Retro British-style phone booths turning heads in Burin

A man in Burin is turning the area's lack of cell service into a boon for tourism by commissioning twooldfashioned phone booths for people to use when visiting the community.

Tom Hollett, who owns Jiffy Cabs in St. John's, lives in Burin and has been trying to develop tourism in the areafor the last five years.

Part of that is a campaign to transformthe olderpart of the communitywhere there is no cell receptioninto a fun place for people to visit.That's where the idea for the phone booths came in.

"You find a lot of people visiting from away rely on their cell phone, and all of a sudden they have no way to connect with their friends, and believe me that's culture shock to kids this day andage" he told CBC..

"So we looked at some examples on the internet and we came up with the old British-style phone booth. If you look closely you'll see we even have the old crown crest stenciled into it."

The stylizedphone booths, designed and built byIsaac McConnell and Kerry Wiscombe, were built in the fashion ofthe classicred telephone box,and then through cooperation with BellAliantwere made into functioning public pay phones.

Besides providing a valuable service to disconnected tourists, Hollett saysthe booths have also beenturning heads.

"It's been funny actually. Acar will drive up the road and drive past, then stop, then back up and then everyone will pile out and start taking pictures," helaughed.

"We're just trying to create another tourist destination for Newfoundland and Labrador, and I will. We've got Fogo, and L'Anse aux Meadows and Trinity and Bonavista well Burin is going to be right up there with them."