Kent's Strangest Tales by Martin Latham

Author:Martin Latham
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781911042587
Publisher: Pavilion Books
Published: 2016-05-21T00:00:00+00:00

BRITAIN’S ONLY GREEN PILLAR BOX

1866

It was Anthony Trollope, novelist and Post Office official, who suggested the idea of the UK pillar box. He had seen a version of the idea in Paris. Rather than letters being given to the local postmaster, they could be left at collection points. Many designs were tried out, including a disastrous one devised by a Parliamentary Committee. Strangely, there are 150 different versions of these exotic pieces of street furniture surviving in Britain. All of them, except one, are red. And it’s in Rochester.

Organisations such as the Council for the Protection of Rural England and the Letter Box Study Group fiercely defend our box diversity. These are the experts who know about surviving red boxes in Gibraltar, Tel Aviv and Kuwait. And they have a proper reverence for the red Ramsgate pillar box, apparently unremarkable, but bearing the lettering, ‘EVIII’. It is one of very few boxes from the 326-day reign of Edward VIII, who abdicated to be with his American lover, Wallis Simpson. Among these box experts, architect John Penfold (1828–1909) is regarded as the Leonardo of pillar box design. His 1866 octagonal box with the beautifully playful acorn on top is known simply as ‘The Penfold’. Replicas of it exist from Scotland to Singapore and there remain several original Penfolds around. However, only the Rochester High Street Penfold retains the original livery intended by its architect: green, with gold lettering and mouldings.

And, yes, the cartoon character Danger Mouse’s companion Penfold was named after the pillar box designer. As you will no doubt recall, the two crusaders used to meet in a Baker Street pillar box. But do not mention this connection to members of the Letter Box Study Group because – quelle horreur! – the cartoon box is not a Penfold, but a more practical larger, later box.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.