cards

the prostitute call card, along with jammed up coin slots and the smell of tramp's piss, are pretty much a constant for central london phone boxes.
i have been collecting the cards for close on 20 years now. i probably have tens of thousands of them. back then they were often just cards with printed text on, or a black and white drawing. over the years they have become more sophisticated: now they proclaim they are "genuine photos" (i am sure they are - just perhaps not the "lady" you will be visiting..)
they are pretty much unique to london.
there used to be, very crude, cards available in brighton, i once found a few in manchester. new york does not have them - but then that city has the magazine "screw" and "village voice" both of which carry copious (and very strong) adverts for this sort of stuff.
someone i know occasionally gets me some from tokyo - and very nice their versions of the cards are.

there have been at least two books based on the cards, and one exhibition based around them.

i am not as an avid collector of them as i used to be, which is a shame as it used to help keep me fit.
of course popping into phone boxes and collecting the cards is not without its problems. i have been stopped by the police and i have also been accosted by the carders themselves.

on a collecting note: i can't really call it a collection as i can't define the number of cards that have been published and the ones i am missing. but i do like to think i have gone some way towards preserving what is a unique urban artform.
at least that is what i tell myself.