THE DECLINE OF A RED K6 TELEPHONE KIOSK IN BELFAST BETWEEN MAY 2015 AND MARCH 2922
This phone kiosk, on North Street in Belfast, is an example of a 1936 K6 ‘Jubilee Box’ and it is listed.
When I first photographed the phone kiosk in May 2015 it was in good condition and appeared to be well maintained and there was a new Belfast Bikes docking station.
In March 2022 the kiosk was in very poor condition and the Belfast Bikes docking station had been relocated.
Unfortunately, back in May 2015 it was obvious that the bike hire scheme and network was very badly managed.
The Belfast Bikes station became operational at the location on the 15th April 2015 but it was removed sometime between my visit in 2018 and my visit in 2019. Late in 2017 it was announced that a few Belfast Bikes docking stations in the city centre were to be re-located to “areas of higher demand”. The following were listed for removal: East Bridge Street/Stewart Street, Winetavern Street, Dunbar Link, Writers’ Square and North Street.
Belfast City Council claimed that the stations to be closed were in “close proximity” to alternative stops, and “therefore would not create gaps in the network.
In April 2117, the council confirmed that more than a third of Belfast Bikes had been stolen or vandalised since the project was rolled out more than two years earlier and they admitted that vandalism of the bikes was costing almost £1,800 a month. Local media had included photographs showing several bikes which had been dumped in the River Lagan and it was claimed that a bike was sawn in half.
Lower North Street which has been described as “the street that time passed by”. It was external to the security barriers during the bombing campaign and as such it was avoided by shopkeepers and customers alike. It has never recovered especially following destruction and neglect of the North Street Arcade by fire.
Tony Stallard (born 26 August 1958) is an English artist, best known for his large scale public artworks in the United Kingdom and abroad, which utilise bronze, steel and light sculptures for work in the public realm.
Stallard has worked for twenty-five years in public artworks within the public realm and his work has been exhibited widely from Canada to Ireland and the Czech Republic. This work has included research and development within architectural and engineering practices, as well as processing artworks with multiple stake holders for practical engineered concepts towards public artworks.
In 2009, Stallard was selected by the Titanic Quarter and Arts And Business Northern Ireland to create a sculpture to promote the regeneration of the Titanic Quarter. A scale model of an Airfix kit, the piece was a reference to Belfast’s industrial heritage and encourages a nostalgia for the area’s shipbuilding history.
The Kit is described by Tony as “a playful reference to kit forms and toy structures…also an attempt to bring the spirit of the ship back to the beginning of her journey”. Unlike many memorials in Belfast that commemorate the victims of the Titanic, Tony Stallard described the ‘Kit’ as a “dramatic work which commemorates the great achievement that was the construction of the ship.”
It is interesting to note that Harland and Wolff, were commissioned to construct the sculpture.
The ‘Kit’ takes the form of an over-sized ‘Airfix’ model kit. It measures nearly 14 metres in height and is approximately 4 metres wide. The ‘Kit’ is fabricated from steel and bronze.
The design of the sculpture should be familiar to model-makers in the UK and Ireland [not sure about the USA], and comprises the framework (or sprue) that secures the individual components of the kit. In the manufacture of injection moulded plastic model kits the sprue is formed when molten plastic is injected into a mould. When the mould is broken open the sprue is left in place securing the individual numbered components of the model kit.
The ‘Kit’ has a number of large components, which are recognisably parts of the Titanic. These include her hull split down the middle, forming two sections, three of her four funnels and two of her three propellers. The ‘Kit’ is designed to give the impression that a number of components have already been ‘snapped off’ the sprue framework, such as the missing funnel and propeller.
The uppermost funnel is painted in the White Star Line’s buff (yellow) and black band colour scheme and the bow is painted black, with red anti-fouling paint below the waterline. The rest of the hull sections and other components are left unpainted, distinguished by their bronze patina. At night the ‘Kit’, which stands on the quayside in front of The Arc Apartments, is illuminated by purple LED lighting.
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