A group of community activists have bought a decrepit phone box for a pound and transformed it into a miniature community centre.
The phone box has had quite the makeover – from sitting unloved and being used as a toilet under Deptford bridge in south London to being decked out with everything from toiletries and fresh fruit to lists of hotlines and pine cones to tell the weather.
Converted by members of Lewisham’s We Care Food Bank, the phone box is billed as the world’s first 24/7 phone box community hub.
Ray Barron-Woolford, co-founder of the food bank, told the Big Issue: “This phone box will save people’s lives.”
Barron-Woolford contacted BT on Twitter three weeks ago, complaining about the phone box – which was trashed, surrounded by rubbish, and used as a toilet.

Within three days he had signed a contract to buy it for £1 and turn it into a community hub.