Submitted by Brenda Thain, Guildford u3a
PRESS BUTTON “A”
When I was young very few households had a telephone. If we needed to contact someone in a hurry and there was no time to write a letter or send a telegram, we went to the red public telephone box which stood nearby. There was never one far away and ours was in the next street.
Inside there was a large, black metal box contraption with two big shiny silver buttons and the black bakelite telephone sitting on top. You dialled the telephone number and put your pennies in the slot provided, and if someone answered you pressed Button “A”. You heard the coins clang down into the depths of the box and then the other person could hear you speak. If the line rang out and no-one answered, you pressed Button “B” and got your money back. Sometimes people forgot to do that, so if you were next in the box, you could always press button “B” and see if a few pennies fell out.
Generally the telephone boxes were well-maintained and the telephones worked. They smelt OK too, apart from the smell of cigarettes because almost all adults smoked in those days. So the telephone receiver generally needed a good wipe round with a hanky. It never occurred to us that they might be quite good carriers of germs too.
Each telephone box was equipped with a telephone directory, and sometimes a business directory as well, and they too mainly stayed in reasonable condition and it was almost always possible to find a number if you needed one, although you could dial directory enquiries for free. Or you could just dial 100 and speak to an operator who would connect you.
The only draw-back to the public box was having to queue. You could spend ages outside waiting for the person inside to finish, and a line of impatient people might gather. If you were inside, it was common for people to rap on the window or even open the door and stick their heads in and yell at you to hurry up. It was quite rare to use the telephone simply to chat, because it worked out rather expensive, so they were used mainly to make arrangements or pass quick messages, rather as we text today.
Eventually, we got our own telephone at home, but to save money we started with a “party line”. This was commonplace and you shared with a complete stranger. When you picked up your phone to make a call sometimes the other party could be heard talking on the phone. Equally they could hear you too when you were make your own call. Shared line rentals were half price but worked quite well as telephones were not really used as a social tool and conversations were kept short and sweet. Mum would shout at me to “get off the phone, you’re seeing Jean tonight, so why are you spending so much time chatting now.” Before she married, Mum had been a GPO (General Post Office) telephonist and worked on the public exchange which is how she met my Dad because he was a telephone engineer at the time. Later when she had to go to work it was at Standard Telephone & Cables in North Woolwich, and she worked on the first under-ground (under the sea) cable to Australia. When we spoke infrequently to my brother in Sydney she was always thrilled at how clear the line was.
Each area had its own code, which usually bore some geographical connection. Ours was Grangewood (possibly named for a large market garden called the Woodgrange Estate which existed nearby in Victorian times), and our telephone number was GRA 0603. It was possible to identify which part of London you were calling, because the prefix gave a clue to where people lived, the most famous exchange being Whitehall and the most famous number being WHI 1212 which was Scotland Yard, the Metropolitan Police Headquarters, and was the number you dialled before the modern 999 emergency number in use