Midtown’s British-Style Phone Box

For such a distinctive and dare I say beautiful little structure this British style red phone box in midtown Manhattan seemed to have attracted very little attention. Located at the service entrance of 437 Madison Avenue this phone box (labeled “SECURITY”) seems to have gone virtually unnoticed by tourists and New Yorkers alike — if Internet search engines are any indication, that is. It may be that I am just not divining the proper search term for this but I find barely any reference to this beauty on the public Internet.

The Payphone Project posted the above picture in August, 2009. At the time the booth was in fine form, its glass windows intact and sporting what appears to have been a fresh coat of paint. I passed this phone box countless times. It contained no telephone or communication device that I could see. I never saw it occupied by a human and doubt if any real “Security” business took place within its slender confines. I do not know this phone box’s provenance but I always wondered if it was placed there as some kind of joke, or else somehow left behind by accident.

For a brief period of time this phone box was gone. I happened to spot it last week after it was left curbside, looking to me like it was left for trash collectors to haul off. I might have taken more pictures but someone at the building was eyeing me with obvious suspicion. I should remember that corporations can be awfully protective of their trash.

Midtown british Phone Box Left For Trash — Midtown British Phone Box Left For Trash

It was left among large dumpsters filled with toilets and general rubbish (this is kind of a classic shot, actually, an iconic British phone box rising up from between two toilets):

Midtown British Style Phone Box, 437 Madison Avenue

The glass is smashed out and the phone box’s exterior riddled with chipped paint and signs of vandalism. You’d think this was a regular New York City payphone structure.

As gimmicks go the red phone box is a somewhat reliable standby. Outside of Nights and Weekends, a comedy club in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, stands a phone box that houses an ATM:

Phone Box at Nights & Weekends Comedy Club, Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

There used to another unique phone booth in midtown, that being this one over at 747 Third Avenue:

I do not know when it disappeared but it’s been a number of years. The booth seems to have been an art piece but I never found anything on it. Its exterior was lined with phrases in stencil font, phrases like “OUTSIDE LINE”, “CALLING KIOSK”, and “ANOLOG (sic) DEVICE”. A web site URL which reflects the structure’s street address appears on the back of the booth – 747-3av.com. That web site does not exist, and possibly never did.

If you know anything about the creator of this booth I would love to hear from you.