Pillar box - Definition and Overview

In the UK and the British Commonwealth, a pillar box is a free-standing box where post is deposited to be collected by the Royal Mail and forwarded to the adressee. Pillar boxes have been in use since 1855, only 15 years after the introduction of the first penny post.

Post may also be deposited in wall boxes, which serve the same purpose as pillar boxes but are typically set into a wall.There are approximately 156 recognised designs and varieties of pillar boxes and wall boxes, not all of which have surviving examples.

Although the designs for pillar boxes soon became standardised to something very like the current design (a cylinder with a horizontal slit), the earliest ones were more experimental, including octagonal pillars or fluted columns, vertical slits instead of horizontal ones, and other unusual features.

Standard British pillar boxes are painted red. Following Irish independence, existing British pillar boxes were retained, and simply painted green. These can still be seen around the country today, still retaining the monogram of the monarch who reigned at the time of the box's installation. An Post, the Irish post service, continue to erect similar pillar boxes, albeit without a monarch's monogram.

See also

• Lamp box
• Ludlow wall box

External links

• The Letter Box Study Group (http://www.lbsg.org/)