In photos and video: Burgess Hill rainbow phone box wows passers-by after recent makeover

Mid Sussex Times photographer Steve Robards spotted the booth with rainbow coloured windows last week in London Road.

After contacting Burgess Hill Town Council, the Middy learned it had actually been painted for a second time, having first been painted in 2018.

Burgess Hill resident Liz Tucker, who helped paint the box along with several other boxes, said: “The idea was simple: change it from being an eyesore to an asset to the street scene. The location, on a busy road, meant that options like a book exchange weren’t going to be practicable. It is close to the town’s beacon, which is located in the park, so the idea of a ‘light-box’ fitted with the idea of a beacon of light, as well as it being a play on it being a telephone box.”

She said: “We get a good response from passers-by when we are giving it a tidy.”

Mid Sussex District Councillor and former Burgess Hill mayor Anne Eves said there are six converted phone boxes in Burgess Hill, adding that she and Simone Graham helped paint the London Road road one.

She said: “They and I have recently painted Freeks Lane box (Leylands Road) and Blackhouse Lane, six years after the project started.”

She said another ‘art box’ can be found outside Jupps fish shop in West Street, which was painted by Lucy Lockett.

Councillor Eves said: “It takes three women three hours to spruce up a box, with the pukka BT paint which is very hard-wearing. The job is very dirty and the paint gets everywhere! The box on London Rd is important because it's what people see as they pass through Burgess Hill.”

She added that phone boxes that are used fewer than 100 times a year have their phones removed by BT and can be adopted by their local council for a nominal £1.

Councillor Eves said: “New transoms are soon to be inserted in this box to finish it off, and we need to fix the light inside so it shines in the dark.”

She also said there are plans to paint the Potters Lane box on Friday, July 28 (2pm).

People can find out about the area’s painted phone boxes at www.facebook.com/blackhouselanephonebox and www.facebook.com/FLaCKburgesshill.