The Post Box

The British Postal Services have helped shape the modern world as we know it today and the British Postal Museum illuminates this.  The British Postal Museum holds a very large and very diverse collection of letter boxes, in fact around 200 of them are in the collection.

Ranging from very early letter boxes in the shape of the Channel Island boxes, used in the initial letter box trials in 1852, up to newer boxes too.  Prototypes which were never released for general use are also represented.

The collection reflects many different types of letterboxes including the very first Pillar boxes as well as many different types introduced afterwards.  There are wall boxes and lamp post boxes as well as boxes which were put to use in private houses and those used by business concerns.

There are boxes in many different designs, in all colours and sizes ranging from very small lamp boxes to the larger double aperature boxes.  There are letter boxes which span six generations of monarchs and which are in themselves very unique.  There are some very rare ones and some typical common boxes.  What they all have in common is that they collectively tell the story of the development of the British Postal Service.

Of the 20,000 wall boxes in the UK today only four examples are represented in the museum.  There is a rare one made by the Eagle Range and Foundary Company.  Of the remaining three, one hails from Hong Kong while the others represent the large freestanding types which were found in railway stations.

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