Red Phone Booth

When in London, England recently it struck me that a British icon is teetering on the edge of oblivion. The red phone booth, an internationally recognized symbol of Britain, is on its way out. In Beijing some months before it was evident that coin operated phones are rare nowadays in an age of cell phones and phone cards. London just served to reinforce the observation. I attempted to make calls to friends and relatives near Hyde Park Corner and a row of phone booths hove into view. Not only did none of them accept coins but indeed only one actually had a phone! Elsewhere in London I came across the same scenario. The red phone booths have not been removed presumably because they are acknowledged to be part of the landscape foreigners expect. Nonetheless as a functioning service they are now essentially an anachronism. It is not as easy as it used to be to communicate at Speakers Corner, soapbox be damned!