31 replies to this topic

[g4aaw pete]

After posting a picture of one of my local post boxes decorated with woollen rabbits, it occurred to me that forum members’ post boxes are likely to be different.

 

As this is an international forum, perhaps we could post examples of the different designs in our own locale?

 

Here’s a few from the U.K.

 

First, a common example. These often like to team up with other street furniture, in this case a telephone routing cabinet.

 

 

 

A double-slot box, priority box.

 

 

 

A mini box on a pole – decorated for Easter.

 

 

[krag96]

I'll try and get a U.S. post drop box up tomorrow.  They're all pretty standard and have been for years.  I do have a question on your English box's, I see they're marked E-R, Elizabeth Regina.  Should the royal head change, I trust all post box's, (and other things) will have to be changed out in time?

[Ron]

In my area post boxes have practically become extinct. Even the outside boxes at the post office branch where we do most of our postal business have been unceremoniously ripped from their moorings. It's been a year or more since I have even seen a postal box. Anywhere!

 

However, as Krag96 says, U.S. post boxes are pretty mundane. Not nearly as lovely as the boxes you have in U.K. (and probably other countries as well).

 

--Ron

[g4aaw pete]

In my area post boxes have practically become extinct. Even the outside boxes at the post office branch where we do most of our postal business have been unceremoniously ripped from their moorings. It's been a year or more since I have even seen a postal box. Anywhere!

 

However, as Krag96 says, U.S. post boxes are pretty mundane. Not nearly as lovely as the boxes you have in U.K. (and probably other countries as well).

 

--Ron

 

I attempted to multi-quote the two posts above, but clearly I'm incapable!

 

It's said that anything that happens in the US, happens here ten years later. That time difference is getting shorter!

It could be that our post boxes will also start disappearing, especially if they needed to not have 'ER' on their front.

[Merco_61]

This is how ours look:

 

 

There are far fewer these days.

[krag96]

 

[Ron]

I attempted to multi-quote the two posts above, but clearly I'm incapable!

 

It's said that anything that happens in the US, happens here ten years later. That time difference is getting shorter!

It could be that our post boxes will also start disappearing, especially if they needed to not have 'ER' on their front.

I usually end up double quoting when I don't mean to. Go figure.

 

Our post boxes have been very similar for many decades. You would probably need to go back to the turn of the century... no, not that one... the other one, to find anything remotely as ornate as the boxes you have in the U.K. I sincerely hope that they remain that way.

 

--Ron

[Bart]

hardly 'contemporary' but most likely kept around for a reminder on how it used to be.

In Ghent

 

[g4aaw pete]

Now that's a really nice box Bart.

[Ron]

I can't help but wonder just how many coats of paint that box has on it.

 

--Ron

[Bart]

Now that's a really nice box Bart.

 

Thanks, Pete!

 

I can't help but wonder just how many coats of paint that box has on it.

 

--Ron

 

Lots and lots by the look of it 

 

I guess they don't believe in stripping the paint off before applying a new layer 

[Ron]

I guess they don't believe in stripping the paint off before applying a new layer 

At this point it would be quite a job, but I'll bet that thing is gorgeous when stripped down to bare metal. I guess government agencies are the same world over. Only do enough to get by.

 

--Ron

[krag96]

Here they would farm it out to the lowest bid contractor, .    They could maybe sand blast them on site and repaint them, but that would probably be expensive and grumpy old people like me might whack someone with our Shillelagh for the inconvenience, (we can be an angry lot when poked or inconvenienced). 

 

I rate Belgium and England a tie for the most attractive post box's.  The U.S. and Sweden...they're functional.

[Merco_61]

Here they would farm it out to the lowest bid contractor, .    They could maybe sand blast them on site and repaint them, but that would probably be expensive and grumpy old people like me might whack someone with our Shillelagh for the inconvenience, (we can be an angry lot when poked or inconvenienced). 

 

I rate Belgium and England a tie for the most attractive post box's.  The U.S. and Sweden...they're functional.

In Sweden, the union had things to say about the old, elegant cast iron mailboxes that were far from ergonomic when it was time to empty them and get the mail to the sorters... The current version just needs a mailbag attached and the turn of a key.

[krag96]

In Sweden, the union had things to say about the old, elegant cast iron mailboxes that were far from ergonomic when it was time to empty them and get the mail to the sorters... The current version just needs a mailbag attached and the turn of a key.

I'm sure those beautiful old box's have been melted down by now. 

 

''Brannigan''  a John Wayne movie may have been my first look at British post box's.  He played a Chicago cop sent to London to bring back a criminal and upset the London police quite badly.  I think there was a scene in that movie where he and a London cop were watching a post box.

[g4aaw pete]

A more 'modernist' version appearing in the town centre

 

D3300

20mm

1/200

f5.6

ISO 200

 

[krag96]

Still, a bit more fancy than ours, but missing that old charm and craftsmanship. 

 

Fifty or so years ago there was a small cafe in my hometown across from the rail freight yards called, ''Dutch's'' among several others that served the train crews mostly.  Dutch's wasn't much to look at from the street, but once inside it was stepping out of a time machine, nothing had been changed since the 1930's when Dutch opened the place.  It wasn't a big place, only a few genuine well worn oak tables, a short counter and along the right wall, a row of walnut vernier waterfall style phone booths from the era.  The phone company kept the phones updated, but the booths themselves were part of the building, large roomy booths offering both privacy and comfort with a shelf for the phone book and a stool to sit on.  They just don't make stuff like that anymore!

[Bart]

At this point it would be quite a job, but I'll bet that thing is gorgeous when stripped down to bare metal. I guess government agencies are the same world over. Only do enough to get by.

 

--Ron

 

 

Here they would farm it out to the lowest bid contractor, .    They could maybe sand blast them on site and repaint them, but that would probably be expensive and grumpy old people like me might whack someone with our Shillelagh for the inconvenience, (we can be an angry lot when poked or inconvenienced). 

 

I rate Belgium and England a tie for the most attractive post box's.  The U.S. and Sweden...they're functional.

 

You know, the phrase "it's complicated" seems to been invented to describe our government system.

We are about 11 million on a surface that's hardly noticeable even on a EU scale but our politicians have found it necessary over the past 40 years or so to saddle us up with more governments than you can count on one hand.

6 to be correct. I've added a link to an official webpage because I never quite remember how many there are  (guess I'm still in denial  ) There's a reason our politicians are sometimes called "the masters of the compromises" by politicians from other countries.

Beneath those 6 governments, there are still the provinces and the cities.

Just to say, I wouldn't know which one is responsible for the maintenance of that mailbox I showed - at this moment in time.

 

Could also be the postal offices but, last time I heard about it, they are a privately owned company - with the federal government as the majority stockholder, I bet.

Such a company or a governmental department are completely budget driven. Which almost always means that the assigned budget has to be spent by December 31st. No matter what 

Spending a budget for a governmental department is indeed not simple. Of course not. Heaven forbid! There are numerous rules about the procedures to be followed but the lowest bid is no longer the deciding factor.

See, they do learn. Sometimes it takes a long time with two steps forward and one step back or vice versa but at least they got the part about the lowest bid figured out.

 

During the last years, in the epidemic, there were even some - very small - voices suggesting we had too many governments to act efficiently in times of crisis.

Think committees of ministers of health   

For 11 million Belgians!

 

By the way, our normal mailboxes look really simple and functional, not unlike the ones Peter showed.

[krag96]

More U.S. post collection boxes.  Te first is very much like the one I posted earlier, but uses a different entry type, a pull down door rather than a slip in chute.  The rest are from earlier 20th. century.

 

 

This one missing it's door.

 

 

 

 

 

 

All photos are stock from a search.

[g4aaw pete]

Tunbridge Wells, in an area known as 'The Pantiles''

A reproduction Victorian hexagonal post box.

 

D800E

Sigma 12-24@ 24mm

1/400

f8

ISO 320

 

 

As soon as you point a camera somewhere, random people want to be 'in shot'.