Image shows a red Post Box in Central London, England. Photo:Jeff Gilbert

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Image shows a red Post Box on the side of a road in Central London. Traditionally UK post boxes carry the Latin initials of the reigning monarch at the time of their installation: in this case VR for Victoria Regina. A pillar box is a free-standing post box, in the United Kingdom and Ireland, and in most ex-British Empire or Commonwealth of Nations countries and British overseas territories, such as Australia, India and Gibraltar, where mail is deposited to be collected by the Royal Mail, An Post or the appropriate postal operator and forwarded to the addressee. Pillar boxes have been in use since 1852, just 12 years after the introduction of the first adhesive postage stamps and uniform penny post. Mail may also be deposited in lamp boxes or wall boxes that serve the same purpose as pillar boxes but are attached to a post or set into a wall. According to the Letter Box Study Group, there are more than 150 recognised designs and varieties of pillar boxes and wall boxes, not all of which have known surviving examples. Royal Mail estimates there are over 100,000 post boxes in the United Kingdom.

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Size: 5616px × 3744px
Location: Slaone Street, Central London, England, United Kingdom
Photo credit: © Jeff Gilbert / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

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