Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

The talk of using public phone boxes bought back memories.

I can only remember two.

The main one being in that dark dank corridor to the right hand side of the dining hall, with that gruesome painting of some poor s0d having his leg chewed off by a shark !

There was the other phone box near the old post office, but I can't recall any more !

More telephone kiosks :

One at the back of Peele
One outside the tuck shop
One outside the back of the Court Room, opposite Lamb A
Was there one near the Prep Block? Can't recall..........

No phone boxes now, although each house has one or 2 public phones, which do actually get used !!

Apart from "squits" not being allowed a mobile for the first term (?) , they are requested not to have any contact with home, other than by letter, until first Leave Weekend (about 3 weeks).

On my squits (1990) there was still an old red phone box outside LHA on back ash. Maybe JT will remember whether it worked or not. I didn't go near it through fear of bigger boys (they put me in a wheely bin and rolled my down the hill once).

Mrs C. wrote:No phone boxes now, although each house has one or 2 public phones, which do actually get used !!

Apart from "squits" not being allowed a mobile for the first term (?) , they are requested not to have any contact with home, other than by letter, until first Leave Weekend (about 3 weeks).

Poor babies, they don't now they are born.

There was a payphone in each boarding house when I started, and usually a queue. In Col B it was at the bottom of the main stairs with absolutely NO privacy from anyone who may have been in the hall or on the stairs.

Later they moved it to a little room at the back of house, just behind the kitchen across the corridor. My deps diary shows that one evening I hung around in that room waiting for a call for about 3 hours. Lucky I had my diary with me or I'd have been so bored.

I got a mobile in freshers week in uni, I was so impressed with the idea you could take your own phone with you everywhere! Would have been very handy at school...!

On our squits we were not allowed to contact our parents until the first leave-day, so for 3 weeks. Apart from maybe by letter. Didn't make any difference to me, I was still miserable!

Ruthie-Baby wrote:There was a payphone in each boarding house when I started, and usually a queue. In Col B it was at the bottom of the main stairs with absolutely NO privacy from anyone who may have been in the hall or on the stairs.

Sounds the same as we had in BaB. Was particularly annoying for us as one of the deps used to get phone calls most evenings from her boyfriend and would take roost on the stairs for a couple of hours (or more ) which obviously meant no one else could make or receive calls

Can't imagine the luxuries of mobiles or the internet at CH.

Vonny wrote:

Ruthie-Baby wrote:There was a payphone in each boarding house when I started, and usually a queue. In Col B it was at the bottom of the main stairs with absolutely NO privacy from anyone who may have been in the hall or on the stairs.

Sounds the same as we had in BaB. Was particularly annoying for us as one of the deps used to get phone calls most evenings from her boyfriend and would take roost on the stairs for a couple of hours (or more ) which obviously meant no one else could make or receive calls

Can't imagine the luxuries of mobiles or the internet at CH.

Strangely we had the internet but not mobiles.

And yet in life outside CH I've had a mobile for years but not yet the internet.

graham wrote:On my squits (1990) there was still an old red phone box outside LHA on back ash. Maybe JT will remember whether it worked or not. I didn't go near it through fear of bigger boys (they put me in a wheely bin and rolled my down the hill once).

Yes, worked in my day, although soon after I joined we had a payphone installed in each house.
This was located under the fire-escape stairs towards the back of the house.
The memory of the smell and slightly sweaty mouthpiece when you followed someone in who'd been in there ages.........especially in the junior houses!
I'm surprised health-and-safety hasn't banned such an unhiegenic thing as sharing a phone mouth-piece!!

J

The pay phone in Maine A was very close to my study (my study was a curious little room on the ground floor)

A dep used to phone his girlfriend at about 2.30 in the morning and she used to phone back - it got to the stage where I used to leave the phone off the hook once I went to bed...)

J.R. wrote:The main one being in that dark dank corridor to the right hand side of the dining hall, with that gruesome painting of some poor s0d having his leg chewed off by a shark !

For those of you who don't know, the school flogged that painting to America not so long ago. Rather a shame really, great painting about a great hero.

mr tall wrote:

J.R. wrote:The main one being in that dark dank corridor to the right hand side of the dining hall, with that gruesome painting of some poor s0d having his leg chewed off by a shark !

For those of you who don't know, the school flogged that painting to America not so long ago. Rather a shame really, great painting about a great hero.

That's not there anymore? Shame...

Great Plum wrote:

mr tall wrote:

J.R. wrote:The main one being in that dark dank corridor to the right hand side of the dining hall, with that gruesome painting of some poor s0d having his leg chewed off by a shark !

For those of you who don't know, the school flogged that painting to America not so long ago. Rather a shame really, great painting about a great hero.

That's not there anymore? Shame...

At least 42 years since I saw it last, but it's still clear in my mind.

Can anyone remember the exact story involved ?

On the mattert of the painting outside the courtroom of the Mayor to be having his leg bitten of off. there is no a reasonable copy in its place as it was sold to cope with "Financial Problems" as happened with several of some of the lesser paintings as well.

Oh well, I guess the need of the pupils must come above paintings!