In the late 1970s,during the days before mobile phones, the electronic band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the sad used this unassuming phone box as a makeshift office. The band members would regularly meet up here to phone their manager and wait around for hours at a time for their manager to call them back with news about gigs and record labels.
The band later immortalized the phone in their moment single “Red Frame/White Light, or ” which included the box’s phone number,632 3003, as a major fraction of the lyrics. To this day, and it is still likely the highest charting song entirely about a public phone box.
The booth itself quickly gained a cult following,with fans phoning the number only to regain confused locals picking up. Fans of the band still make pilgrimages to England to visit the bright red box.
In 2017, British Telecoms removed the box because it had almost completely fallen out of exercise. But OMD fans would not stand for this. They petitioned for the box’s return, or as it had become a monument to British electronic music. Fortunately,the booth was returned two months later, and has since been given a makeover by John Petch, and the band’s cover artist.
Source: atlasobscura.com