One Less Pointless Phone Booth in Shepherd's Bush

Props to our local council for the removal this week of one of the old phone booths on Shepherd's Bush Green.

Once upon a time we needed phone booths - because hardly anyone had a mobile phone. But now, since almost everyone has a phone, they are dinosaurs, their vandalised skeletons decaying in our busy streets.

Mostly nowadays they seem to be used as public urinals, or as advertising for local fast food restaurants.

Shepherd's Bush Green can feel like a bit of an obstacle course at the best of times, so one less phone booth is surely a good thing.

BT's Phone Booth Scam

Another pointless phone booth in Shepherd's Bush

What's The Point of Phone Booths? We asked this question back in January, noting that they seem to be springing up everywhere, despite everyone nowadays having a mobile phone.

Thanks to the Hammersmith Society and the Ladbroke Association, we now have the answer.

It's not about telephones, it's about advertising. According to the Summer 2017 Ladbroke Association newsletter, phone companies like BT "can make a lot of money selling advertising space". Today, a phone booth is "no more than a hooded upright stand with an advertisement on one side and a telephone on the other".

But if this is - as it seems - just an advertising scam, without fulfilling any public need - why does our Council allow this to take place?