When you walk down a street, you are walking over a complicated entanglement of wires and pipes that deliver our critical utilities, one of which is the UK’s telecommunications system. It provides us with telephone and broadband services, which have become the digital age.
Much of our telecoms infrastructure is underground and that’s why many will walk down our streets without realising its existence; however, some features are visible to pedestrians and offer clues to the history of the system’s development during the last 150 years.
We aim to catalogue all the design heritage of the UK’s telecommunication system organised in the following categories:
- Telecom street covers
- Telecom cabinets
- Telecom street markers
Telecom street covers
What is a telecom street cover?
Telecom street covers are typically manufactured from cast iron, concrete, and steel. They protect pedestrians and vehicles from falling into holes used for infrastructure access points. Access from the street is typically done in two ways:
- Access underground boxes integrated in pedestrian footways.
- Climb down manholes into spaces or tunnels deeper underground.
Box Joint Covers
JF2 Old Style
Type – Individual
Common location – Footway
Approx dimension – 38 x 80 cm
Old style cover made of a cast iron lid case with concrete centre. Variants are from the era of the Post Office monopoly on inland telegraph systems from 1870 to its acquisition of the National Telephone Company in 1912.
Large rectangular covers
JF4 Old Style
Type – Individual
Common location – Footway
Approx dimension – 55 x 100 cm
Old style cover made of a cast iron lid case with concrete centre. Variants are from the era of the Post Office monopoly on inland telegraph systems from 1870 to its acquisition of the National Telephone Company in 1912.
JF4
Type – Individual
Common location – Footway
Approx dimension – 55 x 100 cm
Cover made from concrete with cast iron lid case frame. Earlier models contain a cast iron marking plate with later models using plastic. Some covers were replaced with models containing lid casings made from steel bar tread.

c. 1912-1969

c. 1969-1981
Square covers
JF6 Old Style
Type – Pair
Common location – Footway
Approx dimension – 70 x 70 cm
Old style cover made of a cast iron lid case with concrete centre. Variants are from the era of the Post Office monopoly on inland telegraph systems from 1870 to its acquisition of the National Telephone Company in 1912. Some covers contain a perforated grille in the centre.
Telecom cabinet designs
What is a telecom street cover?
Telecom cabinets are commonly painted dark green. They contain incoming telephone cables from the exchange and act as a control panel for all outgoing cables that run to customer distribution points. These cabinets are referred to as Primary connection Points (PCP).
Early models were made out of cast iron with panelled doors. Some cast iron cabinets contain replacement doors made of steel. Later models were made from fibreglass. All cabinets use triangular Openreach keys arranged in duets or quartets.
Our eternal thanks go to Tim Onions and Rob Shipley for inspiring this project.