The K2 design originated in a Post Office competition in 1924, requiring designers to come up with plans for a new standard kiosk to succeed the various designs proliferating across the country. Previously kiosk design had been determined by the individual telephone companies. Following the consolidation of the majority of telephone companies in to the Post Office a national kiosk design was sought. The winning design, which arrived on the streets of Britain in 1926, was a design by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, the architect responsible for Liverpool's Anglican Cathedral.
Giles Gilbert Scott was born on 9th November 1880 and died on 8th February 1960. Scott's most famous work is Liverpool Anglican Cathedral and London's iconic Battersea Power Station. Giles Gilbert Scott originally intended for this kiosk to be painted silver, with a blue-green interior. However the Post Office decided to paint the kiosks red so that they would be easily recognisable in case of emergencies, but also presumably to increase visibility generally.
Due to cost, only some 1,500 examples were installed almost wholly in London. The first order for Gilbert Scott's kiosk cost around £50 per kiosk. Although expensive to produce the design of the K2 was a masterpiece. The kiosk is a classical-influenced design for a utilitarian piece of street furniture, the K2. It is a beautiful design and an architectural triumph. The K2 represents arguably the finest design of any telephone kiosk introduced anywhere in the world.
The original prototype K2 kiosk survives to this day and can be found within Burlington House on Piccadilly in London alongside a production version of the K2.
