Post your Post Boxes! (Photos and fun facts)

[WesternLancer]

Here's one in Chichester's gloom today. Its solar panel cap is fitted the opposite way round to the example in post 101.

I'll try the one in Emsworth on a better day.

Thanks. That’s interesting to see.

Mind you I hope the Victorian era ones near me don’t get that treatment.

 

[High Dyke]

I've seen numerous boxes painted Gold, after the 2012 Olympics. This was the first time I've seen a K-type though. Found in Bedworth.

Images: Gold painted K-type post box and attached label stating who it commemorates; in this case, the Equestrian athlete Nick Skelton.

 

[Sun Chariot]

Gteat work @High Dyke and dare I say the gold finish suits the Type K better than red.

 

[High Dyke]

Gteat work @High Dyke and dare I say the gold finish suits the Type K better than red.

I would agree, though close up the Gold does look a bit patchy.

I do keep meaning to grab a picture of the German post box we have in Lincolnshire, to mark the twin town link. I thought I’d got one in all of our pictures, but can't find it.

 

[weepingwillowb]

Hebden Bridge post office yesterday.



In Morrison's supermarket, Morecambe, today. It's about 6 feet high, possibly the tallest post box I've ever seen.

 

[Sun Chariot]

Hebden's and Liverpool's post office setup looks almost like WW2 pill-boxes!
Thanks for sharing @Bevan Price and @weepingwillowb


One of Emsworth's Type A boxes has also received a parcels drop-off facility plus solar panel. These boxes appreared pre-conversion on post 91 (linked); compare their aperture sizes.

Post your Post Boxes! (Photos and fun facts)

That "carpenters box" is a gem @High Dyke ; I like the boxes which lurk within windows of Sub Post Offices and ex-SPOs. EIght "Eighths", well done! My "within one hour's drive" scope has two EVIII examples: Winchester (post 1) and Burpham. Advent antics... Toppers: for me, they are Marmite -...

www.railforums.co.uk

The parcels drop-off facility and solar panel are being fitted to the smaller-diameter Type B pillar boxes also. Two local Type B boxes have received their fittings this week.
Here's the box previously seen doorless on post 161 (linked).

Post your Post Boxes! (Photos and fun facts)

A couple of recent finds, both EIIR. Type K, with festive topper. Wainfleet, Lincolnshire. (The building behind used to be the post office. It had a stamp machine set into the window). Newark, Nottinghamshire. Complete with 'out of use' stamp machine. (1) (2)

www.railforums.co.uk

 

[weepingwillowb]

Platform 2, Skipton railway station.

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[WesternLancer]

Platform 2, Skipton railway station.

View attachment 199487

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View attachment 199488

Excellent - we could do with more railway related post box pics in this thread now I think about it - so great work here!

Maybe we need to aim for a pic of every station letter box where there is a letter box within the station curtilage (sub thread being ones actually built in or attached to railway walls / structures etc)

 

[Sun Chariot]

Maybe we need to aim for a pic of every station letter box where there is a letter box within the station curtilage (sub thread being ones actually built in or attached to railway walls / structures etc)

MCR Warrior alluded to a prior thread; but I've yet to find it.

Post your Post Boxes! (Photos and fun facts)

A non-railway topic - but with a trait that resonates with railway lovers: "Gotta get them all" e.g. numbers, track routes, haulage. I've set myself a whimsical task, to find as many variations of free-standing (pillar) and wall post boxes within a radius "one hour's drive from home". A wall...

www.railforums.co.uk

 

[pdeaves]

Excellent - we could do with more railway related post box pics in this thread now I think about it - so great work here!

Maybe we need to aim for a pic of every station letter box where there is a letter box within the station curtilage (sub thread being ones actually built in or attached to railway walls / structures etc)

http://www.railwaycodes.org.uk/stations/post.shtm might be of interest in that context. It's not exactly the same criteria but there is a lot of overlap.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

MCR Warrior alluded to a prior thread; but I've yet to find it.

This was the one...

Stations with post boxes on station property.

Lewes has a post box inside the station. It is on the footbridge after you go through the gateline. So every day the postman has to be let through the gateline to empty it. It is an interesting place for a post box but it has been there for decades. This has me wondering which other stations...

www.railforums.co.uk

 

[Sun Chariot]

This was the one...

Stations with post boxes on station property.

Lewes has a post box inside the station. It is on the footbridge after you go through the gateline. So every day the postman has to be let through the gateline to empty it. It is an interesting place for a post box but it has been there for decades. This has me wondering which other stations...

www.railforums.co.uk

Fab - thanks for finding and sharing.

 

[weepingwillowb]

There are "Staff Letters" post boxes at some Underground stations.

'Staff Letters' Postboxes

London Underground 'Staff Letters' boxes.

www.theunfinishedcity.co.uk

 

[Sun Chariot]

Across The Hard road from Portsmouth Harbour station, is this Edward VII pillar box bearing the Imperial State Crown, dating it between 1901 and 1904.
The last tine I saw one of these locally(ish) was in Southsea (a photo is on post 3).
EVII boxes dated 1905-1910 bear the Tudor Crown and taller door. They seem more common.

Fun fact...
Pillar boxes are built with low centre of gravity, to withstand damage from being knocked into (accidentally - or not...).
A pillar box's base is sunk into the ground; if you want to see how deep the base is, I've attached an example - courtesy of Three Points of the Compass website.

However, there is no standard depth and, if you compare the amount of "black base" visible on this EVII box, with post 3's VR Type B box and EIIR Nigerian Type B box, you'll see how much the depth varies!
It's likely determined by a) whether utilities pipe / cable runs under that location, or b) rigidity of surrounding subsurface.
Next time you pass a pillar box, is it "poking out", or "tucked away"?!


I don't know if @WesternLancer has yet seen a parcel-drop modified pillar box. Wednesday last week I spotted a newly-converted Type B pillar box already defaced with graffiti by East Hampshire's ferals. Is that a record?

 

[High Dyke]

As previously alluded to, a couple of 'other' post boxes.

1. German post box (Yellow). Grantham. The small plaque commemorates the twin town of Sankt Augustin, Germany.
2. Amsterdam Centraal station.

(1) (2)

Images: Post boxes

 

[WesternLancer]

I don't know if @WesternLancer has yet seen a parcel-drop modified pillar box. Wednesday last week I spotted a newly-converted Type B pillar box already defaced with graffiti by East Hampshire's ferals. Is that a record?

The one under conversion that I see on my travels is still wrapped in plastic several weeks from when I first saw it being converted. Process does not seem rapid. So I’ve not seen one completed yet.

 

[Sun Chariot]

Fun fact...
Which railway stations have post boxes installed on platform areas, or within the station buildings? It's far more than I had thought!
Post 190's link to Railway Codes website is a comprehensive list of known examples; as well as the post boxes outside, or in close proximity to, the station building.

As previously alluded to, a couple of 'other' post boxes.

1. German post box (Yellow). Grantham. The small plaque commemorates the twin town of Sankt Augustin, Germany.
2. Amsterdam Centraal station

Marvellous boxes, @High Dyke - many thanks for sharing.

 

[chipbury]

This is a brand new box fitted in Limpley Stoke. It’s very thin steel and looks like it won’t challenge any original boxes for longevity!

 

[Sun Chariot]

Thanks for sharing @chipbury . I suspect that lamp box is a repurposed one, from a different location. Brand-new boxes have carried CiiiR cypher since July 2024.
You are right about its design - it's a more recent style, than the other EiiR lamp boxes in this thead.


Post 186 has two examples of Royal Mail's in-progress pillar box conversion programme, to provide facilities for sending parcels without need to do so at a Post Office.
A great idea, where a pillar box is located relatively far from the nearest Post Office. Except...
Yesterday, whilst at my local Post Office - which has three PO counters, all with parcel drop-off facility - I noticed its Type B pillar box currently door-less (akin to the box shown on Post 161). So it will soon receive its parcel drop-off facility.
This pillar box is situated all of, oh, six metres from the Post Office's entrance door. Am I missing something...

 

[WesternLancer]

Post 186 has two examples of Royal Mail's in-progress pillar box conversion programme, to provide facilities for sending parcels without need to do so at a Post Office.
A great idea, where a pillar box is located relatively far from the nearest Post Office. Except...
Yesterday, whilst at my local Post Office - which has three PO counters, all with parcel drop-off facility - I noticed its Type B pillar box currently door-less (akin to the box shown on Post 161). So it will soon receive its parcel drop-off facility.
This pillar box is situated all of, oh, six metres from the Post Office's entrance door. Am I missing something...

well, dropping off parcels when the post office is actually closed I suppose - eg at night / on a sunday ready for a Monday morning connection (or maybe even on a weds afternoon as I think some post offices I see still observe an early closing day - which I tend to think is rather admirable even though probably many people can't imagine why any retailer would do that...)

 

[weepingwillowb]

On the village pub wall, Thornton-in-Lonsdale, near Ingleton, North Yorkshire, yesterday.

Been heavily re-painted, but I could just about make out at the base

BERNARD R. WALKER
EAGLE FOUNDRY BIRMINGHAM​

I've looked at similar Victorian examples online, but didn't see any that also had the small plate with two screws in the bottom left-hand corner. What was the purpose of it? And I wonder which came first - the box or the stone below it, which would be ideal for a weary postman to rest his bag on while he enjoyed a glass of ale from the pub.

 

[Sun Chariot]

What a fabulously time-worn Victorian-era wall box @weepingwillowb
That small plate, bottom left, looks very much like it's a "next collection" square plate, so it possibly was the most practical place to fit it.
My guess is, it was as a retro-fit and done when the door had that rough-cutout for the collection-times card; a very similar "vandalism" is visible on a VR wall box in post 63 (link)

Post your Post Boxes! (Photos and fun facts)

Similarly, there are post boxes to be found in Malta that still have a British monarch's details. On the boxes in Republic Street in Valletta they've been chiseled off, but in several other places no-one has been bothered about that and they remain as they were before the country became...

www.railforums.co.uk

 

[weepingwillowb]

Saw this one in Preston bus station today. I assume fibreglass boxes are cheaper to make than the traditional ones, so that gives the Post Office the option to put them in places they haven't normally been in before.



== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 23 Mar 2026 ==

I've been meaning to photograph this box in Kendal for a while, but today was the first day i remembered to take my camera with me.

What was the purpose of the arm on top - were there originally two arms? I can remember seeing these back in the 1960s, but if I knew what they were for I've since forgotten.

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[WesternLancer]

Saw this one in Preston bus station today. I assume fibreglass boxes are cheaper to make than the traditional ones, so that gives the Post Office the option to put them in places they haven't normally been in before.

View attachment 200837

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 23 Mar 2026 ==

I've been meaning to photograph this box in Kendal for a while, but today was the first day i remembered to take my camera with me.

What was the purpose of the arm on top - were there originally two arms? I can remember seeing these back in the 1960s, but if I knew what they were for I've since forgotten.

View attachment 200985

View attachment 200986​

They had oval enamel sign on them pointing the way towards a nearby post office I believe.

Seen this in old photos and sometimes such signs still exist. Often damaged.

 

[Sun Chariot]

They had oval enamel sign on them pointing the way towards a nearby post office I believe.

Spot-on W.L.
@weepingwillowb here are some examples in this link.

PODS

 

[weepingwillowb]

Spot-on W.L.
@weepingwillowb here are some examples in this link.

PODS

Thanks! Don't think I've ever seen a sign before.

 

[WesternLancer]

Spot-on W.L.
@weepingwillowb here are some examples in this link.

PODS

Great link - I wonder if there are many (any?) at all left in situ anywhere - apart from museum examples - pictures i have seen tend to have the enamel plate bent over and vandalised etc

 

[weepingwillowb]

I came across this article while doing some research (not about post boxes!) in Lancaster library today.

......A PILLAR POST IN A TREE.— The "Sunday Magazine" for November contains a photograph of a pillar post in a tree, which will be of special interest to the people of Dolphinholme. The description of the picture says:— "The accompanying photograph awakens reminiscences of bygone days. It represents a receptacle for letters which was used for many years by the inhabitants of Dolphinholme, near Lancaster, before the universal introduction of pillar letter boxes in country districts. It is no more than a hole, fifteen inches long, three inches wide, and a foot deep, bored into a fine spruce tree about a yard from the ground. It is still quite sound, and bears marks left by the tools used in its formation. It ceased to be used about 15 years ago, and through disuse the bark is filling up the aperture, so that now it is only wide enough to admit the fingers, a fact of which advantage has been taken by a pair of redstart which have nested there for several years." The photo is by Mr. W. E. Poole, son of the Vicar of Stalmine.
[The Lancaster Guardian, Saturday 2nd November 1901]

 

[Sun Chariot]

What a wonderful backstory @weepingwillowb

 

[weepingwillowb]

I wonder when "the universal introduction of pillar letter boxes in country districts" was completed, and what other receptacles had been used as post boxes in rural areas.