"Fanmail" at Oxford Circus

[ert47]

Was at Oxford Circus Underground station on the NB Bakerloo platforms and noticed a little letterbox at the end of the platform. I do not recall seeing anything similar at other stations.

I didnt get a close look at it, but it looks as if it isn't in regular use. I can only assume that it isn't for customers sending appreciative letters to their favourite LU staff!

Does anyone know what its about and whether its still in use?


Thanks

 

[transmanche]

Was at Oxford Circus Underground station on the NB Bakerloo platforms and noticed a little letterbox at the end of the platform. I do not recall seeing anything similar at other stations.

There used to be 'Staff Letters' boxes all over the Underground. Here's one at Walthamstow.


001 - Staff Letters At Walthamstow Central by Randomly London, on Flickr

I've always assumed they were for an 'LT Postman' to drop off letters and notices for that particular station.

 

[ssray]

Platform no 1 at euston, towards the tailwall, blocked off for years though

 

[tsr]

Believe it or not these were not actually for mail, but for magnetic letters to stick on the service update whiteboards. Sometimes a station would run out of specific letters - for example, if there was a suspension of services in the Harrow area, the letter "H" used to occasionally run out at somewhere like Baker Street. Other lines' stations could donate letters by sending one of the minions (known as the "board staff") to the needy station, with the magnetic letters in a small envelope. They would drop them off in the box and get the next train back - no lengthy chat with staff or cup of tea required. This also saved up to £24,000 each year on Digestive biscuits. The station supervisor would then locate the letters in the box and use them to inform passengers. One memorable incident at Chalfont & Latimer resulted in all the "&" characters being used across the subsurface lines, with an emergency supply drafted in from the BTP Emergency Alphabet Stockpile at Hayes & Harlington (including several tins of alphabet spaghetti, which was invented by Harry Beck after he was no longer permitted to draw the Tube map). However, with the advent of cheap drywipe pens in 1992, and the development of a technical standard for these, magnetic letters were made redundant - hence the boom of the child's fridge magnet as manufacturers desperately struggled to find a use for their factories.

Apologies.

 

[eastwestdivide]

tsr, your talent is wasted here.

By the way, was the spaghetti in the standard underground typeface?
I did hear that when the alphabet spaghetti got past its expiry date, they were planning to heat it up and put it on toast for tired commuters, but the safety people said that would probably spell disaster.

 

[tsr]

tsr, your talent is wasted here.

Ah, you are too kind... it seems the thread has been hijacked as an output for my over-caffeinated mind on a slightly boring day

By the way, was the spaghetti in the standard underground typeface?

No. In a bid to further dishearten poor old Harry, it was set in Transport. Irritatingly similar in development to Rail Alphabet, which would have been acceptable, but not quite as elegant... I dread to think what happened when someone spilt the beans to him...

I did hear that when the alphabet spaghetti got past its expiry date, they were planning to heat it up and put it on toast for tired commuters, but the safety people said that would probably spell disaster.

Write you are ...it was instead sent to an underground radiation shelter at Boscombe Down, which now has a full collection of service updates on the second backup ventilation shaft wall (although some letters have fallen off due to neglect, so you occasionally find that the Telephone Room is "Part upended").

 

[eastwestdivide]

Hang on a moment, if there was a shortage of English letters, why not use the machine in the Gents' toilets which always has a good supply of French ones?