Street Talk

The new BT payphone, the pithily-titled "Street Talk 6", has finally made it all the way to my street in N22. Engadget reviewed the things as "ad-heavy" last June, at which point they were expected to start appearing in West London shortly.  It obviously takes a little while for the cutting edge of payphone technology to get all the way to Noel Park.

Standing there glowing in the deserted street at night the thing has a certain eerie beauty, in a 2001 monolith sort of way*. David Ogilvy famously said in his Confessions of an Advertising Man that "as a private person, I have a passion for landscape, and I have never seen one improved by a billboard". Personally I'm rather fond of London's streets, especially the one I live on, and think this may be the exception. Sure, it's an ad-heavy billboard but it's also useful and - at least in its current half-finished state - rather lovely to look at.

Though apparently BT spends an average of £1,409 on maintenance and repairs per payphone per year - including repairs after vandalism. These look a lot more expensive...and flimsy.

*Or not, since I'm sure someone will point out that the distinguishing feature of the monolith was that it didn't do anything at all, let alone glow.