Red telephone boxes were around the streets when I was a little girl, but quickly morphed into more modern metal cubicles with little privacy or protection from the elements when I was a teen. As their use declined with the increasing popularity of mobile phones, they disappeared completely from everywhere except areas of the greatest pedestrian traffic. That was in New Zealand, and seems their depletion is slower in the UK.
Recently, many old red telephone boxes are being purchased from British Telecom (BT), for small sums of around £1 as part of their Adopt a Kiosk scheme. A village in Somerset came up with the idea of transforming one into a book exchange as part of a competition in 2009 to find an innovative use for old phone boxes. They didn't win, but went ahead with their plans anyway. The finished product solved the problem created when their mobile lending service was cancelled. Announcing they had the smallest library in the world they sparked a trend with over fifty dotted around the country.
Do you want to learn more?
Britain's smallest library
Derbyshire telephone box book exchange opens
A list (with photos) of phone box libraries
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