Nice People Thread No. 14, all Nice and Proper

GDB2222

vivatifosi wrote: »

They do donate them, but you have to buy one if you want one for a particular area. Many libraries have/had a full set, but this is becoming less so given how easy it is to find the info on line. I think they are £10 each, which is bloomin expensive given how little info they now contain.

I'm quite surprised that the paper telephone directory still exists. It is out of date by the Time it is printed, and it goes downhill from there.

michaels

WE bin any that do arrive but I don't recall seeing any recently so either Mrs MichaelS is getting better trained (unlikely) or they have stopped doing them.

vivatifosi

GDB2222 wrote: »

I'm quite surprised that the paper telephone directory still exists. It is out of date by the Time it is printed, and it goes downhill from there.

You'd be surprised how many people can't/won't look things up online.

The really old ones seem to feature from time to time on Heir Hunters. It's probably a cheap way of tracking people who haven't moved.

zagubov

vivatifosi wrote: »

You'd be surprised how many people can't/won't look things up online.

The really old ones seem to feature from time to time on Heir Hunters. It's probably a cheap way of tracking people who haven't moved.

I remember my local library had all the directories for the UK. I seem to recall that there were different coloured ones for Hull and the Channel Isles as they never integrated their systems with BT.

There were two for Glasgow (North and south) and God knows how many for London.

ivyleaf

michaels wrote: »

WE bin any that do arrive but I don't recall seeing any recently so either Mrs MichaelS is getting better trained (unlikely) or they have stopped doing them.

We got one through the door quite recently. In early September, I think. I find them completely useless as my eyes get older, as the print's so tiny! And every year they are thinner and thinner.

Nikkster

ivyleaf wrote: »

We got one through the door quite recently. In early September, I think. I find them completely useless as my eyes get older, as the print's so tiny! And every year they are thinner and thinner.

I got one in the last couple of weeks. I wonder if it's part of the service obligation? Ort maybe the advertising still manages to cover the costs?

zagubov

I think the earliest ones just told you what to dial to hear a concert or a church service and so on (which is why when the radio started to broadcast these things it was known as the wireless). They had to sell telephones in pairs so that you'd have someone to talk to.

vivatifosi

zagubov wrote: »

I remember my local library had all the directories for the UK. I seem to recall that there were different coloured ones for Hull and the Channel Isles as they never integrated their systems with BT.

There were two for Glasgow (North and south) and God knows how many for London.

London had 4: A-D, E-K, L-R and S-Z.

If you have a lot of stuff to put in alphabetical order, that's a pretty quick and easy pre-sort that breaks whatever it is you are sorting down into more reasonably sized chunks. It works well with library books.

Generali

zagubov wrote: »

I remember my local library had all the directories for the UK. I seem to recall that there were different coloured ones for Hull and the Channel Isles as they never integrated their systems with BT.

There were two for Glasgow (North and south) and God knows how many for London.

'Ull had (and still has I believe) its own telephone company, Kingston Communications.

zagubov

Generali wrote: »

'Ull had (and still has I believe) its own telephone company, Kingston Communications.

When I came to London I met people who'd lived in Hull where they had cream phone booths (while the rest of us had red ones).

It was one of the last 6 telephone exchanges in the UK. Which included large ones like Glasgow. Most were eventually absorbed into the BT borg cube.