Mind Streaming

Monday, May 12, 2003

THE BRITISH SNAIL-MAIL OUTBOX




We have London's black cab and red double-decker bus. We have the British 'Bobby' ( named after the diminutive form of the name Robert, 'Bob, because Sir Robert Peel formed the first police force here known also as 'Peelers.') We have 'Bobbies' with the famously pointed but actually impractical (from a protective and comfort point of view) navy-blue helmet. We have the bright red, multi-paned telephone box, now sadly sort of extinct. Then there is the post-office red pillar box, one of the five most recognisable British street icons.

In 1980, the trusty, tending to rusty , gorgeously-glaring red, cast iron pillar-shaped letter box was, incomprehensibly, abandoned. We have lost that magic sense it gave of cast-iron solidness and continuity forever. Didn't we invent postage stamps?



With the introduction of this all new (for the sake of it?) horribly standardised modern design, in high impact fibre glass or cast iron ,something precious, to me at least, was lost.

Reassuringly these hideous replacements are not universal and there are still so many originals to comfort us. The traditional Royal Mail colour of what we call 'Post Office' red has been retained. So too the tradition of embossing the royal cipher of the reigning monarch on the front of the box. (There is a great British post box connoisseur website that gives you these ciphers and so much more. Click in the image to visit them.



We have used the monogram letters VR, GR, and are on ER the second time around. The R is either Latin for King or Queen,(regina or rex) and we have had our Victoria (the first queen to her monograph posted all over), our Edward and, since the early 1950's , the current Queen, Elizabeth, who has been on mail boxes since I celebrated her coronation fireworks aged three in 1953. Liz and me go way back.



As I have posted previously, I have very mixed feelings about the Monarchy and hope that it gets a major make-over when the current monarch ceases to be and the crown passes on to one of her family. {Aside, stage left:- One of the perks of the British monarch job is that you get your own cipher on every street public letter box. And when you do actually sign something yourself (instead of getting some factotum to write on your behalf, even though you never actually got to read the letter that pleb sent) you can sign yourself, first name only, Elizabeth, even with Roman numerals after it if you are feeling particularly smug, and no one else can officially. This is in direct contrast to lower royals who simply sign with their title name ,'Westminster', 'Kent' etc, etc. What total arrogance and nonsense is that! Madonna, Sting, Prince, Sade et al, are you the royals of music?}

Did you know, by the way, historically there is a reason (but I forget why at this moment) that on our coins of the realm, ascending monarchs face the opposite way to the previous incumbent? If Charles takes over, he'll have a sinister orientation. [facing left] Word is that coins will have appendages to accommodate his remarkable pinna.

Now, in terms of my late life nostalgic delusion, there is something comforting in British icons like the pillar box. Throughout my life I have been comforted by the horizontal slot in my red cylinder of preference mail box but, when I look into things, I see that this icon of British-ness was not the faithful constant I once though it was.

It has, like all things, evolved in terms of physical shape, size ,materials and orientation of the place you post things even. There is this world wide thing, the stereotypical comforting idea that provides a Brit with that separateness of identity within the family of man. Yet these convenient icons have to be challenged in a tell it how it is sort of way.

Buses have been 'de-regulated' so the London bus competes in the capital now with single-deckers and all sorts of company names. Taxis come in all shapes and colours and even traditional 'Hackney' cabs, don't have to be black, are covered in adverts, have a new shape, and can accommodate wheel chairs. They still are predominantly diesel engined, retain their remarkable turning circle, but of course also, the total taxi driver indifference to the rules that normal road-users adhere to are now, as traditionally, ignored. Bobbies wear body armour waist coats, and have belts with night sticks, radios, hoodlum-repellent sprays, cuffs etc and want a different style helmet, if they have to have one, that actually protects their head and is comfortable.

Trouble with icons is that we seem to want them as permanent symbols, say of nationality. Research reveals otherwise and a range of variants. We have had, I learned , hexagonal letter boxes, even ones with a letter slot that was vertical in the letter boxes' formative years.



The royal city of Bath, with its Roman hot springs and preserved Georgian crescent buildings is home to a remarkable Postal Museum

Curiously our local remaining Victorian post box is somewhat stouter, broader than the norm.



Early boxes had slim slots because letters were smaller. Later, envelopes got bigger and so the slot increased in size. ( I always puzzled that receptacles for rectangular posted things were indeed cylindrical.) Actually, post-people, these days, are often weighed down with junk-mail fliers as well as regular post, and the normal post boxes have developed cuboid warts either to increase box space or for the 'posties' to leave part of their letter bulk safe while they post and then can come back for more.



Once again, a simple web search reveals a range of specialist sites. Some people collect post boxes, others maintain informative and authoritative sites about them like the Letter Box Study Group
There are also a large number of beautiful stamps which celebrate the British post box with an array of lovely images. Click on this example to visit one such stamp enthusiast site and see other great images.




johncoxon 3:03 AM - [Link] - Comments (0)
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