One of the things that the UK is famous for is it’s traditional red telephone boxes. While many of these have now disappeared (or been turned into mini-libraries, or defibrillator locations) due to the rise of mobile telephone, a lot of them still remain, particularly in large cities. But in Kingston upon Hull, these boxes are not red, they are cream.
This is to differentiate them from the phones owned and manged by British Telecom (and before it, the Post Office). Way back before the Post Office took on ownership of the public phone network, it was managed on an individual basis by local councils. While the rest of the country ceded control, Hull kept a grip on its own network and has managed it separately ever since, first through the Hull Corporation Phone Department, and now through Kingston Communacations (KCOM). And so, while the phone box designs are the same as elsewhere, their paint colour is not.
Nikon F80 & Tamron 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD on Kodak Tri-X. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 @ 20° 9mins.
Taken on 9 August 2025
Steel City Snapper photography 
Here in the US, this was solved by branding the telephone booths with the phone company’s name. But we had many phone companies across this nation so that was a practical solution. Growing up in Indiana, most counties were on Indiana Bell, but a few were on General Telephone.
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It’s similar in this situation – the phone boxes themselves are the same designs as those from elsewhere, it’s just the livery that is different (and the underlying network, I guess). British Telecom handle the rest of the country (for payphones, at least).
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If you want to see more on not-red telephone boxes, have a look at The Wandering Turnip’s (David Burnip) video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SH19X3vHtFI
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