Tynemouth Front Street red phone box could become café

With a footprint of just 0.83sq meters the phone box on Tynemouth’s Front Street in North Tyneside has stood vacant since 2010 when it was decommissioned.

Plans to stop it falling into a state of neglect and give it a new purpose as a “micro takeaway café” have been submitted.

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If approved by council planners the venue will serve hot and cold beverages, locally made baked goods and ice cream.

“There will be no seating,” a planning document reads, with there being just enough room for a worktop, cupboard, drawers and two bins.

The phone box could be given a new lease of life. (Image: NORTHERN ECHO)

The outlet will be staffed during opening hours and is initially planned to open seasonally on weekends, bank holidays and during school holidays during the warmer months, but could extend opening hours depending on demand.

Drawings show that it will remain unchanged and keep its famous red colour.

The red phone box became a British icon popping up on streets across the UK. It will celebrate its 100th anniversary next year.

Around 3,000 of them are still operational today, with many more decomissioned or being used for other purposes.

It wouldn’t the first time a red phone box has been repurposed into a takeout café.

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In 2017 a Nottingham man Luke Thorpe opened what may have been the first phone box café. He told ITV News at the time: “It’s easily the smallest in Nottingham and potentially the world’s smallest speciality coffee and tea shop.”

Others have been converted for a host of uses, from defibrillator units to micro-libraries, mini art galleries and museums.

In 2020 Murrie Venis from the Green Tree pub in Tudhoe created a library in her local phone box.

Murrie Venis Licensee of the Green Tree pub in Tudhoe has created a library in the local phone box with help from the local community. (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT)

Around 1,000 red phone boxes are currently up for “adoption” by BT, which is now urging communities to continue to take advantage of its kiosk adoption scheme to help transform its underused red phone boxes into other purposes.