NEWS FROM OLD GIRLS
Jo Edwards (Mabbitt 1960-67)
Room with a View
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Life in Priory Street is rarely dull and what I see from my windows, the front overlooking the street and the back with wonderful views across the valley of the River Colne as far as the University Towers, never leaves me short of subject matter for a regular article in the Civic Society Newsletter. However, this time I am going to tell you about my view from another window, that of the Rose Room at Grey Friars.
A few weeks ago, I was minding my own business, doing some paperwork, when my phone rang. I answered it and a voice said, ‘I am sorry to trouble you. My name is Liz. I work for a company called Topical Productions and we would love to come and film you doing the Civic Society survey of BT telephone kiosks. It’s for the BBC‘s One Show’! My immediate reaction was laughter. For goodness sake! It is not long since Toby Walne from the Sunday Mail came, with a photographer, to talk to us about our kiosk surveys.
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Perhaps I’d better give a bit of background. In 2018, at one of the Civic Society monthly Coffee Mornings, somebody raised the condition of telephone kiosks in the town. We went to investigate and were horrified to find that 27 out of 44 didn’t have working phones. Some didn’t have phones at all! We contacted BT, found a wonderfully helpful man who came to Colchester to look for himself and were thrilled to bits when he immediately found a team of engineers to come and sort the problems out. In the two weeks either side of Christmas 2018, the phones were mended, missing glass and Perspex replaced, kiosks were thoroughly cleaned and 3 of our (listed) red K6 boxes were painted. A door was ordered for the fourth, the original having been damaged beyond
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repair. BT don’t check kiosks so we promised to keep an eye on them. Two further surveys were done and faults reported before Covid intervened. I told Liz that we hadn’t done one since the end of 2020 but she was not perturbed. Rather caught on the hop, I found myself agreeing. It wasn’t until I put the phone down that I really took in the enormity of what I had done!
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I found, to my horror, (left – trying to get my own back on Jo!) that Civic Society Committee members were either otherwise engaged on the day proposed for filming or camera shy. I was on my own! Luckily, Bob
Russell agreed to help me. He was happy about being filmed. I certainly wasn’t. The expression ‘Hoist with one’s own petard’ sprang to mind.
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Several conversations with Liz followed. We agreed that filming on a Sunday would be sensible and I offered to send her photos of the kiosks I thought would be best. These were chosen for a reason, particularly the two outside Lloyds Bank, opposite the Town Hall, where BT had just applied for planning permission to install a massive, illuminated, BT Street Hub. The film crew were coming from the other side of London ready to start filming at 8am, as was the presenter who, I discovered, was none other than Brian Conley, currently playing the role of Rocky, in East Enders. I realised that we would need to meet and sort out what we were going to do first, preferably over coffee, so I spoke to Grey Friars who, extremely kindly, booked us into the Rose Room and agreed to allow us all to park in their car park. What a blessing that was, because the weather on the day was absolutely FOUL!
And so it was that Bob and I found ourselves at Grey Friars with Steve, the cameraman, at 8am on a Sunday, waiting for Richard, the Director, and Brian. The minutes crept by. Steve made a phone call. Disaster had struck! Richard had gone in search of Brian, who, at the last moment on Saturday evening, had decided to stay overnight in Colchester. Easier said than done because all the hotels were booked but he managed to get a room at the George. He likened the experience to a night in Beirut! Getting ready in the morning, he switched the hairdryer on and it blew up! Finding a replacement took time but there was no way he was going to leave his hair unstyled. I chuckled. I had towel dried mine, only remembering to run a comb through it as
I drove into Grey Friars’ car park!
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Once Brian and Richard arrived, the fun began. By this time, the rain had really set in. Grey Friars had given permission for filming inside, so they seated me in the bay window (yes, this was to be my temporary Room with A View). From the window (right) there is a lovely view of the red K6 box that stands against the front wall of the hotel. This was to form the backdrop to the later interview. A camera was set up to film me, sitting at the table with my notebook open in front of me, pen in one hand and mobile phone in the other.
Another camera, on a tripod, was set up by the kiosk and Bob, coins in hand, was taken outside to be filmed using the phone in the kiosk to call me to tell me that it was working and to describe the general condition of the kiosk. Well, that was the plan. Unfortunately, the phone didn’t work and Bob was forced to ring me using Richard’s mobile. A rather surreal conversation ensued. I can’t imagine that there are many people about who have been filmed, early on a Sunday morning, having a conversation with a rain drenched Knight of the Realm about a urine drenched K6 telephone kiosk!
Eventually, the crew were satisfied and they returned to the warmth of the Rose Room (left), ready to interview me about the Civic Society’s phone checking project, our views about BT kiosks and also our views about the new street hubs. I had particularly asked for that question. Brian interviewed me, having questions fed to him by Richard. Brian is a genuinely nice man, incredibly
easy and fun to talk to. The whole interview was very laid back and stress free, in fact, really enjoyable. I have little recollection of what I actually said but, as I was with them for over 7 hours and I doubt that our segment in the programme will be longer than 2 minutes, it really doesn’t matter that much! Following the interview, Brian and I were both filmed having somewhat random conversations in a role play exercise as filming outdoors was not going to be viable. The rain was sheeting down. Bob had to leave but not before he and I had our photo taken with Brian.
Once Bob had gone, we were off to film Brian checking other kiosks and supposedly reporting back to me as I sat in my Room with a View. Actually, as I drove them, I watched from my Car with a View! First to the (non working!) K6 kiosk in Abbeygate Street (right) where, once there was a short break from the downpours, we caused quite a stir. A woman spotted Brian and yelled, ‘It’s Bobby Davro!’ He laughed, corrected her and agreed to a selfie with her and her son, who looked slightly bemused! It was here that the crew stopped a couple of women to ask them
about the need for public phones these days. One said that they are a lifeline for her as she is in a refuge and has no mobile.
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​Finally, we went to those kiosks in High St. By this time, the men were asking about a Starbucks. ‘No Starbucks’, I said, ‘What about Greggs?’ The reaction was all I’d expected - and more. They flew out of the car as soon as I pulled into a parking spot (I am so pleased I have a blue badge!). Brian returned with sausage rolls (what else??) for me - and yes, for those concerned about my poor Jack Russell, Cooper, abandoned at home, some for him, too! Having eaten their sausage rolls and drunk their coffee, cameras, etc, were grabbed and off they went to film. The heavens opened again. Boy, oh boy, did it rain! The nearest shelter was White Stuff where they were welcomed with open arms as they increased the footfall in the shop hugely! Whilst there, Brian, again, was grabbed for a lot of selfies. More of that later. Eventually, the rain eased off and Brian found his first working phones in the kiosks opposite the Town Hall. As I sat in the car, several people passed me, looking over their shoulders. ‘That was Bradley Walsh!’ Poor Brian!
We eventually returned to Grey Friars where I left them to make a Zoom call. They had intended to continue on to Enfield for more filming but the rain had caused so many problems they abandoned that. The day that I had been dreading was actually huge fun and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Steve and Richard (sitting in the back of my car in the photo (right)) were delightful and Brian was, as I said before,
utterly charming. He really went out of his way to make people happy. Whilst he was chatting to three women staying at Grey Friars, who were unbelievably excited to meet him, I noticed another who was sitting with a man who was speaking to someone on his phone. She was also very excited to see Brian so I drew his attention to her. He bounded across the room to say hello. Her companion told the person he was speaking to that Brian Conley was standing in front of him. It was obvious that they didn’t believe him, so Brian took the phone from him and introduced himself! It caused great amusement and such joy.
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Back to the selfies. That evening, Bob’s daughter sent him a photo. ‘Look who I met today!’ It was one of the selfies taken in White Stuff and was a brilliant photo of her with Brian. She had absolutely no idea that Bob had been with him that morning. He sent her the photo of the three of us. ‘Me too!’
The One Show hoped that we could check at least some of the remaining kiosks in Colchester before the programme was aired. During the following week, members of the Civic Society, Sheila, Ged Dickinson, Richard Arnopp and I blitzed the town, checking every kiosk. Our report is winging its way to BT as I write this. It does not make easy reading. Only 18 of the 31 kiosks have a fully functioning phone and most are absolutely filthy. Let’s hope that BT respond quickly!
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