Abandoned Iconic London Phone Boxes Converted Into Solar Powered Smartphone Charging Stations

UK green retrofitting company Solarbox has begun converting London’s iconic but underused phone boxes into solar powered charging stations for smartphones. The bright green painted boxes are free to use, but will display advertisements to users as they charge up. Solar box cofounder Harold Craston says he got the idea for the revamped boxes while walking past a familiar red box while in school.

I lived next to a phone box in my second year at uni and walked past it every day. I thought, “There are 8,000 of these lying unused in London and we must be able to find a use for them.”

Six boxes have been deployed so far, lining Tottenham Court Road in central London.