The Development of the Letterbox
In the pre-post box era, there were two main methods for delivering correspondence; senders would be necessitated to bring their mail to a Receiving House, or would await the Bellman. The latter would patrol the streets, collecting post from the community. In order to distinguish himself, and to make his presence known, the Bellman has on a uniform and sounds familiar.
It was at 1852 that this suggestion of road-side boxes finally became a reality, using a trial proposed for your Channel Islands. Three cast-iron pillar boxes were attached to Jersey to try out the newest system.
The success from the experiment generated one more four being attached to Guernsey, info now forms part in the British Postal Museum & Archive collection. Letter boxes then began appearing about the mainland as of 1853.
However, there were to date no universal pillar box design that we have been currently familiar. Design and manufacture was with the discretion of local authorities, also it what food was in 1859 that attempts were designed to standardise the structures.
Horizontal slits became the favoured option over vertical ones, and became the norm in letterbox design. Further improvements upon the original included the addition of the protruding cap to shield the contents through the elements.
As of 1859, the therapy lamp was to be for sale by 50 % sizes; a larger and wider size for highly populated areas, and a smaller version for elsewhere. However, the standardised pillar boxes didn't receive universal acclaim. It was contrary to the backdrop of these criticism how the Liverpool Special was formulated.
This prompted the Post Office (opened in 1861) to create another standard letter box in 1866. Again, this is not just a huge success and so, an extra design were only available in 1879. This final design could be the one that we have been used to today. It was 24 months just before this that the iconic red colour in the post boxes became a standard feature.
Before on this occasion, the most preferred colour option was green so that you can blend in using the green British pastures. However, from a barrage of complaints the structures were to hard to locate because of the camouflage, it was agreed that bright red was your best option. The programme of re-painting lasted for 10 years.
For the people at large, multi unit letter boxes for flats the introduction and refinement of letter boxes enhanced the capacity for sending and receiving mail without difficulty. With the exception of oversized parcel delivery, people were afforded access with a delivery service never before witnessed in Great Britain.