By the 1960s the Post Office was looking for a modern replacement for the K6. In the decade that gave us design icons like Concorde and the the Cunard QE2 Gilbert-Scott's K6 kiosk was seemingly out of step with modern Britain. The K8 was was borne as a modern kiosk, appropriate for new towns, stronger and more vandal-proof. The K8, designed by Bruce Martin, was introduced in 1968. The K8 kiosk was prefabricated so it could be installed in any configuration with the door, side and back panels placed in any position. This flexibility in its design was also mirrored in the minimal nature of its construction - consisting of just 183 individual parts.
The K8 can be seen as a modern interpretation of the Giles Gilbert Scott design. Elements have been reinterpreted - the domed roof, the rectangular telephone sign about the door, the horizontal separation between the main body of the kiosk, the use of glass. The larger windows were a departure from previous kiosks and in an instance removed the privacy felt in earlier kiosks; no doubt the increased visiblity of users was intended to discourage vandalism and theft from the payphones.
The kiosk proved more of a success than the K7, not a great challenge admittedly, but some 11,000 examples were introduced. The K8 would be the last design for a telephone kiosk under Post Office ownership. Modern designs produced for British Telecom owe more design influence to an accountant, rather than any other of the Telephone Kiosk designs. The K8 remains the last architect-designed telephone kiosk and Britain's last red telephone box.
