![]() ![]() ![]() In June 1930, a dedicated fleet of blue airmail vans was introduced due to the need for later collections from the airmail post boxes. This later posting required special arrangements to be arranged. The latest time of posting from an Air Mail box at the London Head Office was usually from 1 ½ – 2 hours before the departure of the aeroplane from Croydon. Instead of pillar boxes, Charles Street and the Ludgate Circus Branch Office were each provided with a medium size wall box on pedestals. ![]() Other problems were experienced at some localities and alternative solutions were sought. The locations for the first 14 airmail boxes are shown below.Īirmail boxes in Charles Street and Parliament Street were the last to come into service in this group due to difficulties in obtaining permission from the authorities for them to be erected. The new boxes were startlingly attractive, particularly to a public possibly now blasé to the ordinary red British post box. of Falkirk was a contracted supplier of pillar-boxes to the Post Office and under their contract, fourteen standard ‘B’ type pillar-boxes were set aside for the new service. At first, the pillar boxes themselves were not specially designed or materially altered- ‘”the simplest type of single-apertured pillar box is proposed’“. These labels were affixed to letters to indicate that they were to be sent by airmail. The exact colour was based on blue airmail etiquettes. It also set them aside from the standard boxes for normal correspondence. A blue ‘AIR MAIL’ sign is attached to the cap but an enamel ‘Air Mail Only’ notice attached to smaller pillar boxes was omitted from beneath the aperture of this unique box.ĭespite a long association with the colour red for post boxes, it was blue that had become the colour associated with airmail and this was the colour felt most suitable for the new boxes. Airmail boxes at this location were designated ‘Air Box No. This was the only large ‘A’ type airmail box produced and replaced a smaller ‘B’ type airmail pillar outside Postal Headquarters, King Edward Building, EC1. Blue airmail pillar box, photographed soon after it’s installation in 1933. These would be dedicated to mail bearing the additional fees while the blue colour would also draw attention to the additional facility. It was proposed in 1929 that a small number of blue painted pillar boxes be placed in prominent positions in London. A problem being experienced in the Foreign Section of the British Post Office in the late 1920s was that Air Mail was being mixed with ordinary correspondence and was frequently being delayed as a result. This was in addition to the ordinary rate of postage that would have covered overland travel to Europe and beyond. The public had the facility for sending urgent letters by air to certain overseas countries on payment of a special airmail fee. The British Post Office had been pushing the potential for air transport of mail, and beyond the administrative nightmare of logistics and cost, had not been afraid to demonstrate a degree of innovation and flair during this time of change. The prim statement by senior postal official Lumley mostly disguises a quiet satisfaction. Lumley, Principal, Secretary’s Office, January 1936 “So far as the handling of air mails is concerned, the original scheme appears to have been modified in a manner well calculated to produce efficient and economical working, with due regard to the requirements of the future” D.O. The short lived blue airmail boxes of the 1930s. Here is a brief exploration of just one aspect of that hidden history. Beneath that thin veneer of red paint there are many stories of development, trial, error and success to be discovered. You may even notice that one has different features to the norm. Glancing at it, you might notice that a particular box has a different monarch’s cipher shown on it, or that it is different size. Three Points of the Compass takes a dive in to their history and shares how you might find one.Īnyone walking across, living in or visiting the UK will frequently encounter that most prominent of street furniture, the brightly painted red post box. Hidden in plain sight in some UK towns and cities are just a few survivors from a short lived postal innovation. ![]()
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