GPO/Telecom buildings & old phone numbers


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On 8/18/2018 at 8:18 PM, IAN123. said:

Behind the posters i recall a carpark full of green Post Office Telephone Anglia vans. Where the ice cream van is..was a shutter that emerged speeding Telegram Despatch riders on red motorbikes.67176.1.640.640.UNPAD.jpg

The building in the foreground (between Bath St and Brook St) was the Nottingham automated Parcel Sorting Office - PSO, built late 1960s, later re-badged Parcel Concentration Office - PCO.  It had a big issue with blue asbestos used to insulate its steel girder framework (one engineering manager later died from asbestosis).  Cost a fortune to remove or make safe.  It closed after Royal Mail rationalised its parcels business (it never really recovered after a strike led the Government to remove its monopoly on parcel handling).  Now some sort of self-storage facility.

 

The darker building to the right (between Brook St and Huntingdon St)  is the 1939-built Letter Sorting Office - LSO (automated in 1981 and re-badged as a Mechanised Letter Office - MLO).  When the PSO was built, they included a high level covered bridge across Brook St with provisions for a conveyor to connect the two buildings but it was never used for that.  Staff could walk across the bridge though.  Around the same time an extra floor was added to the top of the LSO.  It closed around 1993-94 (business relocated to Beeston).

 

The tall building at the back is the Bowman-Sheriff telephone exchange (hence nearby use of land for their green GPO and later yellow BT vans - the GPO split late 60s to early 70s).

Bowman-Sheriff is the main exchange for Nottingham today.  It is not outwardly identified as they think that would be a security risk.

 

There was a little building on the right hand side of that parking area but I don't recall what it was (demolished a few years ago).

 

Not on the photo but across Brook St from the exchange and behind the letter office was an old garage (car maintenance/repair).  When the letter office was automated, Royal Mail acquired the site and a purpose built Motor Transport workshop was built there (with its 'co-op blue' cladding).  When the main letter sorting operation moved to Beeston, the old MT workshop was converted to become the City Delivery Office, as it remains today.  The letter office had several more floors added and became Marco Island.

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The building in the foreground (between Bath St and Brook St) was the Nottingham automated Parcel Sorting Office - PSO, built late 1960s, later re-badged Parcel Concentration Office - PCO.  It had a b

Lincoln Street looking towards George Street, including a BT van (the exchange is behind the van).  Those old houses are still there.

We didn’t have a phone until about 1970 and thank goodness we did, my social life had been stunted up until then.  My Dad was still in that same house in Arnold until his death 5 years ago and still h

When I was younger and living in St Ann's, i can still remember my/our phone number at the cafe, 54014 then they added another number to it. And for the life of me, i can't remember what the extra number was !!!

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Our first ‘phone number when we lived in Woodthorpe was 262824. It was only one digit different from the nearby Home Brewery’s number. We had many misdialled calls asking ‘is that the Home Brewery’ and I always took pleasure in answering ‘I wish it was!’

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11 hours ago, Waddo said:

When I was younger and living in St Ann's, i can still remember my/our phone number at the cafe, 54014 then they added another number to it. And for the life of me, i can't remember what the extra number was !!!

 

This might answer your question.

 

In the old days, a Nottingham number was 0602 xxxxxx.  In 1995 the STD codes were changed and Nottingham became 0115. When that change happened, all existing numbers had 9 added in front of them.

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Nice one Clifton, it still don't jog my memory but seems logical. It amazes me where you get, -------A all your into from. And B------- magically find photos of anything that anyone enquires about. Well done for your input.

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Additional info;

 

And after they'd used up all the 9's they went to 8, which is what my number got, then they ran out and they went to 7, I believe they've run out and they're on 6.

At one point I believe Nottingham had the highest demand for new numbers anywhere in the country.

 

The problem is when companies have a new phone line they get allocated blocks of numbers and get more even blocks reserved for future use.

Even though everyone rings one single number it gets diverted to another number in the block.

 

There could be 10's of thousands of unused but reserved numbers.

 

Also there is VOIP (Voice over Internet) where the call originates from a computer or other smart device and arrives at a phone as opposed to Skype which is computer to computer.

My Son uses VOIP to call from the USA, it shows at my end as a local phone number which he has reserved and as far as I know it's free, the call certainly is, he may have paid a one off for the number.

There'll be ten of thousands of those numbers in use as well.

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When I was a teenager in the 50s, our number was Nottingham 66634. This was before there 

were town codes.   (Don’t like using the initials STD as it can mean something else as well as Subscriber Trunk Dialling!) At some point later it had a 2 put on front of the original number.  

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9 hours ago, Stuart.C said:

Also there is VOIP (Voice over Internet) student's using something similar, about 1998. Would this be feasible?

 

Do remember getting my hands on what I presume was a BT engineer's code..free calls from boxes, four digits?

 

Edit...Got, for me.. the dreaded blue box when typing, after quoting Stuart's input..

I won't persue it further.. it will only get worse... hope this still makes some sense!

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The Student trick was in a Phone box you used to be able to Tap the number on the cradle instead of having to put money in.

Apparently it took a bit of skill and not all boxes did it.

 

The code was meant to be a test code, so charges weren't made when an Engineer was in a customers home.

I don't know whether Students also got hold of that.

 

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Our phone number when i lived at Nuthall the late 50s and 60s was Kimberley 2248 Kimberley was probably the nearest exchange to Nuthall.My fathers garage at Watnall had the same number if i wanted to call the garage from Nuthall we had a box on the wall with a hand crank on it like a dynamo when you turned the handle the phone would ring it was almost like a direct line i dont know what they called has anyone seen this type of gadget?

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Private line manual ringdown.

 

Yes, used more commonly within large buildings for direct contact between 2 points but could be miles apart.

Used extensively in Wartime to speak to front line posts.

 

We had one in the Post Office building I worked in between the workshop and control room for fault reporting.

 

The line and equipment would have been rented but no call charges so in your case Ian you could speak all day free.

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There were two different options.

 

An external extension, which worked with the phone line, where you could speak to each other and/or transfer a call from one to the other, or a private circuit, which was a direct link between two locations and separate from a phone line.

 

In either case, you could have them locally, or to any other location in the UK.


It was my job to manage the Sales team which used to sell these things!

 

 

 

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My mam and dads (1960's)was Kirkby in Ashfield 2279 then it went to Mansfield with a 75 in front

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I grew up in Beechdale in the 50s and my dad had a phone installed late in the decade. Back then Beechdale had its own exchange and our number was Beechdale 363. It was a shared ie party line which meant you couldn't use the phone at the same time as the other party. The phone had a silver button in the middle which you had to press to check if the phone was in use by the other party. Anyone else familiar with this set up?

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The first time that I came across a phone was when I started work, on the desk of the salon was this big black thing, when it rang I was told to answer it, as I picked up the reciverv my hands were shaking, next came the trim phone. When i had my first baby at home, master had to run down the road to the red box and call the midwife but you had to put in 4 pennies, master forgot the pennies, so getting panicky he dialed O this kind lady told him not to worry and put him though to the midwife. Master worked at "Plessey" on telephone switch gears, from there he got a job in the telephone exchange in South Africa. Next came mobiles just looked and as big as a house brick.  When we went to live in HUcknall our telephone number was 4069 the you had to dail a code for Nottm next 63 was put before 4069 then a 9 was added and Hucknall went I think into Nottm Exchange.

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48 minutes ago, Mess said:

 It was a shared ie party line which meant you couldn't use the phone at the same time as the other party. The phone had a silver button in the middle which you had to press to check if the phone was in use by the other party. Anyone else familiar with this set up?

 

We didn't have a phone in those days but I remember knowing people who had a shared line like that. It was just accepted that was how the phone system operated back then. Could you listen to other people's calls ?

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Yes you could CT, you could even ask them how long they were going to be, if they'd been on for a while, especially if you had an important call to make.

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...and people talk about the good old days !

 

When your neighbours could listen to your phone calls.

When you had to queue outside a phone box to make a call.

When you had to press Button A or Button B.

Standing inside claustrophobic, smelly, dirty phone boxes.

Trying to read a phone directory which was torn and covered with graffiti.

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There was a time when dopey students would see how many people could fit inside a phone box. Everybody who used them always used to write down numbers on the directory, so they wouldn't forget.

And let's not forget the calling cards left by 'working ladies'. Who can forget "French Polishing" available, private work, (not that I would know).

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At one point in the very early 70s, we had to be put on a party line as a little old lady across the road wanted a phone installed and there weren't enough lines! I don't really understand the technicalities but we were told we would have to share.  Irene, bless her was a polio victim who lived alone and didn't understand that when you'd made a call you needed to replace the receiver.  It drove my father scranny because we weren't able to make or receive calls.  The times I was despatched across the road to knock on her door and say, "Miss Smith,'  I was not allowed to call her Irene! "Your phone is off the hook again"

 

If we picked up our receiver when she was making a call, we could hear the conversation and vice versa. So much for privacy. No GDPR in those days.

 

Fortunately, it didn't last long and we soon each had our own line. We had a cream dial phone in those days and there was a fixed rectangular button in front of the cradle. During the period of the party line, the button was moveable and if you happened to be within earshot when the other party was making a call, you would hear a slight tinkle.

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