Inside the pre-post box era, there was two principal methods for offering correspondence; senders will be necessitated to make their mail using a Receiving House, or would await the Bellman. The latter would patrol the streets, amassing submit from the Neighborhood. In order to tell apart himself, and make his existence recognized, the Bellman would have on a uniform and Seems acquainted.
It is at 1852 the recommendation of road-aspect containers at last became a truth, with a trial proposed for that Channel Islands. A few cast-iron pillar bins ended up mounted on Jersey to Check out the completely new procedure.
The good results With all the experiment activated another four being set up on Guernsey, a single of such now varieties section Together with the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then commenced appearing with the mainland at some time of 1853.
Nonetheless, There exists to date no universal pillar box structure wherein ended up at this time common. Layout and manufacture was from the discretion of nearby authorities, and yes it was at 1859 that makes an attempt ended up created to standardise the constructions.
Horizontal slits took over given that the favoured possibility over vertical ones, and became the norm in letterbox design. Even further improvements upon the first integrated the addition in the protruding cap to defend the contents from your aspects.
As of 1859, the lamp would have been to be for sale by 50 % dimensions; a bigger and wider dimension for very populated parts, plus a scaled-down version for somewhere else. Nevertheless, the standardised pillar bins didn't get common acclaim. It absolutely was contrary for the backdrop of these types of criticism the Liverpool Specific was formulated.
This prompted the Write-up Workplace (opened in 1861) to create A further conventional letter box in 1866. All over again, it absolutely was not really a big results and thus, an additional style ended up only obtainable in 1879. This remaining modern letter boxes layout would be the just one that we are already accustomed to currently. It absolutely was a handful of yrs ahead of this the legendary crimson colour from your write-up containers turned a typical feature.
In advance of this time, preferred colour selection was inexperienced so that you can Mix in with many of the environmentally friendly British pastures. However, adhering to a barrage of complaints which the constructions were being to hard to Identify because of their camouflage, it absolutely was agreed that bright red was the most suitable choice. The programme of re-painting lasted for ten many years.
For the inhabitants especially, the introduction and refinement of letter packing containers Increased the potential for sending and receiving mail easily. Excluding oversized parcel supply, Every person was afforded accessibility with a supply provider no time right before witnessed in Good Britain.