Show us letterboxes...

A Belgian letterbox, specifically dressed up for your letters to Santa


A7ii + Tamron FE 28-200 Di III RXD, obviously not a recent shot

alanfrombangor wrote: Two pleasing and contrasting scenes of boxes in the countryside. Phil's at first glance seems to be floating, the red line to the right gives away its well camouflaged post. Howard's features the kind of stone wall often seen near me.

It's not a wall, the box was attached to a telegraph pole. When the pole became redundant they just cut it off above the post box. The red lines are the big U-bolt/bracket thingies that attach box to post.

VR & VRoom


A00ii / KM 17-35

Boit Boite rurale


A7 III and FE 24-70 F4

Edited by Howard_S - 24 July 2022 at 23:26

addy landzaat wrote: A good thing they are from before 1973, else you need to replace them all

To be fair, most of the designs introduced since 1973 have been abandoned.

Here is the oldest version of a national standard wall box - 1857. A bit like post-1973 designs it wasn't a success - it leaked (they have drilled a drain hole in the bottom of this rare survivor).



Edited by Phil Wood - 23 July 2022 at 18:27

addy landzaat wrote: You have a lot of different letterboxes in the UK. I feel the Dutch design is a nice piece of industrial design. The latest version is from 2011, but the first design with two slots is from 1960. It is bit boring that all the letterboxes follow this design, but it is very good design. Anyway, here is a picture:

1960? We're still using boxes from 1860. This one is a little newer - the first of this design were installed in 1861.

Howard_S wrote: Awful; is the letter slot closed too?

The colour scheme adopted for the jubilee was distinctly dull but it isn't helped by the tacky paint job. I guess it will be red again fairly soon.

There are at least five more post boxes within a couple of hundred yards of this - so blocking some up is not so much of an issue and may make sense from the security point of view. Around here (Windsor Castle) the streets have gates so they can be quickly closed off when a VIP in need of a protection detail passes through. This was happening as we arrived and there was lots of weaponry in sight.

Back in Newbury here is a nice Type A wall box from 1936-52 (George VI) cast by McDowell Stevens & Co Ltd, Falkirk. This is the largest size of wall box and has a larger capacity than most pillar boxes.

A special paint job today. The Royal Mail have got into the habit of painting post boxes to mark special occasions. The gold boxes for the 2012 Olympic gold medal winners are a long term version. This year four boxes have been painted to mark the Queen's platinum jubilee (one each in England, Scotland, Wale & Northern Ireland) - apparently platinum is a mix of purple and silver. I have to say the paint job is not impressive.

Jubilee pillar box, Windsor.

A99ii, Min 35/2