Pineapple Telephone Box....

The iconic red British telephone box, starring in every movie or TV show that features the UK is in terminal decline. With just about everyone over the age of 12 owning a mobile phone, their use has fallen to such a point that it is impossible for anyone to run them profitably. Many have disappeared to turn up in people’s gardens as ‘features.’ A few have been kept on as they may be needed for emergencies. And some are kept in tourist towns and cities as photo opportunities for tourists who like to think the entire country is time locked in 1956.

There are a few scattered about city centre Manchester still. With the rise and rise of instantaneous electronic communications, the iconic post box is also under threat as people on use them these days to post birthday and Christmas cards.

These three are in Piccadilly Gardens. They aren’t the iconic ones beloved of tourists and Hollywood directors who want to introduce ‘Britishness’ into a movie. But I took the picture because of the one on the left with its pineapple roof. Why?