Our first phone (circa 1950) was similar but only had numbers on the dial. Our number was 632. Making a call from a telephone box cost 2p - manually connected "Press button A caller" or button B if it didn't connect and you wanted your money back. I knew one of the telephonists well and if i had to use a call box she usually recognised my voice and said Press button B and connected me!
Later, 1960s, I used to phone my then girlfriend, now wife from the university Union call box. She worked in a town 40 miles away so it was a long distance call - 3 minutes for whatever it cost at the time. Again manually connected . The telephonists obviously took pity on us impoverished students or they had very slow running timers. The longest 3 minutes I recall was about 30 minutes! And before anyone says it, our chats were not that interesting!
