William Arnold isn’t just making prank calls—he’s on a mission to preserve payphones in the UK. This summer, he traveled 900 miles from Cornwall to a remote payphone on Scotland’s Isle of Lewis, where he paid with a sack of coins and dialed 52 times, fulfilling the requirement to keep the booth operational for another year. Arnold is essentially a one-man conservation society for these copper-wired call boxes, even as people increasingly turn to AI and unreliable rural cell networks.
He believes there’s a growing desire for genuine experiences, similar to the surge in vinyl record sales. “Making a phone call the old way… just hearing the line hums before putting a coin in,” he notes.
Fans of classic films have also played a part in preserving payphones, keeping safe the booth featured in Local Hero (1983) and another from Withnail and I (1987). Local communities often rally for mass phone-ins to boost usage, while some disused red kiosks have been repurposed as mini-libraries or coffee stands. However, Arnold feels that a non-functional phone line diminishes the essence of these booths.
The local phone company, BT, plans to phase out its copper network soon, which could jeopardize Arnold’s hobby. Currently, there are around 9,000 working payphones left in the UK, down from about 20,000 just two years ago. For more information, you can check out the full article in the Wall Street Journal.
