Where are there others? There was at least two alternative wordings: YOU MAY TELEPHONE FROM HERE was one, I think (?), and maybe one including TELEGRAPH or TELEGRAM or something similar.
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DavidB
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Location: Berkshire

Re: Old blue enamel 'TELEPHONE' signs

Post by DavidB »

I remember one with the ''Telegram' wording not far from my home, it was back in the 1970s in Pound Lane, Sonning, Berks, close to the Primary School and it simply pointed to a private home. It always intrigued me that someone was happy for any stranger to knock at the front door asking to make a phone call! Presumably they were paid well by the GPO.

As for the wording, I can't find a photo of a 'real' example but I've found a graphic showing two types of sign at the following link:
http://www.igg.org.uk/gansg/00-app1/postphon.htm

telsign.jpg
telsign.jpg (7.71 KiB) Viewed 1646 times
Kevin Roads
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Re: Old blue enamel 'TELEPHONE' signs

Post by Kevin Roads »

Good spot, TS.

There surely can't be many of those particular design left: I keep a keen eye out for old signs, of which there seem to be loads up here in ye olde North Wales, but I have yet to see any of those. Of course, that doesn't mean there aren't lots in other areas but I think even the later designs of phone signs must be getting thinner on the ground (or on posts).

I've seen a few blue-bordered 'Telephone' and phone-symbol signs and I'd imagine those types will be in the Manky Signs thread which also covers obsolete signs - although they aren't obsolete yet, I don't think many new ones will be made and installed.
TS
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Location: Bournemouth

Re: Old blue enamel 'TELEPHONE' signs

Post by TS »

Kevin Roads wrote: Wed Aug 11, 2021 18:37 Good spot, TS.

There surely can't be many of those particular design left: I keep a keen eye out for old signs, of which there seem to be loads up here in ye olde North Wales, but I have yet to see any of those. Of course, that doesn't mean there aren't lots in other areas but I think even the later designs of phone signs must be getting thinner on the ground (or on posts).

I've seen a few blue-bordered 'Telephone' and phone-symbol signs and I'd imagine those types will be in the Manky Signs thread which also covers obsolete signs - although they aren't obsolete yet, I don't think many new ones will be made and installed.
There is one on the wall of the old post office at Mydroilyn, so not really north Wales but in the northern half of south Wales!
https://goo.gl/maps/BDYeHwPdfdKh39Cs5
I passed it the other day but it was pouring with rain and I decided reluctantly not to stop.

It says
PUBLIC
TELEPHONE
Morseman
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Location: Bolsover

Re: Old blue enamel 'TELEPHONE' signs

Post by Morseman »

Hopefully not off topic, but I found an enamelled street sign in Chesterfield yesterday.
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