Victorian Double Post Box on Fleet Street, London, made by Andrew Handyside & Co. Ltd., Derby, and now distinguished by a commemorative plaque celebrating the bicentenary of Anthony Trollope's birth, and adding that: "In 1855 this street became one of the first in London to have a pillar box." Five post boxes were given such plaques in 2015. However, this was not the first one to have been installed in the street — that one, which looked quite different, was put at the corner of Fleet Street and Farringdon Street, in 1855, and was featured in the Illustrated London News of 24 March that year.

The date of this one can be narrowed down to the turn of the century, because oval boxes with separate apertures for town and country were only installed in London from 1899 (Gunn 17), and not long afterwards Queen Victoria died and the royal cipher had to be changed. Like the similar one on High Holborn, this was classed as a "type C" box, and installed where the volume of mail was expected to be considerable.

Photographs by Jacqueline Banerjee. You may use these images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print document. [Click on the images to enlarge them.]

Bibliography

Gunn, Jack A. and Alastair J. British Post Boxes: Towards an Open Class Postal History Exhibit. Lulu.com, 2013. Google Preview. Web. 19 May 2019.

The Postal Museum Catalogue. Web. 19 May 2019.


Created 1 May 2019