It must be a conundrum for BT these last 10 years.

Just what purpose do red telephone boxes serve other than to promote ‘adult’ services and for tourists to pose for selfies?

Votes in a poll last year as the greatest British design of all time with 39 per cent of the votes with the London taxi trailing sixth with 21 per cent of the votes.

[T]hese much loved symbols of our past have been collecting grim (and urine) as their purpose fades into obscurity.

Now Pod Works has found a solution, so simple it’s remarkable that no one has thought of it before. The New York based company has fitted a number of the Sir Giles Gilbert Scott designed boxes with wi-fi connection and internet connectivity, a printer/scanner, wireless mouse, 25 inch screen, a charger with a selection of plugs and there’s even a hot drinks machine.

For a fee of about £20 a month small businesses can conduct business on the move in an environment devoid of the distraction of sitting in a coffee shop or listening to London’s incessant traffic.

They could, of course, sit in the back of a London cab to conduct their business.