Post your Post Boxes! (Photos and fun facts)

[chipbury]

Here’s a photo taken today of the Alresford station box - the adjacent sign is good.
A lovely station with a good second hand bookshop.

 

[WesternLancer]

Here’s a photo taken today of the Alresford station box - the adjacent sign is good.
A lovely station with a good second hand bookshop.

That's an unusual example of a box in use for the public but with a private organisation 'operating it' - tho I guess boxes inside places like hotels (if any still exist of course) would fit that description.
Interesting

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 24 Sep 2026 ==

Here's a long list of post boxes at UK railway stations, though you have to look at the photos to see if they're wall or pillar boxes.

Post boxes at UK railway stations

UK railway stations with post boxes in them

www.railwaycodes.org.uk

I know of one in North Lancashire that's not on the list, that I haven't got round to photographing yet. Will try to go there next week, weather permitting.

Thanks for linking that - quite a good listing I imagine.

 

[weepingwillowb]

Outside what used to be the post office in Cowan Bridge, North Lancashire, now the village stores and tea room. When I went inside I looked to see what was at the back of the box, but it was only a wooden board.

 

[madannie77]

On a back street in Carlisle.

 

[Sun Chariot]

Some super examples in recent posts; thanks all!

Alresford's "not Royal Mail's" wall-box is "British" quirky! For five years, I lived just 20-minutes drive from the Mid-Hants Railway and I often ventured into Alresford (the town centre and railway); but I hadn't seen this box. I'll pay a visit when next that way.

Carlisle's marvellous Victoria-era Ludlow wall box makes an interesting comparison to similar (but slightly different!) VR Ludlows on posts 44 and 83 (links below):

Post your Post Boxes! (Photos and fun facts)

By all means post a photo of your EVIII post box @SteveP29 :) Edward VII and Edward VIII are least common. I hope this thread will show that the sheer variety (online info suggests around 800 different ones!) Is interesting - and a bit of fun to find them!

www.railforums.co.uk

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

 

[8089]

I visited Hong Kong back in April. Main motivation was looking for some surviving examples of colonial post boxes. One of these I find most interesting is the George V pillar box. Instead of using the simple GR cypher found closer to home, it uses his standard cypher. Also the one surviving double aperture box with the Scottish Crown, and one of two VR boxes in preservation inside the mini-museum in Hong Kong's GPO.

 

[WesternLancer]

I visited Hong Kong back in April. Main motivation was looking for some surviving examples of colonial post boxes. One of these I find most interesting is the George V pillar box. Instead of using the simple GR cypher found closer to home, it uses his standard cypher. Also the one surviving double aperture box with the Scottish Crown, and one of two VR boxes in preservation inside the mini-museum in Hong Kong's GPO.

That’s a real highlight to see that selection! Many thanks indeed for sharing.
Fascinating.
I wonder what the story is about the George V cypher as pictured.

Were they always green in Hong Kong?

 

[Sun Chariot]

Superb selection @8089 and many thanks for sharing.

The George V Type A is fascinating: it bears the specific cypher variation for post boxes in British Overseas Colonies. This cypher's design may have influenced the cypher for George VI (attached blow-ups show why).
The box itself, is a casting from pre-1905 (when Edward VII boxes began using a new casting with a much larger door). My guess is that this box was either "new old stock", or was an old VR / early EVIIR box with a new cypher-casting.

The diminutive Elizabeth II wall-box, in the cement bollard: the relative sizes of the leaves, low paving-stones and the water hydrant cover, makes me think the bollard and box are very low to the ground - is that the case?

The Type C box with a Crown of St Andrew is, in all likelihood, a repurposed box from Scotland.

These are the first post boxes I've seen with Cantonese script collection-cards!

Winderful stuff!

 

[StoneRoad]

Fascinating !

{I found the Crich K1 phone box to go with the Carlton Coalville one recently. Just put some paint on it already ! images will appear in the near-ish future}

I have a couple of other targets for my camera ...

 

[weepingwillowb]

A posting box outside Kirkby Lonsdale Post Office, Cumbria/Westmorland. The post office is up for sale, £460,000, because of the retirement of the present owners.

View attachment 194196


View attachment 194197​

I re-photographed the box outside Kirkby Lonsdale post office, as I'd noticed that someone had made a bad job of removing the 'Priority Postbox' sticker. The post office itself is still up for sale.