suppose I should comment, been a Londoner for forty*cough* years , 10 minute drive from abbey road if the road is clear (to put in context)
there is a bit of your story that shows a cafe, run out of 2 boxes.. the person who has them keeps the stuff in the boxes themselves, *BUT* the local council is demanding he's serving the coffee inside the phone boxes, which .. well is impossible.. and they are fining him a lot everytime, they see him for conducting his business on the pavement.
the phone boxes are now also used for BT wifi hotspots , even home routers have a 2nd channel that is separate that BT customers can access. it's handy if my home connection goes down, so why I went with them.
if it's a loophole to get around how the advertising space is charged for, esp. west end , it also doesn't surprise me. A lot of the boards in prime locations now are animated / pixels instead of the old fashion rolls. They probably still have them ones on a roll / loop.
hence why many business's work out of storage units instead of a real shop, the rates for a shop are crazy vs a storage unit.. and well charity shops and a certain coffee chain avoid paying the true amount they should, so loads of them are around now.
many buildings I grew up with like studios and , including the church my folks were married in , that became a community centre now sell for millions as private homes, that people with deep pockets buy.
this is now what the church my folks got married in looks like .. I used to go there when it was a community centre / dance hall , I was friends with the steward's son who ran it.
http://www.hamhigh.co.uk/property/is-this-10m-property-the-most-expensive-house-in-kensal-green-1-4434953 Although a dutch friend, his music studio is a converted church.
so I will be priced out of london sooner or later , thanks to dodgy foreign money in part.