Red Phone Boxes

Kirky is the home of the iconic K6 red telephone box a vital part of our towns history…

Manufacturing of the iconic ’K6’ type telephone kiosk began at the Lion Foundry in Kirkintilloch during the mid 1930’s. The ’K’ stands for Kiosk. K1 was made of concrete and introduced in 1921.

The all-red kiosk, designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, was a familiar sight throughout Britain, with approximately 20,000 kiosks erected by the end of the 1930’s. The K6 was produced by five different manufacturers:

The Carron Foundry – on the banks of the River Carron near falkirk.

The Saracen Foundry (MacFarlane) – Possilpark, Glasgow.

McDowall Steven and Co – Glasgow

Bratt Colbran – London

The Lion Foundry – Luggie Water, Kirkintilloch.

The Lion Foundry opened in Kirkintilloch in 1880, however the abandonment of cast iron kiosks by British Telecom in 1984, signaled the end of the foundry’s existence. Kiosks made in Kirkintilloch can now be found all around the world. So look out for a little piece of Kirky history on your travels!

For more information please visit the Auld Kirk Museum, Cowgate, or Kirkintilloch Town Hall museum in Regent Gardens.

Your Kirky had access to three iconic K6 phone boxes that were in urgent need of a new lease of life, so during the Summer of 2019, we ran a survey with people on what they would like to see happen to these icons and we got a lot of views.

For our first box we partnered with ISew2 and Sealy MacWheely to renovate the one that was ’looking sad’ near Farmfoods. A great tribute to people coming together, its was redesigned to have individually created panels – all representing links to other points of interest relating to kirkintilloch.

This box was restored in partnership with I Sew 2, Sealy MacWheely, Your Kirky, East Dunbartonshire Council and East Dunbartonshire Leisure and Culture EDLC.

Individual panels were designed by:

Carolyn Anderson, Carla Faulkner, Jean Pless, Kirsty Gold, Katie Seal, Laur Gilmour, Lianne Garven, Linda Miller, Liz Lai, Lorna Dunn, Louise Reid, Lucy Jackson, Lynne McGill, Margaret McNiff, Pamela Geddes and Ruth Blakey.