Usually when services and facilities we’re used to are taken from us, they’re gone and no sign, but it’s possible to feel that the sign on this former police call box reflects the sadness of the person who had to put it up. It has become, in effect, a memorial of itself.
As for the ‘nearby payphone’—a few minutes’ walk in all directions produced no sign of one, although later we found this bank of them on The Strand. In fact, all over Britain they are becoming scarcer due to mobile phones.
In some towns, plans for removal have led to a struggle; in at least one other, the phone box became a museum!
Oh My! What will Dr. Who do?
As my daughter keeps reminding me, Dr Who’s Tardis is a police box, not a phone box. The real question is: What will Clark Kent do?