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BT Archives British Phone Books January 2013 British Phone Books BT Archives maintains a near complete collection of original phone books for the United Kingdom from 1880, the year after the public telephone service was introduced into the UK. It also holds phone books for Southern Ireland until 1921 and the creation of Eire as a separate state. The collection contains phone books produced by BT and by the predecessor organisations from which BT is directly descended, including Post Office Telecommunications and private telephone companies. The phone books reflect the development of the NTC Phone Book, Yorkshire District, telephone service in the UK, covering exclusively January 1888 (TPF/1/3) London when the telephone was first available; they gradually expand to include major provincial centres and are ultimately nationwide. Preservation of the damage to the originals, the collection collection up to 1992 was microfilmed. BT Archives holds Phone books were not intended the phone book on microfiche to be retained permanently, or for 1993-2000 so access to all even beyond their current phone books from their creation status, with old phone books in 1880 to 2000 is through returned to be pulped for re- microfilm (reels) or microfiche use. This was particularly (sheets) in BT Archives important during the war and searchroom, greatly assisting immediate post-war period preservation of the originals. because of a shortage of paper. A 26-month digitisation project The paper used in their was completed in conjunction production was also of poor with Ancestry.co.uk to scan the quality. As a result many of the phone books from 1880 to 1984 earlier phone books are in a and make them available online fragile condition, and have to through a subscription service. be conserved to ensure they The Telehone Company produced the The project digitised 1,780 first phone book, 15 January 1880 survive for the future. (TPA/1/6) phone books - more than 280 In 1993-94, because of heavy million names. public usage and concern of British Phone Books Page 1 of 5 Find out more about the history of telecommunications at www.bt.com/archives and www.connected-earth.com Private telephone companies The BT historical phone book collection includes phone books (‘lists of subscribers’) from some of the several telephone companies that were formed in the 1880s. By the mid 1890s these companies had either merged with or been taken over by the sole remaining private concern, the National Telephone Company (NTC), which ran the telephone service in competition with the smaller network of the Post Office. In 1896 the Post Office took over the trunk (long distance) Gumming on front cover advertisements, 1938 (TCB 473/P 8329) network of the NTC, and finally the whole company in 1912. exceeded 10.5 million, with an The arrangement of the phone Making the phone approximate weight of 10,600 tons. By 1951 of the 8 million books varied considerably, book phone books printed and particularly in the earliest The rapidly developing distributed, over half had more issues, and it is only later that telephone network meant that than 1,000 pages. In 2012, any standardisation between updated editions of the phone 22 million phone books were the Post Office and NTC book were required frequently, published in 168 editions. appears. For many years, the with sometimes several editions different telephone systems of From 1970 onwards phone the competing companies and being produced in a year. books were compiled by From 1913 onwards they were the Post Office were computer in Leeds, recorded incompatible, resulting in generally produced twice a onto magnetic tape and fed into year, and then from 1940 customers being obliged to photo composing machines. confine themselves to the production was less frequent, This was the world’s first fully usually every 18 months. network of one company or integrated computer printing subscribe to others. The number of phone books process. produced has increased This situation was not resolved Production of the phone book until the latter days of dramatically as the network has has been almost continuous expanded. By 1914 the phone competition when subscribers since 1880. The one exception of the NTC and the Post Office book was the largest single is for the period from 1913 to printing contract in the UK, with were given access to the 1920. There is some doubt other's system, and were listed a million and a half phone whether, other than in London, books being printed each year. in the other's phone books as any phone books were well as their own. In 1921 approximately 1.7 produced during this period, million were issued, weighing a although it is possible that they total of about 1,000 tons. In were recycled for the war effort. 1938 the total number of phone books published each year British Phone Books Page 2 of 5 Find out more about the history of telecommunications at www.bt.com/archives and www.connected-earth.com Development of the Until 1938, each volume of the A further major change to the phone book phone book included an format of the phone book alphabetical index indicating in happened with the launch of The arrangement of the phone which telephone district a The Phone Book from BT as a book has been reorganised particular location lay. These combined book for residential, periodically to accommodate indexes have been microfilmed business and classified entries. the increasing numbers of along with the phone book York was the first place to get residential and business information itself, which makes this new style edition in January subscribers, particularly phone books of this time 2003. domestic customers, as the relatively easy to access and An online version of the phone telephone became available to search. After 1938, indexes to book was launched in 2005. a wider audience. the phone books were produced independently and In May 2006 Reading was the In 1879 The Telephone not necessarily each year. first area to receive the new Company opened the first Copies of these are available in look phone book with a restyled telephone exchange in the UK the search room at BT Archives front cover designed to make in Coleman Street in the City of dating from 1939 to 1991. people more aware of its London, with only seven usefulness as a classified subscribers. Demand grew Prior to 1969, phone books directory. quickly, with other exchanges in could be bound together into London opening within a year. volumes, which were arranged From January 2010 the BT In its first year, The Telephone according to a particular region Phone Book has been made Company handled 6,000 calls. of the country, such as North of with 100 per cent recycled England, South West and paper and it became a compact On 15 January 1880 The South Wales. Although the publication in July 2010 to fit Telephone Company issued the phone books could also be into letter boxes and save first phone book containing 248 issued separately, the 2,000 tonnes of paper each London personal and business collection held by BT Archives year. names, but without telephone holds them in the bound numbers. A caller simply rang volume form. London the exchange and asked to be connected to another In 1984 a new style Phone In 1932 the London Telephone subscriber listed in the phone Book was launched with Area was extended to include book. This system quickly improved supplementary some further outlying areas. became impractical and by information and an easier to The area was renamed the April 1880 The Telephone read format. This was initially London Telecommunications Company listed telephone introduced in Manchester and Region (LTR) in 1936, as part of major organisational numbers for its subscribers. subsequently used nationwide. changes within the Post Office. In 1896 the first phone book for From 1954 the arrangement of the whole country was the London phone book was published in one volume, radically changed to cover only containing 1350 pages and the London postal area and 81,000 entries. By 1900 the addresses with London introduction of double columns postcodes, with separate was necessary due to the volumes being produced for increase in the number of outer London. entries. Actress Pat Phoenix promoting the launch of the new style phone book, 1984 (TCC 474/HF 33-U) British Phone Books Page 3 of 5 Find out more about the history of telecommunications at www.bt.com/archives and www.connected-earth.com Telephone number combination. AFN was at the BT Tower attended by essential with the development several celebrities marked the format of direct international dialling, actual changeover itself, which In 1926, when automatic as the mixed letter and number was broadcast live on exchanges and dial telephones combinations were insufficient television. 16 April 1995 was were first introduced in London, to meet the needs of expanding nominated by Oftel as National service. Code Change day, Phoneday. it was decided that all figure The code change effectively numbers would be less 6 May 1990 saw the biggest gave every geographic number change to the London memorable than giving each an extra '1' after the '0'. Leeds, telephone numbering system exchange a 'name' with a three Bristol, Sheffield, Nottingham since the introduction of All letter code. So, from 1926 the and Leicester were given new Figure Numbering with the first three letters of the names codes and new numbers were code change from 01 to 071 for of telephone exchanges introduced to cater for future inner London and 081 for outer appeared in the phone book in growth. London. This was necessary heavy print as part of a because of the growth in Despite these changes on 22 telephone number, row HAR demand for numbers and the April 2000, new dialling codes 0119, fair 0541, born MAY HOL proliferation of 'number hungry' were introduced combined with 1832.
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