5/17/2023 0 Comments Royal mail postbox![]() However, the design didn’t prove popular, and the District Surveyor for Liverpool commissioned his own, non-standard box, known today as ‘the Liverpool Special’. ![]() In 1859, the Post Office realised the wide variety of designs were expensive to produce so rolled out a new standardised design. From 1857, some post boxes were built into existing walls.Ī Queen Elizabeth II era post box on Ludgate Hill Today, you can see one of Redgrave’s designs – which were bronze – at the Victoria & Albert Museum. In 1856, Richard Redgrave (1804-1888) from the Department of Science and Art came up with an ornate pillar box design to be used in London and other cities. In 1853, the first roadside pillar box was established in the mainland United Kingdom in Carlisle. It wasn’t until 12 years later, the first roadside Post Office pillar box was erected in St Helier, Jersey as a trial. The same year, the Penny Black adhesive stamp was released. The Uniform Penny Post was introduced, meaning the sender pre-paid the postal costs, rather than the recipient. Prior to postal reform in 1840, mail was an expensive form of communication. ![]() Most free-standing post boxes feature a cap, which protects rainwater from entering the box and wetting the mail. While the majority are round or oval, there are also hexagonal, wall boxes and other unusual sizes. Walking around London today, a red post box is a frequent piece of street furniture. Despite his short time as head of state, there are 171 boxes with his cypher nationally, some of which are in London.Ĭiphers of British monarchs and their reignsĮR VIII – King Edward VIII : Jan-Dec 1936 The eldest son of King George V only reigned for 326 days, before he abdicated the throne to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson in 1936. By looking at the cypher, you can date the age of your nearest post box, although admittedly the ballpark for boxes erected during the reigns of Victoria and our previous monarch Elizabeth II are rather large! Of course, the shortest reign in recent memory is that of King Edward VIII. The roadside post box has existed since the reign of Queen Victoria, with every subsequent monarch’s cypher being immortalised on the front. When it comes to post boxes, there are two main factors which distinguish them from each other – their design and the royal cypher (or cipher). In 2002, the Royal Mail entered into agreements with Historic England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland respectively to retain and conserve all existing post boxes. ![]() Of the thousands of post boxes in the capital, some of them are listed. Edward VII era post box in Russell Square ![]()
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