Mail may also be deposited in lamp boxes or wall boxes that serve the same purpose as pillar boxes but are attached to a post or set into a wall. According to the Letter Box Study Group, there are more than 150 recognised designs and varieties of pillar boxes and wall boxes, not all of which have known surviving examples. Like the red telephone box, the red post box is regarded as a British cultural icon. As of 2002[update], Royal Mail estimates there are over 115,000 post boxes in the United Kingdom.[1]
Construction
Cast iron cap of a PB42/1 sits atop the box and is secured by boltsThis rare Edward VIII pillar box door shows the built-in posting aperture, collection plate and the royal cypher at Colne Valley Postal History Museum, Halstead, Essex
Most traditional British pillar boxes produced after 1905 are made of cast iron and are cylindrical. Other shapes have been used: the hexagonal Penfolds, rectangular boxes that have not proved to be popular, and an oval shape that is used mainly for the large "double aperture" boxes most often seen in large cities like London[2] and Dublin.[3] In recent years boxes manufactured in glass-fibre or acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) plastic have been produced that do not follow these general outlines. These are for use in secure indoor locations such as supermarkets.[4]
Cast iron pillar box construction comprises three distinct main parts:
The cap sits on top of the carcass and is usually bolted down from inside. Some designs after 1965 do not have a separate cap. Caps can also be fitted with a separate bracket, normally of cast iron, which supports a Post Office Direction sign (POD) indicating the nearest Post Office.
The door contains the aperture or posting slot. It is hinged, should display the royal cypher of the monarch who was reigning at the time of installation, and may also be fitted with a collection plate showing the times of collection from that location. It is fitted with a brass security lock on the inside. The contractor for these locks has been the Chubb Locks company for many years. They are five-lever locks and each one can exhibit more than 6,500 combinations. There is no skeleton key for these locks. Each post box has its own set of keys and postal workers have to carry large bunches with them when clearing the boxes.
The carcass or body of the box supports the door and cap, and may protrude substantially down below ground level. This provides security and stability to the pillar box. There is a wirework cage inside to prevent mail falling out when the door is opened, a hinged letter chute to allow mail to fall into the collecting bag or sack, and a serrated hand-guard to prevent unauthorised tampering with the mail through the aperture.
Before the introduction of pillar boxes, in the UK, it was customary to take outgoing mail to the nearest letter-receiving house or post office. Such houses were usually coaching inns or turnpike houses where the Royal Mail coach would stop to pick up and set down mails and passengers. People took their letters, in person, to the receiver, or postmaster, purchased a stamp (after 1840) and handed over the letter.
Channel Islands problem
This VR box in Guernsey is the oldest box in use in the British Isles
The advent of the British wayside letter box can be traced to Sir Rowland Hill, Secretary of the Post Office, and his Surveyor for the Western District, and noted novelist, Anthony Trollope. Hill sent Trollope to the Channel Islands to ascertain what could be done about the problem of collecting the mail on a pair of islands. The problems identified in the Channel Islands were caused by the irregular sailing times of the Royal Mail packet boats serving the islands due to weather and tides.
Trollope subsequently arrived in Jersey in the early Spring of 1852 and proceeded to survey both islands. His recommendation back to Hill was to employ a device he may have seen in use in Paris: a "letter-receiving pillar". It was to be made of cast iron, about 1.5 metres high, octagonal in design and painted olive green. Trollope estimated that four would be needed for Guernsey and five for Jersey. The foundry of Vaudin & Son in Jersey was commissioned to produce them and the first four were erected in David Place, New Street, Cheapside and St Clement's Road in Saint Helier and brought into public use on 23 November 1852. Guernsey received its first three pillar boxes on 8 February 1853.
They were an instant success, despite some obvious problems with rainwater ingress. One Vaudin box still stands in Union Street, Saint Peter Port, Guernsey whilst another is in the British Postal Museum & Archive collection in London.[5]
The very first boxes erected in Great Britain and Ireland are not recorded, but the designs varied from area to area, as each district surveyor issued their own specifications and tendered to their own chosen foundries. The earliest ones were essentially experimental, including octagonal pillars or fluted columns, vertical slits instead of horizontal ones, and other unusual features.
The Post Office archives record that the first box in mainland Britain was erected in Botchergate, Carlisle, in 1853. This fact is commemorated today with a replica Penfold box, located outside the Old Town Hall in Carlisle city centre. The first six in London were installed on 11 April 1855. The earliest surviving British designs are four Butt boxes made in Gloucester for the Western Area. These are at Barnes Cross, near Sherborne, Dorset, inside the former Royal Naval Hospital, Stonehouse, Plymouth, in the Haverfordwest town museum (formerly at Merlin's Bridge) and in the British Postal Museum & Archive store at Debden (formerly at Ventnor railway station, Isle of Wight). All date from 1853 to 1859, with Barnes Cross being one of the later batch. The oldest pillar boxes still in use by the Royal Mail are at Framlingham in Suffolk; this pair were founded by Andrew Handyside and Company of Derby in 1856 and are at Double Street and College Road. A third octagonal pillar of this type was at Gosberton in Lincolnshire and is now in the Museum of Lincolnshire Life in Lincoln. 1856 also saw various designs introduced in Scotland and the Midlands. The postbox believed to be the oldest in Scotland, is a wall box which sits on the front of the Golspie Inn (formerly the Sutherland Arms Hotel); it carries the royal cypher of Queen Victoria and dates back to 1861.
Design problems
The first design for London, by Grissel & Son of Hoxton Ironworks was rather stubby and rectangular, although surmounted by a decorative ball. Erected in 1855, they were replaced because people complained that they were ugly. One survived and was earmarked for preservation in the early part of the 20th century. It was stored in a contractor's yard in London which was subject to a direct hit from a German bomb during the Blitz, thus destroying forever some important boxes. A photograph of this Grissel box together with a Giant Fluted box and a Penfold in the contractor's yard appeared in The Letter Box by Jean Young Farrugia.[6]
Moving towards a standard design
Standardisation of sorts came in 1857 with the deliberations of the Committee for Science & Art of the House of Lords. The committee designed a very ornate box festooned with Grecian-style decoration but, in a major oversight, devoid of any posting aperture, which meant they were hewn out of the cast iron locally, destroying the aesthetic of the box. Fifty were made for London and the big cities and three survive. One is in Salford Museum, Greater Manchester and the other two are at the BPMA in London. A similar, much-simplified version has survived painted green by An Post at the Cork Kent railway station, Ireland. Also to be found only in Ireland is one of the early boxes, now at the An Post exhibit on the history of the Irish postal service in the General Post Office, O'Connell Street, Dublin. It is the sole surviving "Ashworth" box of 1855 for the Northern District, that included all of the island of Ireland.
Prior to 1859 there was no standard colour, although there is evidence that the lettering and royal cypher were sometimes picked out in gold. In 1859, a bronze green colour became standard until 1874. Initially, it was thought that the green colour would be unobtrusive. Too unobtrusive, as it turned out– people kept walking into them. Red became the standard colour in 1874, although ten more years elapsed before every box in the UK had been repainted.
First National Standard boxes
First National Standard (small size), formerly at Sandown Rd, Liverpool
The first real standard design came in 1859 with the First National Standard box.[7] These were also cast in two sizes for the first time to allow for heavier usage in big metropolitan areas. A number have survived across the UK, including Aberdeen, Brighton, Stoke, Worthing, London, World's End Hambledon, Bristol, Congresbury, and Newport, Isle of Wight. Similar boxes have also survived in Mauritius.
In the busy city of Liverpool, even these boxes could not provide the capacity and security required, so a special design was commissioned from the foundry of Cochrane Grove & Co of Dudley. Known as "Liverpool Specials", three survive from a batch of six. Two of these are in Liverpool and the other is in the BPMA collection in London. Cochrane became the foundry that made all the Penfold boxes from 1866 to 1879.
The most famous of the early designs is that named after the architect who designed it, John Penfold. Penfold boxes come in three sizes and altogether there are nine different types. They are very widespread, with the biggest accumulations in London and Cheltenham. Others are spread across England, Ireland, India (including locally made copies), British Guyana, Australia and New Zealand. An export order from the postal service of the Republic of Uruguay resulted in nine boxes of the Penfold design being exported there in 1879, of which six are believed extant, including one in the philatelic department of the central Post Office in Montevideo. In 1993 the Correo Uruguayo commemorated Penfold post boxes with a set of stamps of various denominations.[8]
There are no original Penfolds in Scotland, but 1989-built replicas have been erected in these areas, as well as other deserving sites where they are suitable. The first replica Penfold was erected at Tower Bridge, in London, on the south embankment and carries a commemorative plaque. Genuine Penfolds can be seen at the British Postal Museum & Archive Museum Store in Debden, Essex, The Farm Museum in Normanby by Scunthorpe, the National Railway Museum at York, Beamish Open Air Museum, the Black Country Museum, Crich National Tramway Museum, Oakham Treasures, near Bristol (see link below), Carshalton Beeches in Surrey, The Isle of Wight Postal Museum near Newport, Isle of Wight, Milestones Living History Museum in Basingstoke and outside the Town Hall in Chester. A rare large capacity original Penfold is in public use at the Pavilion Gardens in Buxton Derbyshire. The Severn Valley Railway, Blists Hill Victorian Town and the Talyllyn Railway have replica Penfolds. Penfolds, which are distinguished by their hexagonal construction and acanthus bud surmounting the cap, were originally exclusively city-based, but have now been installed rural areas as well. About 300 were made, of which 150 survive. Nearly 100 replicas, made at the end of the 1980s, have also been installed.
The New Zealand boxes are the only Penfolds to bear the cypher of King Edward VII; all others in the former British controlled territories have the cypher of Queen Victoria. Penfold boxes in Uruguay bear the national coat of arms of Uruguay and are painted either yellow[8][9] or black with a yellow band.[10] Boxes made in Madras, India for the kingdom of Travancore carry that kingdom's emblem of a stylised Turbinella pyrum seashell. The acanthus bud and leaves decoration on the top of Penfold boxes was also emulated in a design of cylindrical post boxes for New Zealand and Australia.
Spiked top Anonymous high aperture type VR box in Priory Road, Cambridge
A return to cylindrical boxes followed with the so-called Anonymous boxes of 1879. Andrew Handyside of Derby was the foundry, but omitted the royal cypher and the words "Post Office" leading to the Anonymous sobriquet. It took 13 years before this change was reversed, even though the box had undergone a major design change during that time. This involved lowering the position of the aperture relative to the top of the box. The original "High Aperture" design was prone to mail becoming caught under the rim of the cap. This was solved by lowering the aperture so that it falls centrally between the two raised beading lines. Consequently, the second style is known as "Low Aperture".
The Portuguese post office adopted the original high-aperture design, which were made for it by Andrew Handyside & Co. Portugal later adopted its own modified design based on Types A and B. Numerous examples of each design remain in use.
Late 19th and early 20th century boxes
Edward VII box with aperture on door, post 1905, fitted with telephone direction sign
New post box designs were ordered in 1887 for the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria. For the first time there was a lamp-post mounted letter box for use in London squares, but which soon established themselves in rural areas (see lamp boxes). For the big cities, a double-aperture oval-shaped pillar (designated Type C) was introduced, partly to increase capacity and certainly in London, to allow mail to be pre-sorted by region, normally with apertures marked separately for "London" and "Country". All pillar and lamp boxes now had the distinctive Imperial cypher of Victoria Regina, whilst the wall-mounted boxes continued to show only a block cypher VR. The new pillar box design saw out the reign and remained little changed until 1905, when the basic design was refined.
The Edward VII boxes now had the posting aperture as part of the door, rather than the body of the box. That eliminated the chance for mail to get caught up in the top of the box. This basic design remains the same today, having served well throughout the reigns of George V, Edward VIII, George VI and Elizabeth II.
An experiment of 1932 was the addition of a stamp vending machine to the end of the post box. This necessitated an oval planform for the box even though it was only provided with a single posting aperture. At one end of the oval is the stamp machine and at the other is the posting aperture. The boxes have two doors; one for clearance of mail and one for emptying the cash and reloading the stamp machines. The machines were set to vend two halfpenny stamps in exchange for one old penny, the stamps being supplied in a long continuously wound roll known as a coil. Boxes were again made in two sizes, designated Type D and Type E, and carried raised lettering on the castings indicating the position of the stamp vending machine, as well as an array of small enamel plates warning users of the danger of bent coins and the need to wait for stamps to be issued before inserting more money. Several of each have survived in use in England and in the Isle of Man.
A double aperture pillar box in Fleet Street, London. This pillar box was made between 1887 and 1901, as it bears the Royal cypher 'VR' for Queen Victoria.
Edward VII pillar box in front of a K6 Telephone box.
Father and daughter pair: George VI and Elizabeth II pillar boxes at Bembridge Post Office Isle of Wight. One was for local mail and the other for off-island post.
PB27/1 pillar of George V, fitted with a Post Office Direction Sign (POD) at the Colne Valley Postal History Museum, Essex
1932 Type E pillar box with integral stamp vending machine at Ealing Village
King George V post box by Carron Company. Glasgow, Arden, Kilmuir Crescent.
Air mail
A rare Air Mail box in original colour scheme, now at the Isle of Wight Postal Museum
Commercial Air Mail service commenced in the United Kingdom in 1919. By the early 1930s Imperial Airways was operating regular airmail services to Europe and the British colonies and dominions.[11] To facilitate easy collection of air mail and its speedy onward transmission, a fleet of special vehicles and dedicated postboxes were introduced. To distinguish them from regular post boxes, they were painted Air Force blue, with prominent royal blue signage. The service ran successfully until the outbreak of war in 1939, when it was suspended. Although Air Mail re-commenced after the War, the postboxes and vehicles were no longer identifiable, as Air Mail could now be posted anywhere.
Following the creation of the Irish Free State in 1922, almost all United Kingdom-era pillar boxes and wall boxes were retained, but painted green. Hundreds of these are extant around Ireland, still bearing the cypher of the reigning monarch at the time of the box's manufacture. All are now protected structures. The Department of Posts and Telegraphs continued installing similar pillar boxes and wall boxes, but with the initials SÉ (for Saorstát Éireann), a harp or the Department of Posts and Telegraphs P ⁊ T logo, instead of a monarchical cypher. Since 1984 An Post, the current Irish postal administration, has used their logo to adorn its pillar boxes. All Irish counties, such as County Wicklow, have placed their extant United Kingdom-era pillar boxes on their lists of protected structures, meaning they may not be replaced without special planning permission having first been obtained.[12]
The next major design change came in 1968 with the introduction of the Type F pillar box. This was conceived by Vandyke Engineering and proposed to the Post Office as a cheaper alternative to the traditional cast box. It was fabricated in sheet steel with welded construction. However, the British climate did not suit the use of galvanised steel (a problem often seen with the 1940 and 1988 pattern of lamp box) and the Vandyke pillars soon began to rust badly. The very last one was removed from service at Colmore Row in Birmingham in 2002.
In 1974 the Post Office experimented with a similar rectangular design known as Type G. This was made in traditional cast iron by the foundry of Carron Company near Falkirk, Scotland. It was an operational success, but the public disliked the "square" designs and petitioned the Post Office for a return to cylindrical boxes.
A glass-fibre type PB58 pillar box of the type frequently seen in British supermarkets, made by Broadwater Mouldings Ltd of Eye, Suffolk.
The Post Office commissioned a new design of pillar box in 1980 from a panel of three competing designers. The competition was won by Tony Gibbs and his design, which was thought to be ultra-modern at the time, was designated Type K by the Post Office. Made in traditional cast iron, it stayed in production until 2000. Notable features included: replaceable lifting ring screwed into the dome of the box, body and roof of box cast as one piece, large easy-to-read collection time plate, all surface details and collection plate window recessed to give a perfect cylindrical outline, integral restrictor plate, know colloquially as a "Belfast Flap" to restrict posting to letters only and a flanged shallow base suitable for installation in modern buildings, shopping centres and other urban areas. These boxes were thus much easier to move and handle as they could be rolled over level ground or lifted by crane into position. The design had one major flaw in the area of the door hinge, which is prone to snap under stress and the K type pillar boxes are no longer being installed.
Until 2015, all new pillar boxes for use in the UK were Type A traditional pillars or Type C oval pillars from the foundry of Machan Engineering, Denny, Falkirk, Scotland. The foundry, which was dissolved in 2016, was the sole supplier of cast-ron pillar boxes to the Royal Mail since the 1980s and had seen orders dwindle to a single box a year.[13][14] Exceptions to this are the Supermarket or "Inside" boxes supplied by Broadwater Mouldings Ltd of Eye, Suffolk and the sheet steel "Garage" boxes supplied directly by Romec Ltd.
In Scotland there was controversy when the first boxes made in the reign of Elizabeth II were produced.[15] These bore the cypher "E II R" but there were objections because Queen Elizabeth was the first Queen of Scotland and of the United Kingdom to bear that name, Elizabeth I having been Queen of England and Ireland only. After several E II R pillar boxes were blown up by improvised explosive devices, the General Post Office (as it was at that time) replaced them with ones which only bore the Crown of Scotland and no royal cypher. Red telephone boxes or kiosks of type K6 were also treated in the same way, so too GPO/Royal Mail lamp and Wall boxes.
To mark the 2012 Summer Olympics, Royal Mail, Isle of Man Post and Guernsey Post painted a pillar box gold in the home town of each Great Britain team member who won a gold medal, as well as a demonstration model near Westminster Abbey.[16][17] A website mapping the gold boxes was provided. The boxes, originally intended to be repainted to the traditional red in due course, will remain gold painted permanently.[17][18]
Black History Month
In September 2020 four pillar boxes were painted black, with gold tops to mark Black History Month in October. They are located in London, Glasgow, Cardiff and Belfast. The London postbox, in Acre Lane, Brixton, features the painting "Queuing at the RA" by Yinka Shonibare. The Glasgow postbox, in Byres Road, features footballer and Army officer Walter Tull. The Cardiff postbox, in King Edward VII Avenue, depicts Mary Seacole and the Bedford Street pillar, in Belfast depicts Sir Lenny Henry, a stand-up comedian, actor, singer, writer and television presenter and co-founder of the Comic Relief charity.[19]
No longer in use
Painted black to show that it is out of use
To reflect the iconic nature of the British post box and the heritage attached to them; out-of-use post boxes (especially older models) are rarely removed and instead painted black and sealed to signify to members of the public the box is no longer in use.[20] Examples of 'black post boxes' can be seen outside former post-offices and in conservation areas.
Macanese pillar box from the Portuguese colonial era in the Museum of Macau
A red pillar box in Vittoriosa, Malta. In the 1980s, royal cyphers were ground off the pillar boxes in Valletta and Floriana, but most others remained intact.[21]
British postboxes in old Tel Aviv, Israel, are a remnant of the Palestine Mandate. The British royal cyphers were ground off the cast-iron doors after the 1948 Arab–Israeli War
British-made "high-aperture" box in Sintra, Portugal
Two variations of Portuguese pillar boxes in Porto, Portugal
Collection of British pillar boxes at the Inkpen Post Box Museum, near Taunton, Somerset – since moved to Oakham Treasures, Gordano, Bristol, UK
Post boxes are emptied ("cleared") at times usually listed on the box in a TOC (Times of Collection) plate affixed to the box.
Since 2005, most British post boxes have had the time of only the last collection of the day listed on the box, with no indication of whether the box is cleared at other times earlier in the day. The reason given for this by the Royal Mail is that they needed to increase the font size of the wording on the "plate" listing the collection times to improve legibility for those with poor sight and that consequently there was insufficient room for listing all collection times throughout the day. The "Next Collection" tablet, where fitted, was usually retained in these cases, but tablets now merely show the day of the week, indicating whether or not the last collection has been cleared that day.[22][23]
The red telephone box, is a telephone kiosk for a public telephone designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, the architect responsible for Liverpool Cathedral.
The Royal Mail Group Limited, trading as Royal Mail, is a British postal service and courier company. It is owned by International Distributions Services. It operates the brands Royal Mail and Parcelforce Worldwide (parcels). The company used the name Consignia for a brief period in the early 2000s but changed it afterwards.
Postage stamps and postal history of Great Britain surveys postal history from the United Kingdom and the postage stamps issued by that country and its various historical territories until the present day.
A letter box, letterbox, letter plate, letter hole, mail slot or mailbox is a receptacle for receiving incoming mail at a private residence or business. For outgoing mail, post boxes are often used for depositing the mail for collection, although some letter boxes are also capable of holding outgoing mail for a carrier to pick up. Letterboxes or mailboxes use the following primary designs:
Hongkong Post is a government department of Hong Kong responsible for postal services, though operated as a trading fund. Founded in 1841, it was known as Postal Department or Post Office before the handover of Hong Kong in 1997. It has been a sub-member of the Universal Postal Union since 1877, and is a separate entity from China Post.
A post box, also known as a collection box, mailbox, letter box or drop box, is a physical box into which members of the public can deposit outgoing mail intended for collection by the agents of a country's postal service. The term post box can also refer to a private letter box for incoming mail.
Wall boxes are a type of post box or letter box found in many countries including France, the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth of Nations, Crown dependencies and Ireland. They differ from pillar boxes in that, instead of being a free-standing structure, they are generally set into a wall or supported on a free-standing pole, girder or other stable structure.
Lamp boxes are the smallest of the post boxes used by the Royal Mail in the UK, by its counterparts in the Commonwealth of Nations and also by An Post in Ireland. Their name derives from the fact that they were designed to be affixed to lamp posts, although they may equally be found embedded in walls or mounted on poles.
Guernsey Post is the postal service for the island of Guernsey, Channel Islands. It includes a Philatelic bureau, and regularly issues both definitive and commemorative stamps. It also provides postal services for Sark.
In modern heraldry, a royal cypher is a monogram or monogram-like device of a country's reigning sovereign, typically consisting of the initials of the monarch's name and title, sometimes interwoven and often surmounted by a crown. Such a cypher as used by an emperor or empress is called an imperial cypher. In the system used by various Commonwealth realms, the title is abbreviated as 'R' for 'rex' or 'regina'. Previously, 'I' stood for 'imperator' or 'imperatrix' of the Indian Empire.
Country definitives, formerly known as regional postage stamps of Great Britain, are the postage stamps issued for regions of the United Kingdom, reflecting the regional identity of the various countries and islands of the British isles.
The Pillar Box War refers to a number of politically motivated acts of vandalism against post boxes in Scotland during the early 1950s in a dispute over the correct title in Scotland of the new British monarch, Elizabeth II or Elizabeth I.
The Postal Museum is a postal museum run by the Postal Heritage Trust. It began in 2004 as The British Postal Museum & Archive and opened in Central London as The Postal Museum on 28 July 2017.
In the UK, a Ludlow wall box is a post box where mail is deposited to be collected by the Royal Mail. They are built into stone pillars or the walls of buildings and are never found free-standing. This is because they are made largely from wood. They were nearly all made by the now-defunct company of James Ludlow & Son of Birmingham, whose name they take. Similar designs exist as historical artefacts in certain Commonwealth countries. Ludlow style boxes have been in use since 1885 and were in continuous manufacture until 1965.
The Wildings were a series of definitive postage and revenue stamps featuring the Dorothy Wilding photographic portrait of Queen Elizabeth II that were in use between 1952 and 1971. The Wildings were the first and only British stamps to feature graphite lines on the back, and the first to feature phosphor bands on the face – both aids to automation. The stamps were also the first British pictorial high value stamps and the first to include regional emblems.
Henry Bishopp (1605–1691), also spelt Bishop and Bisshopp, from Henfield in West Sussex, England was a Postmaster General of England and inventor of the first postmark used on mail. He was the second son of Sir Thomas Bishopp, 1st Baronet of Parham also in West Sussex. Henry at first fought for King Charles I, but was reconciled with parliament in 1647, after spending two years in Virginia. In the meantime his Rectory estate in Henfield had been sequestered. However, he was restored to royal favour in 1660 and served as postmaster-general between that date and 1663. At his death in 1692 (N.S.) his Rectory estate in Henfield passed to his great-nephew Sir Cecil Bishopp, 4th Baronet.
The Royal Gibraltar Post Office is the postal services in the British overseas territory of Gibraltar. It is currently a department within the Government of Gibraltar.
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Uruguay.
The first postal service took place using mail sent with captains of packet ships, using agents in the England and in the islands for the end delivery. The cost was normally 3d. The first pillar boxes in Britain were introduced in the Channel Islands as an experiment in 1852, to collect mail for the Royal Mail packet boats. The oldest pillar box in use in the British Isles is in Guernsey.
To commemorate British gold medal winners at the 2012 Summer Olympics and 2012 Summer Paralympics, various post boxes in the home towns of the medal winners around the United Kingdom, plus one each on Sark and the Isle of Man, were repainted gold. It marked the first occasion in modern times that the colour of post boxes in the United Kingdom had been changed from their traditional red. Originally intended to be a temporary measure, due to the positive public response it was later decided the colour change would become a permanent tribute, with boxes additionally receiving their own special plaques.
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