Applications submitted to modernise phone boxes on Chiswick High Rd

Image: Phone boxes by the Empire House development on Chiswick High Road; (via Google Maps)

Plans submitted to remove old phone boxes similar to those in other London boroughs

Planning applications (P/2024/3786 & P/2024/3786) have been submitted to Hounslow Council to remove two phone boxes in Chiswick and replace two others with new, modern kiosks featuring digital advertising and defibrillators.

NWP Street Limited, the company behind the application, seeks to upgrade two existing phone boxes on Chiswick High Road, installed in the 1990s, citing their outdated design and limited functionality. The replacement is dependent on the removal of two other boxes outside Planet Organic at 199 Chiswick High Road.

NWP plans to introduce kiosks that ‘blend modern functionality with a nod to traditional aesthetics’, claiming they will be more recognisable as telephone boxes than recent designs by BT and JC Decaux. The new kiosks would be wider but less deep than their predecessors and fully wheelchair-accessible.

The kiosks would also feature a 1.6-metre-high by 0.93-metre-wide digital advertising display, which the council could use for public service announcements and emergency alerts at no cost, they say. These displays would show static images changing every 10 seconds and will be turned off from midnight to 5.00am.

Image: The modern phone boxes have been installed in several other London boroughs including in Ealing and Westminster

Phone boxes to be reduced across Hounslow by 70%

One application (P/2024/3786) focuses on two boxes near the Empire House development at 414 Chiswick High Road. A previous application for a kiosk with digital advertising at this location was rejected in 2016, as the illuminated ads were deemed unsuitable for the Conservation Area. However, NWP argues that since permission was later granted for an advertising board near the Old Packhorse pub, this precedent supports their case.

As part of the proposal, NWP has partnered with the charity ‘Trees for Cities’ to plant a tree for every kiosk approved, in locations agreed with the council. The new kiosks will also include defibrillators, aiming to enhance public safety.

This application is part of a wider rationalisation programme across the borough that would reduce the number of phone boxes by 70%, leaving just nine.

Residents can view the applications in detail and submit comments on Hounslow Council’s planning website using the provided references.

Hounslow Council Search planning applications