Phones Before Mobiles: Landlines, Phone Boxes And 1471

One phone. In the hall. On a table. With a chair nobody ever sat in.

Here's the whole system, and why it shaped how people actually talked to each other.

The phone in the hall

• It was fixed to one spot, usually the coldest part of the house, deliberately - so calls stayed short.
• The cord stretched exactly as far as the doorway and no further.
• A pad and a pen next to it, and a book of numbers in somebody's handwriting.
• Answering it without knowing who was calling, every single time.
• Saying your own number when you picked up, which people genuinely did.
• Speaking to your friend's mum first, and being asked how your mum was.
• The trimphone, the rotary dial, and the later push-button ones that felt impossibly modern.
• Extension phones upstairs, and the sibling picking it up to listen.

The cost of it

• Charged by units of time, with peak, standard and cheap rates. Cheap rate after six and at weekends.
• 'Get off the phone' was about money, not manners.
• The quarterly bill arriving and being examined line by line.
• Long distance and international calls as a genuine occasion, timed with a clock.
• Ringing at exactly six o'clock, because that's when it got cheaper.

Phone boxes

• The red K6 kiosk, designed by Giles Gilbert Scott, which is one of the most recognisable objects Britain has ever produced.
• Push button A and button B in the older ones - B got your money back if nobody answered.
• Later ones took 10p, then phonecards, then cards and coins.
• The pips warning you the money was about to run out.
• Reverse charge calls through the operator, and the shame of them.
• Ringing a phone box back, because the number was on the dial.
• The smell. Everyone who used one knows.

The services

• 1471 to hear the last number that called - introduced in the nineties and instantly a national habit.
• The speaking clock on 123, at the third stroke.
• Directory enquiries on 192, before it was deregulated.
• The Ansaphone, then the answering machine with a microcassette, then 1571.
• Recording an answering machine message about fifteen times before you were happy with it.
• The engaged tone, which simply doesn't exist for most people now.
• Party lines in some areas, where you shared a line with a neighbour.

What changed

• Mobiles arrived as a business item in the eighties, became affordable through the late nineties, and were near-universal among teenagers by the early 2000s.
• Pay as you go and the free text bundle changed teenage social life entirely.
• Arranging to meet became changeable, which removed the need to be reliable.
• Nobody memorises numbers now. Most people knew half a dozen by heart.
• The landline still exists in a lot of homes purely because the broadband came with one.

Shop cards

How to write it so it lands

• Cheap rate after six is why everybody rang at six.
• Button B got your money back.
• Most people knew six or seven numbers by heart.

Where to shop next

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Frequently asked questions

What does 1471 do?

It plays back the last number that called your landline, with the time of the call. It launched in the nineties and immediately became something people did automatically on walking through the door.

What were button A and button B in phone boxes?

In older kiosks you put your money in, dialled, and pressed button A when someone answered to connect and release the coins. Button B returned your money if nobody picked up.

Why was the phone in the hall?

Partly because that's where the line came in, and partly on purpose - the hall was cold and uncomfortable, which kept calls short and therefore cheap.

What was the speaking clock number?

123. 'At the third stroke, the time sponsored by... will be...' It still exists on UK landlines.