

Red Box

Oxyman

A number of red phone boxes around the UK will be retrofitted with Wi-Fi Internet access, a printer/scanner, a 25-inch screen, a wireless mouse, a powerbank of plugs and recharging connectors, and a hot drinks machine.

To begin with, the company behind the retrofitting—Bar Works Inc.—will be converting 15 old phone boxes in five cities around the UK, with the first one scheduled to be opened in about eight weeks (around July). The complete list of cities and locations is unknown, but we do know that London, Leeds, and Edinburgh are on the list.

The idea, of course, is to turn the red phone boxes (more accurately: the K6 telephone kiosk) into work spaces that business types and entrepreneurs can drop into whenever inspiration strikes. To gain access to the little red offices you'll have to pay £20 per month to join the "Pod Works club," which then gives you access to a mobile app that can be used to unlock a kiosk "any time, day or night."

The Daily Mail reports that Bar Works will be leasing telephone boxes from the Red Kiosk Company, a Brighton-based firm that since 2014 has acquired a number of unused boxes from BT. A few kiosks around the UK have been redeveloped into coffee shops, ice cream stands, and other intrinsically lilliputian businesses. It looks like Red Kiosk both develops the boxes itself and leases them out to other interested parties (for about £4,500 per year).

According to Bar Works/Pod Works, security will be provided via the aforementioned access app, plus there'll be CCTV of some description. It's also important to note that there isn't really anything of value inside the office pods. Presumably the 25-inch screen will be affixed to the wall, and the printer/scanner will be integrated into the kiosk in some way (and neither are particularly valuable, anyway). You could nick the wireless mouse, I guess.

Another thing worth considering is how cramped these diminutive offices will probably be. The K6 kiosk (pictured above) is much smaller than the K2. With a pavement footprint just 3-foot square, it's going to be rather cosy in there, especially after you take into account a tray for your laptop, the protrusion of the hot drinks machine, and the bulk of the printer/scanner. Once the first retrofitted Pod Works kiosk opens in London I'll certainly go along to see if my mammoth 6'5" frame can comfortably fit inside. Maybe I'll try running Ars Technica UK from a red telephone box for a day.