A Guide to London’s Historic Telephones

2026 marks 100 years since the red Telephone Box arrived on the streets of Britain. Now a global icon, this post is a bit of an eclectic one about the history of how its design came about as well as other fun telephone-related sites across London. The First Telephone Call in London After making the first phone call in history on 10 March 1876, Alexander Graham Bell was in London a year later and he was in a bit of a panic. Wanting to test his invention before meeting with investors, Bell needed to find somewhere with a private telegraph line. He headed to Brown’s Hotel in Mayfair who obliged and from the hotel he called the owner, James John Ford, at his home in Ravenscourt Park. Today the hotel still has a room – named Graham Bell – with an extremely old telephone on the wall. The central circular speaker you can make out the words ‘The Telephone Company Limited’. The Bell Telephone Company had been founded by Bell in July 1877 but on the 14th of June 1878 he registered The Telephone…