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British life and culture - England, Scotland and Wales
Post boxes in London
Woodlands Junior School is in the south-east corner of England

Red Post Boxes can be seen all around London and the rest of the UK. The most common post box seen in London is the red Pillar Box, a free-standing post box.

image: Post boximag: Pillar Box
The pillar box on the left is older than the box on the right

Pillar boxes are not all the same. Some are much older than than others.

How to tell how old a pillar box is

Until the 1980's both the telephone and the postal service came under the control of the General Post Office. Post boxes older than 1980 will often have the words Post Office rather than Royal Mail as seen on modern post boxes.

The Royal Cipher (Monarch's symbols or motif )

On every post box in the UK, the Royal Cipher can be seen of the reigning monarch at the time of the installation. It is made up of the Christian (first) name of the King or Queen together with the letter R which stands for Regina (Queen) or Rex (King).

image: Victoria's motif
image: Edward VII
VR for Victoria Regina
1837 - 1901
ER for Edward Rex
1901 - 1910
image: George
image: Elizabeth
GR for George Rex (George V)
 1910 - 1936 or 1936 - 1952
ER for Elizabeth Regina
1952 - present day

Note: in the Royal cypher of King George the fifth the V is always missing.

image; Edwardimage: Victorian

 

image: both
The door was replaced!

Find out more about Letter boxes by visiting our Post Office page

 

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All the materials on these pages are free for educational use only. You may not redistribute, sell or place the content of this page on any other website or blog without written permission from Mandy Barrow, Woodlands Junior School.

© Copyright 2011 Mandy Barrow
Woodlands Junior School, Hunt Road Tonbridge Kent TN10 4BB UK