The telephone exchange 1945-1981 : the state, official architecture and technology

Kinch, Lisa and Brook, Richard and Csepely-Knorr, Luca and Archer, Anne and Cocroft, Wayne (2025) The telephone exchange 1945-1981 : the state, official architecture and technology. PhD thesis, Lancaster University.

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Abstract

This thesis presents the first comprehensive architectural history of British telephone exchange buildings. The building type is used as a lens to interrogate the complex, multi-facetted and changing relationships between the State, Official Architecture and Technology in England from the end of the Second World War in 1945 until the enactment of the British Telecommunications Act in 1981. Confronted with the approaching PSTN switch-off, which will render most telephone exchange buildings technologically redundant, this thesis provides the foundations of a more informed understanding of the wider contexts and values of the building type, and will help inform decisions regarding their futures The exploratory multi-method approach (Brewer & Hunter, 2006) developed in this PhD complements and juxtaposes traditional methods with visual components. It draws on the practical skills of an architect to provide a unique, original contribution and a more intimate understanding of the subject. The work undertaken contributes to a growing body of scholarship on post-war architecture and infrastructure across a range of academic fields, both within the UK and internationally. It reinforces the validity of interpreting a wide range of histories through infrastructure’s entanglements in social, political, and economic processes across space and time (Heathcott, 2022). This thesis contributes to previous explorations of ‘complex interactions between technologies and the social, economic, cultural, and political’ (Graham and Marvin, 2002:10) by also considering the architectural outcomes of such interactions. It illustrates how telephone exchange buildings embody changing political ideologies, global trade networks and national security concerns. Above all, it demonstrates how the power and influence of human relationships were necessary to sustain the development of this highly specialised, technological building type. By identifying the contributions of individuals previously obscured behind large organisations, a more nuanced history of Official Architecture in Britain is revealed.