Innovative

Full marks to the ingenuity that has turned redundant telephone boxes into community libraries.
In localities where there is no longer a call for public phone boxes it is satisfying to see the boxes put to good use and not simply left to be vandalised.
The idea of turning them into book exchange places where communities can swap books they’ve read for something new is an innovative idea.  This one is in Southampton’s Ocean Village and providing a worthwhile service for both residents and boat owners.
But I’ve seen the idea working in other localities, and is a especially useful in village communities, maybe not served by mobile libraries.
In urban areas, another practise is to turn them into cash dispensing machines.
Once, the ubiquitous red telephone box was a symbol of our way of life. It’s not so many years ago I remember making a special journey to a town in  Normandy where a red telephone box was the icon of its twinning link with a village in Hampshire.  Not sure if that telephone box is still there, but maybe that’s a “must visit” note for my itinerary when next in France.

In the meantime, this one, although now painted blue, rather than red, has a new lease of life.