Post box to front of

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Victorian era cast-iron post box of 1881-85 set close to the front of the Mechanic’s Institute building in Main Street, Lurgan.

The box is rectangular in profile and roughly square in footprint, measuring approx. 1.2m in height and 0.5 x 0.5m in plan. It was designed to be recessed within a wall, but has ended up as virtually free-standing, set between a stone wall pier to the NW and a decorative wrought-iron rail to the SE.

The door (with notice plate) takes up around two-thirds of the front with a projecting course just above this. Above again is the aperture, with ‘POST OFFICE’ embossed on its hood, and directly over this is the royal cipher – the letters ‘V’ and ‘R’ with the crown motif in between. The front has a raised edge with a similar edge around the door opening and the notice plate.

The SE face is completely plain; the NW face appears to be also, also it is largely obscured by the neighbouring pier. The rear is plain also but is partly obscured, this time by a corrugated-iron ‘shute’. This may have allowed access internally although there is no evidence of this from inside the building.

The box is painted red, in the manner of its wall and pillar box counterparts.

Historical information

The building next to this post box, the Mechanic's Institute, was built in 1857, but the box itself, although positioned within the building’s immediate curtilage, is later. The box is marked on the 1905-06 OS town plan of Lurgan and research by the Northern Ireland Philatelic Society and the Letter Box Study Group (LBSG) has indicated that it was placed here between 1881 and 1885. The earlier date is supported by its absence on pre-1880 photographs and the later one is confirmed by a fact that the box is mentioned in a newspaper report of September 1884 (see below*). The box is of a type was intended to be recessed within a wall, but for reasons unknown, was left virtually free-standing. According to the LBSG there are only 18 of these boxes in existence, and four of these are now in museums.

*[From ‘Belfast News-Letter’ 1 September 1884] “A REAL IRISH "BULL" Our Lurgan correspondent writes:- A rather amusing incident was perceived in Lurgan on Saturday last. A rustic maiden, who had apparently not seen much of town life, called in a shop for a stamp for a letter which was addressed to her sister in Australia. She was directed to go to the Post Office, as being the most suitable place to have her wants supplied. Instead of doing so, however, she went to a pillar-box, which is placed at the corner of the Mechanics' Institute. Into this she first threw the letter, and then the money for the stamp. She apparently was not in the least disturbed in mind as to the safety of the letter until some person who was standing near, and who, perhaps, had witnessed the joke, told her that she had pitched her letter into the box for the reception of papers for the inmates of Lurgan Workhouse, and that they would get her money. She then retraced her steps to the shopkeeper's, and asked him what would she do. He asked her into what box she had thrown the letter, whereupon she said she had thrown it into the "wee red thing" at the Institute. The shopkeeper at once directed her to go to the post-mistress, who undoubtedly must have been amused at the incident.”

[For general historical information on post boxes, see HB26.27.097.]

References – Primary sources
1 ‘Belfast News-Letter’ 1 September 1884
2 OS town plan of Lurgan, 1905-06

Secondary sources
1 Information (via email) from Letter Box Study Group, May 2018

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
Z. Rarity
S. Authenticity
T. Historic Importance
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance
W. Northern Ireland/International Interest

Evaluation

Dating from sometime between 1881 and 1884, this post box is a well-preserved Victorian instance of the genre, in a very rare design of which only 18 have been recorded (4 of these are now in museums). It is fine example of 19th century street furniture, and an object of socio-historical importance, being the principal conduit for long distance communication at the time of its installation. It is also one of the oldest (freestanding) post boxes in Northern Ireland, perhaps even the oldest.