Epsom - the first automatic telephone exchange

When the telephone was first introduced, it was promoted by private telephone companies. One of these, the National Telephone Company, opened an exchange with 100 lines at a house at number 1, Hook Road, in 1893. In 1905, the Post Office opened a second competitive 100 line exchange at number 24 Station Road (now the Upper High Street). So, until 1912, the Post Office took over the private companies, there were two telephone exchanges in Epsom, known as EP/PO and EP/Nat.

In 1912, the Post Office decided to install the first automatic telephone exchange in the UK in Epsom. Epsom was selected because they wanted to find out how the equipment performed at peak traffic times, and Epsom had some very pronounced peaks around Derby Day.

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The equipment for the new exchange was second-hand, having been used first in Chicago USA. It used the Keith line-switch system. It was opened on 18th May, 1912. Subscribers were offered improved handsets, which also came from America. One of these handsets, together with the instructions for operating the telephone, is now on permanent exhibition in the BT Telephone Museum in Queen Victoria Street, London (near Blackfriars Bridge.

The Times for 17 May 1912 reported "Practically everything is in readiness at Epsom for the automatic telephone experiment, and at 3 o'clock tomorrow afternoon, the new system will come into operation. This is the first experiment of its kind in Great Britain, and the Post Office authorities are confident that it will prove as great a success in this country as it has done in America, Canada, and other countries.

Each of the subscribers in Epsom will be able to ring up another Epsom subscriber direct without having to give the number required to the local exchange. To each subscriber's telephone is affixed a calling dial with two discs, one about an inch above the other. The lower, fixed one, bears figures, and the upper one, which is moveable, has holes. A finger inserted in one of these holes will be over a figure on the lower disc, and the finger has to be inserted in the hole corresponding to the digit to be signalled. The movable disc then has to be turned round as far as possible for each digit to be signalled, the subscriber having to allow the disc to come to rest before signalling a fresh digit"

To obtain other numbers, one dialled 15 for the City, 17 for the Thames Valley, 16 for South London, or 0 for trunks, and in each case give the calling number and number required to the operator, who then made the connection. "Under the automatic system, the services of a large number of the girl operators are dispensed with, but it remains to be proved whether the cost of maintenance under the new system will be higher than under the old one"

However, Epsom did not stay automatic - in 1932, a new manual exchange was opened in the present building on East Street, as a result of a policy directive that automatic exchanges should be confined to the 10 mile radius round London. The manual exchange continued until the conversion to Subscriber Trunk Dialling on 6th October 1965. At that date, there were 5,750 telephone subscribers in Epsom, compared to 55 on the EP/Nat exchange and 63 on the EP/PO exchange in 1904/5. Some of the old automatic equipment was subsequently reused to extend the Portsmouth exchange.