Corporation of Brighton Telephone Department

This collection consists of phone books.

The Corporation of Brighton was granted a licence on 3 May 1901 to serve an area of 120 square miles along coast from Rottingdean to New Shoreham and north as far as Burgess Hill. Construction commenced in March 1903 and the service opened on 5 October 1903. It was decided not to charge for the service until 750 subscribers had been connected, a risky experiment which caused concern to the National Telephone Company (NTC). The system, therefore, only reached commercial stage in March 1904. In October 1905 disposal of the Corporation telephone system began to be talked of and in February 1906 the Postmaster General offered to purchase it for £41,200. This sum was later increased to £49,000 and accepted on 26 July 1906, with the transfer taking effect on 22 October 1906.

Available for research at BT Group Archives

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