Outside TK Maxx, next to Bus Stop M, there is a BT phone box. It doesn’t work. Nobody uses it. And it is single-handedly blocking the improvement that would do more than anything else to cut the daily traffic gridlock on Putney High Street.
Until that box moves, buses cannot pull into a proper layby at Bus Stop M. So every time a Route 14, 39, 74, 85, 93, 424 or 430 stops, it sits in the lane and blocks everything behind it. That happens dozens of times a day, on one of the highest-frequency bus stops in the borough. The fix is ready. The fix has planning permission. The fix requires one BT phone box to move one block up the street.
The box has not moved.
The queue of failures
The council has written to BT asking for it to go. BT put its own “time to remove” notice inside the box eighteen months ago. Then, in December, Fleur Anderson posted a video: 750,000 people watched it.
On 18 December 2025, Anderson announced what she called a “Phone Box Breakthrough.” BT had confirmed it would remove one derelict box and relocate the other. “Removing these eyesores is a vital step to get traffic moving down the High Street,” she said. “Putney deserves better.”
One box was removed. The one at Bus Stop M did not move and is now blocking the bus layby.
Three months after the breakthrough, Wandsworth Council’s assistant director of engineering Henry Cheung told the Transport Overview and Scrutiny Committee: “BT have labelled the phone boxes to be removed but as of yet have not made any progress on that.”
That was in February. The box is still there now.
The Putney Society has objected to BT proposals to replace phone boxes on the High Street with large advertising totems.
Look at the state of it
The removal notice BT put inside its own phone box is dated 13 November 2024. Eighteen months ago. The notice says “it’s time to remove this payphone.”
We tried the number on the box.It didn’t work. The display reads “NO CASH CALLS.” The handset connects to nothing. The glass panels are entirely covered in advertising. The interior is rusted, graffiti-marked, and damp. This is not a public telephone. It is an advertising hoarding with a phone handset attached.
The legislation BT is hiding behind, and why it doesn’t apply
BT’s position rests on Ofcom rules that protect payphones from removal where there is a genuine public need. Under those rules, a payphone cannot be removed if any of the following apply: there is no mobile coverage from all four networks at the location; the site is an accident or suicide hotspot; the box receives more than 52 calls per year; or there are exceptional circumstances showing real public need.
None of these apply to this box. Putney High Street has full 4G coverage from every network. Bus Stop M is not a hotspot. A non-functioning box on a busy shopping street, in a neighbourhood where 98% of people have smartphones, is making zero calls. There is no exceptional need. There is no regulatory argument for keeping it.
There is also Ofcom’s separate obligation that BT must maintain its public call boxes. A box that does not function, that has been non-operational for years and says “NO CASH CALLS,” is not maintained. This could be the basis for a formal complaint.
Now it’s over to you
The council has tried. The MP got 750,000 views and a written commitment. BT honoured half of it and stopped. The box is still blocking the bus stop. It’s time for residents to pile in directly. Use the form below to send an email to BT’s payphones customer service. It takes 30 seconds.
This form opens your email app with a pre-written message. The email goes to BT Payphones at customer.serv.payphones@bt.com, with a copy to Putney.news at news@putney.news so we can track the response. Your email address is not stored or used for any other purpose.
If you want to escalate further: complaints about BT’s failure to maintain public call boxes can be made to Ofcom at ofcom.org.uk/make-a-complaint. You can also contact the new Thamesfield ward councillors (Ethan Brooks, Robert Morritt, and Salvatore Murtas) and the new transport cabinet member, named at Annual Council on 27 May.
Since December 2024, the council has made fourteen changes to the Putney Bridge junction. The planning application to move the box was submitted months ago. The bus stop inset remains the most substantial remaining fix to the junction. In December, BT promised to relocate the box. It did not. The box is still there.
