T E L E P H O N E   E X C H A N G E
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R E C E P T I O N

Are you GPO TOo?

If you worked for any division of the GPO, then pop along to the GPO Traffic Office, have a chat and share some of those not so distant memories about your day to day routines...

Telephone Area Office

In the 1970s, all telecommunication services for a geographical area were the responsibility of the Telephone Area Office (TAO)...

Telecoms Engineering Centre

The Telecoms Engineering Centres, were originally home to the fleet of Telecom vehicles in the days before the 'at home parking' schemes.  TECs were also a stock centre for telephones, cables, telegraph poles and all sorts of engineering sundries.

Enter the Main Exchange where you can explore the history of the UK Telephone Service, the operators, the equipment, the engineers and the subscribers...

Payphones: The End of the Line?

A brief look at some of the telephone kiosks which were once a common sight on the streets...

If you worked for Standard Telephones & Cables you will be interested in this website which looks at the history of STC at New Southgate, London.

As BT's 21CN (21st Century Network) rolls out, check when your local exchange gets 'switched-on'.

Light Straw is compiled using resources in the public domain:

Books, press releases, newspapers, memories and historical contributions from telecommunications staff and organisations past and present... 

The Light Straw Archives lead to a wealth of information about telecoms in days gone by...

...as well as current organisations who are shaping tomorrow's history.

The Light Straw pages are compiled independently and are not endorsed by BT.

All logos and trade marks are the property of their respective owners and are used on the Light Straw site(s) for review only.
Students and researchers are recommended to make their own independent enquiries as to the accuracy of the information contained therein.

Please contact the Officer In Charge in the event of any difficulties.