Britain’s iconic red phone boxes ring the changes

Umar Khalid poses outside the red telephone box from which he runs a coffee shop in Hampstead Heath, north London on October 20, 2017. -AFP

LONDON: Facing extinction due to ubiquitous mobile phones, Britain’s classic red telephone boxes are being saved from death row by ingenious conversions into all sorts of new uses.

“It smells nice,” a passer-by said while sniffing the waft of hot stew steaming out of one phone box in the heart of London.