Our Great British post boxes aren’t just convenient public utilities, they’re historic pieces of the landscape that deserve to be celebrated, writes James Thellusson

“In all created nature there is not … anything so completely ugly as a pillar-box … [yet] there it stands … disguising one of the most beautiful ideas under one of the most preposterous of forms.”
GK Chesterton

A prolific letter writer, GK Chesterton may have hated the aesthetics of post boxes, but he loved the exchange of ideas, affections, and opinions they facilitated. Architecture critic and author of Pillar Boxes Jonathan Glancey says they’re a “glorious piece of public design”. But they can also be politically significant. The IRA have used them to plant bombs in. And when the Royal Mail placed the first post box bearing the Royal cipher of the newly crowned Elizabeth II (EIIR) in Edinburgh, nationalists challenged its legitimacy on the grounds that the Queen was Scotland’s first monarch named Elizabeth, not its second. Protest anthems were sung and the box was blown up. Since then, Scottish post boxes don’t carry regnal letters and use the Scottish crown instead of the English one.

Post boxes are more than a utility. They have symbolic value and can arouse violent passions. In this age of click-and-collect however, we never give them a second thought. Or a second glance. But we should pay more attention. There are around 115,000 working post boxes in the UK, with about 800 variations in shape, colour, material, and history. That’s more varieties than species of British birds. By statute there should be a working post box within half a mile of 98% of us. That means there’s one within a fitness-building 1,000 steps of your front door. Flâneurs should add post boxes to their promenades. With so many interesting ones nearby, why drive to a National Trust site for your dose of heritage?

Ironically, post boxes were designed to stop people having to walk. Before they were introduced in 1853, you had to deposit your letter at a Receiving Office (which, if you were lucky, might have been your local pub) or wait for a Bellman – a fellow in a uniform who rang a bell to attract attention and collected letters from the public. But by the mid 19th century this system was creaking. Bellmen weren’t always honest and the boom in personal and business correspondence forced the General Post Office to rethink how to meet demand.

They sent Anthony Trollope, then a GPO employee, on a tour of the Continent to see how things might be done better – France had introduced post boxes as far back as 1829. When Trollope returned he recommended they be introduced here, and the first British post boxes were trialled in Jersey in November 1852. This was followed by a roll-out nationwide in 1853, with Carlisle getting the first post box on the mainland. The next 50 years saw a boom in the installation of post boxes driven by urbanisation, increasing literacy and the desire to communicate over long distances. Self-adhesive stamps and the Penny Black helped Britain move from a “pay to receive” to a “pay to post” system.

Each post box can tell you something about its history – you just need to know what to look for. Luckily, the Letter Box Study Group, which maintains the only comprehensive database of post boxes in the UK, has recently produced a Beginners’ Guide to Letter Boxes. The Idler was given a preview. Take note…

There are three main types of post box. Pillar boxes, as Chesterton called them, are those red chunks of cast iron you’ll find on most streets. Sometimes double fronted, they’re the drayhorses of the British postal system.

The second – wall boxes – are found in building walls, often outside post offices. A few are painted black, making them rare as a hawfinch. If you find one of those it’s a red-letter day.

The third variant is the lamp or pedestal box. This is mounted on a lamp post or telegraph pole and is the smallest type of post box. It’s now the most common and has four designs. My favourite is the Hovis, which has a rounded top like a loaf of bread.

Shape-wise, pillar boxes are often cylindrical – although rectangular, oval, or even hexagonal variants exist. Most are cast iron because this material has proved the most durable. But sheet steel (preferred for new boxes), wood and plastic boxes also exist. The delightful and rare Ludlow, however, has an enamel fascia.

You should never look a gift horse in the mouth, but a letter-box expert will always inspect its aperture. A sizeable mouth indicates a newer box because mouths have got bigger to cope with larger packages. If the mouth is vertical, the box is probably a rare pre-1880 edition, after which vertical mouths were discontinued because they let in more rain than horizontal ones. Verticals can still be admired in Warwick, Banbury, and Eton.

Another clue to your post box’s pedigree is the black stripe around its base. Here you’ll find the name of the firm that made it or the architect who designed it. The roof of the post box is also worth noting. The rare hexagonal Penfold design has a delightful bud on top.

As with bird watching, colour is important. In 1853, all boxes were painted green (in Ireland they still are). Red became the standard colour from 1874 but in Guernsey boxes are blue. The Royal Mail also uses different coloured boxes to celebrate various events. For example, black boxes celebrate Black History Month. Gold ones, like the Ben Ainslie box in Restronguet, Cornwall, celebrate the success of British Olympians and Paralympians. Five pink ones in cities across the UK mark the launch of the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

Fans of Royalty should pay attention to the insignia on post boxes. Apart from Scottish boxes, each carries the Royal cipher of the monarch at the time they were introduced. For example, VR for Victoria Regina. The rarest Royal cipher is Edward VIII’s. Only 150 post boxes bear the abdicator’s mark because his reign was so short. Cockfosters, Coulsdon and Catford are all good places to find them. King Charles has no post boxes yet because the Royal Mail is still thriftily working through the stock left over from his mother’s reign. Nevertheless, one can imagine the excitement when the location for Charles’s first box is announced.

Post boxes play an unacknowledged role in our culture. Think of the films Looking for Eric, about a postman from Manchester, or the recent Wicked Little Letters. Or Postman Pat. Elvis sang “Return to Sender” of course. And while they’re seldom the focus of a play or novel, they often have important roles in them: whenever a letter is written, a post box is there, ready to do its duty to drive the plot forward. As the poet Aidan Andrew Dun says, post boxes are a “halfway house in the affairs of human beings”.

Post box lovers know how to let their hair down, too – like the 80,000 members of the Post Box Toppers Facebook group. These funsters (also known as yarn bombers) knit or crochet bonnets, which they drape over their local boxes to celebrate something, for example NHS staff during lockdown.

Post boxes also feature on stamps, and people collect miniature versions of them. At Christmastime some boxes sing carols and deliver children’s dearest wishes to Santa Claus at the world’s most exclusive address – Santa’s Grotto, Reindeerland, XM4 5HQ. What other public utility is so vital to such an important a cultural myth?

Their importance also means there’s a market for vintage letter boxes. A double-cast Elizabeth II box might be worth over £11,000. Sadly, this leads to thievery. “Older lamp boxes are prone to being stolen and wall boxes can be vulnerable too,” says the Letter Box Study Group. “Please don’t help thieves by posting a location or grid reference of an old lamp box on the web or social media,” they add.

The red phone box has died off almost as quickly as the Dutch elm tree. The future of the post box is more secure. There are laws to keep them in place. But I can’t help feeling their fate is dependent on us. It could be a case of “use them or lose them”.

David Cameron once urged us to hug a hoodie. I think it’s time to hug your post box. Pick up your pen and write. Join the Letter Box Study Group. If you don’t help preserve these icons of the streetscape, how will your child’s Christmas wish list ever get to Santa?

This article appears in Idler #99.

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