pay phone story

Payphone Story – Global History of Payphones and Phone Booths

South African PHONE BOOTH- HUME PIPE CONCRETE TELEPHONE BOOTH (1922)

Introduced in 1922, South Africa’s first purpose-built outdoor telephone booths were manufactured by Hume Pipe Company (South Africa) Ltd from reinforced concrete. Painted red, cream and black, their distinctive cylindrical design became iconic. Similar to early Australian booths, a few survive today. Automatic public telephone service began in Cape Town during the 1930s.

Name	The HUME PIPE CONCRETE TELEPHONE BOOTH “Tickey box”
Date	1922
Manufacturer	Department of Posts and Telegraphs
Link	Australian concrete phone booth 1920s New Zealand concrete phone box 1920s

The HUME PIPE CONCRETE TELEPHONE BOOTH (1922)

Coloured red, cream and black

South Africa’s first purpose-built outdoor telephone booth was introduced in 1922 and manufactured by Hume Pipe Company (South Africa) Ltd. Constructed from reinforced concrete pipe sections with timber doors and moulded roofs, these cylindrical kiosks were designed to withstand harsh weather and heavy public use.

Painted in the Post Office’s corporate colours of red, cream and black, they became a familiar feature of urban streetscapes. Their distinctive circular form set them apart from British and European kiosk designs (Australia had a similar pre-cast concrete pipe design, although none are known to survive). Some of these booths still remain in service today and are among the most iconic structures in South African telecommunications history.

Public call offices in Cape Town, Sea Point, Woodstock and Rondebosch were the first in the country to offer a fully automatic service in the 1930s.