Ice cream shop opens in telephone box

Jonathan Parsons' ice cream shop is in Tynemouth

A man has opened an ice cream shop in a telephone box by the seaside.

Jonathan Parsons opened the Telephone Box Cafe in Tynemouth, North Tyneside, on Saturday.

He said the box had become an "eyesore" and wondered if he would be able to get permission to convert it.

"You know, it needed some love," Mr Parsons said. "I never thought in a million years I would get planning permission."

He said the idea to put a cafe in a telephone box was not original.

"There are few in London," he said. "But none of us like to venture very much up there, because why would you when you've got Tynemouth?"

'Sleepless nights'

Mr Parsons said the planning permission process had been "intense".

"We had to do a 37-page study of the history of the area," he said.

That was the level of detail required to prove the shop would not negatively impact the area, he said.

He also said there had been many "sleepless nights" trying to figure out how to fit everything into the space.

Pointing at the ice cream machine in the box, he said: "This is the only commercial soft serve ice cream [machine] that would fit in this box."

Inside the cafe, there is an ice cream machine, a coffee machine, a water tank, a fridge and a sink.

"One of the red lines for the council was that we had to have a sink with running hot water," he said.

"And how do you that when you're in the middle of a pavement?"

The council recommended that he bought a mini-hand wash sink attached to a water tank which could be plugged in so it gave instant hot water.

"It's predominantly used for truckers on road trips," he said.

Mr Parson said the reaction from the public since the cafe's opening had been "absolutely incredible".

"I was worried that people might be offended that we've kind of ruined a bit of British history – but they haven't," he said.

"I haven't heard a single bad word about it."