Pillar box

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Description on 03.03.2016 Previous pillar box was replaced with a modern Elizabeth ll type.

Description on 06.05.2015 A free-standing late 19th C Queen Victoria cast-iron pillar box mounted on the inside edge of the footpath in front of a detached house on the west side of North Road near its junction with Newtownards road. It faces towards the road.

This pillar box is of standard design and painted in ‘pillar box red’ throughout except for the base which is black and carries its maker’s name ‘Handyside & Co/ Derby & London’. It stands 5ft 0in high and measures 21in/15½ in/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 a hooded rectangular aperture through which the letters are inserted into the box. To its left and right respectively are the words ‘Post’ and ‘Office’ in bas-relief.

Below the aperture is the door, hinged at left. At its top is notice plate holder containing details of collection days/times. The number of this particular box is also given at the bottom of the notice (BT5 216). To the top right of the holder is a small indicator tablet holder. Below the notice plate holder is a ‘V R’ cipher (no crown above). Just right and over the cipher is the door handle, with lock incorporated.

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

Historical information

This Royal Mail pillar box on the North Road was erected in the late-Victorian period between 1887 and 1901. 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 the North Road. Victorian-era pillar boxes possess an opening for mail located above its door. This ‘high aperture’ often resulted in letters becoming jammed in the underside of its cap. In order to rectify this problem the aperture was lowered to become part of the door in designs from the Edwardian period onwards. Pillar boxes of this later design were known as ‘low aperture.’ The first cylindrical pillar boxes did not possess a Royal Cipher on their door and were thus 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 mail aperture. Due to this presence of a 'VR' cipher, the pillar box on the North Road must date between 1887 and Victoria’s death in 1901. It is possible that the pillar box may date from 1887 (as a large number of ‘VR’ pillar boxes were installed throughout the British Isles in that year to celebrate the Queen’s Golden Jubilee) but it is more likely that the structure was erected late in Queen Victoria’s reign between c. 1895 and 1901 as the pillar box was not depicted on the detailed Ordnance Survey map of 1894-96 (Wicks).

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 North Road appears to be a B-type pillar box with the diameter of its shaft measuring 15 ½ inches. The foundry plate located at the base of the pillar box on the North Road records that it was constructed by Handyside & Co. In 1879 the Derby and London-based firm became one of the first iron foundries contracted to carry out the construction of the new cylindrical design of pillar box. The firm continued to manufacture pillar boxes in Britain and Ireland until the early-20th century when the foundry closed. The British Postal Museum states that since 1879 this type of pillar box ‘continues to be one of Britain’s most recognisable symbols’ (Wicks; British Postal Museum).

The pillar box was originally located to the north-east of its current site (at the corner of the North Road and Newtownards Road) but was moved across the North Road to its current location between 1954 and 1987 (Ordnance Survey Maps – 130-15: 130-15SW)

Previous pillar box was replaced with a modern Elizabeth ll type c2016.

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 (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/

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Evaluation at 08.03.2016 - The original pillar box has been replaced with a modern type that is not of historic or architectural interest.

Evaluation at 06.05.2014 A free-standing late 19th century Queen Victoria cast-iron pillar box, erected in the late-Victorian period between 1887 and 1901, carrying its maker’s name ‘Handyside & Co/ Derby & London’.
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 on the door.
Historically the box is of interest as it carries the cipher of the first monarch to have purpose-built pillar boxes. Although the precise number of Victorian pillar boxes surviving in Belfast is unknown, this is likely a rare example compared with ones associated with later monarchs. Pillar boxes of this era were also of great social importance as the principle conduit by which people communicated with one another.