Pillar box

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Description 19/04/2016:
Information from Royal Mail that this pillar box was removed during 2015. The pillar box is in storage and is being restored to be placed in the Titanic Building.

Description 06/05/2015:
A free-standing early 20th C George V cast-iron pillar box mounted (now slightly lopsided) on the outside edge of the footpath in front of a semidetached house on the SW side of Wandsworth Road. It faces away from the road.

This pillar box is of standard design and painted in ‘pillarbox red’ throughout except for its base which is black and carries its maker’s name ‘Carron Company/ Stirlingshire’. It stands 5ft 0in high and measures 21¼in/15½in/16½in in diameter around its cap, shaft and base respectively.

Below its shallow oversailing cap, around the edge of which are small decorative dentilations, is an indicator tablet holder. The actual tablet is now missing, but it would have shown 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 310).

Below it is a crown in bas-relief, to the right of which is the door lock and handle. Below the crown is a ‘GR’ cipher and at the bottom of the door is ‘Post Office’; both are also in bas-relief.

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

Historical information

The pillar box on the North Road was erected in the interwar period between the years 1931 and 1936. 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 Wandsworth Road. 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 the letter aperture and the design of the Royal ciphers inscribed upon them. The first cylindrical pillar boxes did not possess a Royal cipher on their door 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 Wandsworth Road shows that it was erected during the reign of George V and was therefore erected at sometime between 1910 and 1936. The detailed County Series maps (1902-1938) did not depict the pillar box on its 1931 edition (but it did appear on the 1938 map) suggesting that the pillar box was erected between 1931 and 1936. The Ordnance Survey maps (1902-1931) show that housing was developed on Wandsworth Road during this period (on land that was formerly part of the Ormiston Estate) and the resulting increase in the local population of the area undoubtedly necessitated the erection of a new post box on the road.

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 the Wandsworth Road appears to be a B-type post box with the diameter of its shaft measuring 15 ½ inches (Wicks). The foundry plate located at the base of the pillar box records that it was constructed by Carron Company of Stirlingshire, a Scottish ironworks which was founded in 1759 and continued to operate until the 1980s. Carron Company appear to have been contracted to construct pillar boxes from the reign of George V. The firm continued to build post boxes for subsequent monarchs until Carron Company went into receivership in 1982.

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 – 130-15 (1954)
12. Ordnance Survey Map – 130-15SW (1987)

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. Falkirk Local History Society website –
http://www.falkirklocalhistorysociety.co.uk/home/index.php?id=107

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Evaluation 19/04/2016:

Information from Royal Mail that this pillar box was removed during 2015. The pillar box is in storage and is being restored to be placed in the Titanic Building.

Evaluation at 06/05/2015:
A free-standing pillar box on the Wandsworth Road was erected in the interwar period between the years 1931 and 1936, carrying its maker’s name ‘Carron Company/ Stirlingshire’.
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 V. Pillar boxes of this era were of great social importance as the principle conduit by which people communicated with one another. Still in everyday use, and entirely authentic it has group value with the 19th century Queen Victoria pillar box on North Road (HB26/14/011) and mid-20th century George VI pillar box at Connsbrook Ave, (HB26/09/011), nearby.

General comments

Information from Royal Mail that this pillar box was removed during 2015. The pillar box is in storage and is being restored to be placed in the Titanic Building.