Number, please?

In the 100+ years of the telephone there’s been a number of changes to phone numbers and the way we dial them. These changes have enabled direct calling, increased capacity and also caused a lot of disgruntled businessmen to scrap and update their stationery.

Knowing the timeline of these changes can be a helpful tool in dating pieces of ephemera, advertising and old shop frontages/ghost signs.

We have outlined the key changes over the years and we will direct you to what we found to be the best sources to find the specifics for when each area/exchange code changed.

Alongside this, we’re taking a stroll through Metro-land, following the developents (and grumbles) of the changing telephone system in the village of Pinner. A medieval hamlet, Pinner, it gained a railway station (then the terminus of the Metropolitan Railway) in 1885 and its first housing estate in 1900, becoming part of Metro-land developments and seeing its population leap from 9,462 (1921) to 24,500 (1931). In 2021, it had a population of 38,698. Pinner is in the north-west London Borough of Harrow.

1879: The early years

The first telephone exchange opened in 1879 in the City of London, with only seven subscribers. Within the year, the first (London) phone book was published for its now 248 subscribers, but it didn’t include numbers. It was merely a list of subscribers by name, who the operator could connect the call to. By 1896 there were 81,000 subscribers across the country. Subscriber numbers could be from one to five digits, depending on the size of the exchange and the number of people subscribed to it.

1903: Pinner’s first telephone exchange was opened in 1903 in a small room in the High Street’s Post Office.

TELEPHONES. — The ring of trowel has woke the village from its long sleep of rurality, and the introduction of the telephones made verbal communication between this old-time village and the outside world possible. Now Pinner is “up” and the telephones are to be extended very widely, and, better than all, the telephones are to be laid underground, thus getting rid of those unsightly iron poles in the village itself. However much the poles may be painted and beautified, a pole always remains an ugly pole, and never can be made a thing of beauty or an improvement to the street.
Harrow Observer, 10 September 1909

1912: Automatic exchanges

Trials into automatic telephone exchanges and rotary dial telephones began in 1912, enabling a person to call someone else in their local area, without the intervention of the operator. By early 1918 there were 10 automatic exchanges across the country, each operating on a different system. The Strowger system, installed in Leeds in May 1918, became the standard and enabled a speedier rollout.

To facilitate direct dialling, all subscriber numbers had to be the same length – usually four digits, or five on a very large city-sized exchange, such as Leeds.

It would take some time for all exchanges to become automatic. London and the Midlands became fully automatic by the end of 1970, by which point almost 99% of subscribers were on an automatic service. It wasn’t until June 1975 when the last mainland manual exchange (in Abingdon) closed.

1927: Lettered exchanges

Alongside the rollout of auto exchanges, the exchanges in Britain’s six major cities were assigned three-letter names. These were automatic “director systems” to facilitate direct calling (without an operator) to different exchanges across the city. Each subscriber’s 4-digit number began with a 3-digit exchange code, which was an abbreviation of the place name, ideally (for ease of remembering) the first three letters. Telephones in these areas included letters on the dials. Many of the outer areas had less obvious, or 2-5 split codes, preventing code duplication by using up less usable combinations.

London from 1927
Manchester from 1930
Birmingham from 1931
Glasgow from 1937
Liverpool from 1941
Edinburgh from 1950

Early subscribers needed to have their short numbers changed to 4-digit numbers on this system.

NIGHT SERVICE AT PINNER TELEPHONE EXCHANGE.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE “OBSERVER.”
SIR,— I believe that the feeling prevails in this district that the night service at the Pinner Telephone Exchange is not as efficient as it might be. I had myself an unfortunate experience when between 4.50 a.m. and 5.15 a.m. on the morning of February 7, I endeavoured to ring the Pinner Exchange for the purpose of summoning the doctor urgently to attend my wife in what might have been a matter of life and death. As I could get no response from the Exchange, I went there myself in order to telephone to the doctor from there, and discovered that the operator was apparently asleep. By chance I heard that a call made early on the previous morning had not been answered by the Exchange, and I therefore decided to acquaint the District Superintendent of Traffic of the London Telephone Service with the facts. In reply I was told that the matter had been carefully enquired into and that it was regretted that my inability to obtain a reply was due to the failure of an alarm bell which is used at night in the Exchange. The alarm bell was tested daily and it was particularly unfortunate that the failure should have happened. Everything possible was being done to minimise the risk of a recurrence of such trouble. […]
My personal feeling in the matter is that as there is need for a night service in Pinner, the telephone operator should not be permitted to sleep, even though calls be few, and that he or she should be properly paid for the night work at the recognised rates for night service, so that the need for sleep while on duty may be avoided. The suspicion is left in the mind that the London Telephone Service is not paying its employees the wages to which their service entitles them. If this is the case I hope the obvious means of improving the service will be adopted.
I am, Sir, yours faithfully,
REGINALD BRIDGEMAN.
Waxwell Farm Cottage, Pinner.
March 10, 1928.
Harrow Observer, 16 March 1928

1932: The manual exchange in Marsh-road, Pinner was brought into service in 1932, with about 1,500 subscribers. Demand necessitated a second manual exchange by 1947, Field End, which was situated within the same building.

General Post Office
———
More Women needed for Telephone work.
Can YOU Help?
Many positions for Full and Part-time telephone operators are available.
No previous experience is necessary. Permanant (Pensionable) posts are available for young women with suitable qualifications.
Your local Labour Exchange or local Telephone Exchange Supervisor will tell you how; or apply to:–
Staff Controller, L.T.R., Waterloo Bridge House, Waterloo Road, S.E.1
This appeal does not refer to full-time service for a woman between the ages of 18 and 41 unless she has a child of her own under 14 living with her.
Harrow Observer, 23 August 1945

‘GHOST’ EXCHANGE
Phone Call Protests
Eastcote (Middlesex) Chamber of Commerce has asked traders to keep a log of all phone calls to be used in a complaint to the P M. G. concerning Pinner the local telephone exchange. Mr. W Frewin, the Chamber’s secretary said: “I have been told by operators that Pinner is being used for training learners, but the Area Telephone Officer has denied this in a letter to the Chamber. Some of our members have lost a good deal of business through phone delays. People are calling it the ‘ghost’ exchange.
Evening News (London), 18 October 1946

OPERATOR’S REPLY TO CRITICS
We have received the following letter from Mr. C. Backshall, of 21, Benskin-road, Watford:
Dear Sir, — On the 18th of this month I read in one of the evening papers an article bearing the somewhat curious title, “The Ghost Exchange.” This “effort” was sent in by the Eastcote Chamber of Commerce and was a reference to the alleged incompetence of the operators at Pinner Telephone Exchange. There have been many such articles during the last few months and as most of the operators concerned were women who don’t mind being criticised or who do not feel inclined to reply, I have taken it upon myself to do so.
I object to being called incompetent by people whose knowledge of telephones is limited to imagining that they have only to lift their receiver to be instantly connected to the required number, be it across the road or in the next county, and who seldom take the trouble to find out what happens when they make a call.
Visits invited
During the time I have been working at Pinner Exchange I have not seen a single visitor to the switchroom although permission is quite easy to obtain. I would suggest that the subscribers who made the complaint pay us a visit between 10 and 11.30 a.m. any week-day.
Their complaint is that there is a considerable delay in answering calls, and if during the time they spend in the switchroom any signal remains unanswered for an unreasonable time, I will spend my next year’s annual leave period working in their factory or business in any capacity for no remuneration of any kind.
The article I referred to complained that many wrong numbers were received, but my experience is that a big percentage of wrong numbers are passed as such by subscribers.
It is well known there is an urgent need for staff in most telephone exchanges so as a suggestion why do not some of these business men who have daughters old enough to be telephonists let them work at the local exchange for a time? Then they may share the joys of drinking tea all day and being rude to subscribers (or so we are often told).
I have nothing more to add except this: If you can find space to print this letter I feel sure you will earn the thanks of a large section of people who are doing a trying job under difficult conditions.
Harrow Observer, 24 October 1946

Pinner Exchange
The chairman reported that in response to many complaints about Pinner Telephone Exchange a delegation of the association had met the district telephone manager there and had gained the impression that whilst there was room for improvement, the exchange was being run as efficiently as circumstances permitted. They had been told that a new exchange was being erected for Harrow and that a new one was being planned for Pinner.
Several members complained that the chairman was being too complacent about the matter and said they trembled to think what would happen if they ever had to make an emergency call, particularly on a Sunday evening.
Other members, however, expressed satisfaction with the service provided and suggested that the grumblers might help by encouraging their own relatives to take up employment at the exchange, which was crying out for staff to take up this “most soul-destroying of all jobs.”
Harrow Observer, 24 October 1946

1958: Subscriber trunk dialling

First dial zero. The gradual rollout of direct national calling began in Bristol in December 1958. This ran alongside the conversion of manual to automatic exchanges.
The Big 6 got prefixes: 01 London; 021 Birmingham; 031 Edinburgh; 041 Glasgow; 051 Liverpool; 061 Manchester.
All other areas had a three digit code – zero and two letters, followed by a further digit to identify the exchange.
Only Bristol and Bodmin made the change before 1960. London starts to make the switch from summer 1961.

To check your area: A good source for checking when your area of interest changed over are the STD code books. A selection of them, from 1965 to 1984 can be found on Sam Hallas’ website here.

1961: In May 1961 the Pinner exchange made the switch to automatic. A year later, Field End also became automatic and trunk dialling was made available to subscribers on both exchanges.

1966: All-figure numbers now

Over a three-year period, all of the lettered exchange codes for the Big 6 were changed to numbers. For the majority of exchanges, this resulted in a different three-digit code.

In 1966 all new numbers were issued with the new exchange number. Existing lines transitioned over a three-year period, but subscribers were given the option of changing earlier if they wanted to. So if you were needing to replenish your stock of business cards, you could opt to have your number changed straight away, rather than having to change your stationery again a year or two later.

Outside of the Big 6, all the new letter/number combo STD codes were already unique for each exchange, so while the letters disappeared, the number effectively stayed the same.

1990: The new London codes

On 6th May 1990, London’s 01 code was replaced with 071 (inner London) and 081 (outer London). Unlike previous changes, taking place over a number of years, this was an overnight change for the whole of London (though old numbers remained operational for a time, routiing to a recorded reminder message.

1995: PhONEday

All dialling codes starting 0 were changed to start 01 on 16th April aka PhONEday. Five cities were given entirely different dialling codes to increase capacity.

2000: Big number change

With more capacity needed yet again, five mainland cities changed their dialling codes to begin 02.

In London, (020)3 was introduced from June 2005 and 020(4) from October 2020. These are used for both inner and outer London.

Sources:

Adverts: Scanned from a 1910 programme and multiple issues of The (Pinner) Villager magazine.

Newspaper articles: The British Newspaper Archive

All the facts!:

http://www.samhallas.co.uk/repository/ for copies of
Post Office Electrical Engineers’ Journal
Post Office Telecommunications Journal
and various sales and marketing documents from the Post Office and British Telecoms.

https://www.britishtelephones.com/histuk.htm for a very detailed history of telephones in the UK.