Pillar box

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A free-standing mid-20th C George VI cast-iron pillar box mounted on the footpath in front of a small terrace of shops adjacent to Strand Presbyterian Church, on the east side of Connsbrook Avenue. It faces towards the road.

This box is of standard design and painted in ‘pillarbox red’ throughout except for the base which is black and carries its maker’s name ‘Lion Foundry Co Ltd/ Kirkintilloch’. It stands 5ft 0in high and measures 21¼in/16in/17in in diameter around its cap, shaft and base respectively.

Below its shallow oversailing cap, around the edge of which are small decorative indentations, is an indicator tablet holder containing a tablet showing the next collection day. To the left of this holder is ‘Next Collection’ in bas-relief and directly below it is the rectangular hooded aperture through which the letters are inserted into the box.

Below the aperture is the door, hinged at left and protected by a lip along the front of the cap. At the top of the door is a notice plate holder with details of collection days/times. The number of this particular box is also given at the bottom of the notice (BT4 244). Below and right of this holder is the door lock, below which is a raised door handle. At the bottom of the door is a crown, below which is a ‘G VI R’ cipher, and below which again is ‘Post Office’, all in bas-relief.

As noted above, the maker’s name is cast on the front of the base.

Historical information

The pillar box on Connsbrook Avenue was erected between 1936 and 1938. The first pillar boxes in the British Isles were introduced in 1853 but the idea of introducing roadside letter boxes was originally suggested in 1840 by Rowland Hill (reformer of the British postal system). By the end of the 19th century, the postal network throughout the United Kingdom had been transformed with the installation of pillar boxes and wall-mounted post boxes in large urban centres. In 1889 J. Wilson Hyde (Superintendent of Edinburgh’s General Post Office) wrote that ‘so much has it become the custom in these later times for the Post Office to afford facilities to the public in whatever will tend to increase the business of the Department, that in all large towns pillar boxes or branch offices are dotted about everywhere at short distances, thus altering the conditions which formerly obtained, when the chief office was the great central point where correspondence had to be deposited for dispatch’ (Hyde, p. 278).

The iconic red cylindrical pillar boxes were first introduced in Britain in 1879 and were almost identical in design to the example on Connsbrook Avenue. The only major changes that have been made to the design of British pillar boxes between 1879 and the 1950s have been to the height of its mail aperture and to the design of the Royal ciphers inscribed upon them. The first cylindrical pillar boxes did not possess a Royal cipher on their doors and were unofficially known as ‘anonymous boxes.’ This design fault was not rectified until 1887 when the doors of all new pillar boxes were inscribed with the letters ‘VR’ (Victoria Regina) and the words ‘POST OFFICE’ were inserted on either side of the aperture. The cipher on the pillar box on Connsbrook Avenue shows that it dates from the reign of George VI and was therefore erected at some stage between 1936 and 1952. The detailed Ordnance Survey County Series maps (1902-38) record that the pillar box had been erected outside the post office on Connsbrook Avenue by 1938 suggesting a build date of 1936-38. The maps record that housing in the Connsbrook Avenue area developed throughout the 1930s. The subsequent increase in the local population most likely necessitated the erection of a new pillar box.

The British Postal Museum states that since 1879 this type of pillar box ‘continues to be one of Britain’s most recognisable symbols.’ Wicks notes that the cylindrical boxes came in two sizes, ‘A’ which was a large variety, and ‘B’ which was the smaller alternative. The pillar box on Connsbrook Avenue appears to be a B-type post box with the diameter of its shaft measuring 16 inches (Wicks). The foundry plate located at the base of the pillar box records that it was constructed by Lion Foundry Co. Ltd. of Kirkintilloch, a Scottish firm that was established in 1880. East Dunbartonshire Leisure and Culture Trust’s exhibition on the Lion Foundry detailed that the firm carried out large scale casting and ironwork contracts in cities throughout the United Kingdom in the decades before the Second World War. The exhibit's literature states that in the economic downturn following the war the iron foundry accepted a number of utilitarian contracts such as keel blocks for graving docks, caps for the petroleum industry and (from 1966) was one of the first firms contracted to produce the distinctive K8 telephone kiosk. Although the exhibit suggests that the firm began to construct pillar boxes in the post-war period, it is clear from the example on Connsbrook Avenue that the firm had been building George VI pillar boxes from at least the late-1930s (Wicks; British Post Museum; EDLC website).

References

Primary Sources
1. PRONI OS/9/50/4/39A – Town Plan (1894-96)
2. PRONI OS/6/3/4/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey map (1858)
3. PRONI OS/6/3/4/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey map (1902)
4. PRONI OS/6/3/4/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey map (1920-21)
5. PRONI OS/6/3/4/5 – Fifth Edition Ordnance Survey map (1931)
6. PRONI OS/10/3/4/12/1 – Ordnance Survey County Series (1919)
7. PRONI OS/10/3/4/12/2 – Ordnance Survey County Series (1931)
8. PRONI OS/10/3/4/12/3 – Ordnance Survey County Series (1938)
9. First Survey Record – HB26/14/011 (No Date)
10. Ordnance Survey Map – 130-15 (1954)
11. Ordnance Survey Map – 130-15SW (1979)

Secondary Sources
1. Hyde, J. W., ‘The Royal Mail: Its curiosities and romance’ London: Simpkin, Marshall & Co., 1889.
2. Wicks, P., ‘History of the British Post Box’ (Pamphlet replicated on author’s website - http://www.wicks.org/pulp/part1.html)

Online Resources
1. The British Postal Museum & Archive website - http://www.postalheritage.org.uk/page/letterboxes
2. The Letter Box Study Group website - http://www.lbsg.org/
3. East Dunbartonshire Leisure and Culture Trust website –
http://www.edlc.co.uk/heritage/local_history/online_exhibitions/the_lion_foundry.aspx

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance
R. Age
S. Authenticity
T. Historic Importance
U. Historic Associations

Evaluation

A free-standing pillar box on Connsbrook Avenue erected between 1936 and 1938, carrying its maker’s name ‘Lion Foundry Co Ltd/ Kirkintilloch’. This pillar box is in the distinctive style peculiar to the Post Office, painted in ‘pillar box red’ throughout except for the base which is black and with a dentilated cap and scripting of the Royal Cipher and crown on the door.
Historically the box is of interest as it carries the cipher of King George VI and was made by one of the first firms contracted to produce the distinctive K8 telephone kiosk . Pillar boxes of this era were of great social importance as the principle conduit by which people communicated with one another.