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Letter Boxes

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Letter Boxes title

 

Pillar boxes first appeared on the streets of the UK in 1852, when a trial took place in the Channel Islands. The trial was in response to public demand for improved posting facilities, due to an increase in mail following postal reform in 1840. Pillar boxes reduced the need to take mail to receiving houses. The boxes were so successful that they were continued on the mainland in 1853.

Today there are over 100,000 letter boxes in use in the UK. They fall into three main types, pillar, wall and lamp boxes.

Guernsey Pillar Box
 

First pillar boxes
Pillar boxes were first introduced to the UK
as a trial in St. Helier, Jersey in 1852. The
pillar box shown is from Union Street, St
Peter Port, and is the only surviving
example from the extension of trials to
Guernsey in 1853.

P5856

London Ornate pillar box

London Ornate pillar box
1857 - 1859
Introduced in 1857, this box was designed
in collaboration with the Government's
Department of Science and Arts to make
pillar boxes more attractive. Originally
introduced in London it was later sent to
other cities throughout the UK. Only 50
were ever made.

In this original design, the aperture was
missed off and so was later added to the
roof. This position meant rain water entered
the box and so a flap was added to prevent
this.

OB1994.26
 

Wall boxes


Wall boxes were introduced in 1857. They satisfied a need for smaller, cheaper letter boxes in rural areas, in addition to the larger pillar boxes used in towns. This new type of box was set into walls and was a quarter of the cost of the cheapest pillar box. The first wall boxes were small, but in 1871 a larger type was made for use in towns and cities. Wall boxes were known as types A (large), B (medium) and C (small).

Three new types, D, E and F, each with a door in the back, were introduced in 1932 for use at sub-post offices.

Manufacture of wall boxes stopped in 1980, though many surviving examples can still be seen today.

First Wall Box
 

First standard type wall box
1857 - 1859
This was the first type of wall box, introduced
in 1857. It was later modified in 1859 to have
a triangular top and hood, as rainwater was
entering the box through the aperture.

OB1994.51

Hoveton Wall Box

Wall box. Hoveton, Norfolk
1937

POST 118/699

Lamp boxes


Lamp boxes were first trialled in 1896, in response to demands by residents of fashionable London squares for more convenient posting facilities late at night. These small boxes, based on an American design, were originally attached to lamp posts. Their popularity meant they were introduced to the rest of the country a year later.

Throughout their history there have only been three main types of lamp box. The first had a rounded top. Near the end of the reign of George V, it was redesigned with a flatter top. A third design, with a completely flat top, was implemented in 1949 following complaints about the size of the aperture in the second type of lamp box.

Today they are more often seen in rural areas where less mail is posted, and are frequently attached to telegraph poles, built into walls or standing on their own pedestal.

Letters lamp box

Victorian lamp box
1896
This was the first type of lamp box to be introduced.
The word LETTERS above the aperture show that this
is an early model. Surviving examples like this are rare,
as soon after the wider introduction of lamp boxes the
wording changed to LETTERS ONLY.

OB1994.1

 

George V lamp box

 George VI lamp box
1937 - 1949
The lamp box was redesigned with a flatter top at the
end of the reign of George V, and this design was carried
on into the reign of George VI. Complaints were received
about the small size of the aperture and so the box was
redesigned again in 1940.

OB1994.12

Scottish lamp box

 Elizabeth II Scottish lamp box
1974 - 1976
Designed in 1940, this type of lamp box did not appear
until 1949 because of the Second World War. It is still in
use today. This version bears the Scottish crown instead
of the EIIR cipher. This is because complaints were made
that the monarch was only the first Queen Elizabeth of
Scotland. A small number have been erected by mistake
in England.

OB1994.17

 

Oral History

Below you can listen to many different types of people who have either worked at, or used the Post Office, and their thoughts on how it has affected them and those around them.

 

The Post Office in the Community

Post Office Counter Services

Delivering the mail

Changing Times

Further Reading

 

 

This exhibition can be seen in full at Blists Hill Victorian Town, Shropshire. Please click here to find out more.