Plaque

Penfold pillar box - NW3

Inscription

This Penfold pillar box, dating from around 1870 is preserved as an historical monument but is not in use. Please post in Post Office opposite.

Site: Penfold pillar box - NW3 (1 memorial)

NW3, Hampstead High Street, 23

About this pillar box Victorian web informs: "On 9 January 1914 it was sabotaged by the militant branch of the suffragettes belonging to Emmeline Pankhurst's Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU). Ever since Emily Wilding Davison had tried to set fire to a pillar box in 1911, this had been one of their forms of protest. The Hampstead box had tar and oil "posted" in it, and the interior was then set on fire, badly damaging the mail inside. The women responsible left a message referring to the plight of their imprisoned fellow-suffragettes. So this is now seen partly as a memorial to the suffragette movement."

What a pity the plaque does not refer to this history. We guess that the Post Office deliberately avoid putting ideas into people's heads.

Another pillar box, corner of Highbury Grove and Aberdeen Park, was also attacked by the suffragettes who set it on fire overnight, found alight on 30 January 1913.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the subjects commemorated on the memorial on this page:
Penfold pillar box - NW3

Subjects commemorated i

John Penfold

Surveyor and architect. Born John Wornham Penfold in Haslemere, Surrey. He wa...

Read More

Penfold pillar boxes

Designed by John Penfold. They are distinguished by their hexagonal shape, wi...

Read More

This section lists the subjects who helped to create/erect the memorial on this page:
Penfold pillar box - NW3

Created by i

Royal Mail

Before the 2012 Olympics started the Royal Mail committed to turn a red post ...

Read More

Nearby Memorials

Chamberlain - LSHTM

Chamberlain - LSHTM

WC1, Gower Street, School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Neville's father, Joseph, had been involved in the School's foundation in 1899. This foundation stone is on the Keppel Street façade. The...

1 subject commemorated
Holy Trinity Clapham - Clapham Sect

Holy Trinity Clapham - Clapham Sect

SW4, Rookery Road, Clapham Common

The damage on this plaque is the result of WW2 bombs.

13 subjects commemorated
Woodbury Hill shield

Woodbury Hill shield

IG10, Woodbury Hill, 9

This heraldic shield is probably original to the building and has no connection to the Adamses. If anyone can decode the heraldry symbols...

Islington Tunnel - east - new

Islington Tunnel - east - new

N1, Grand Union Canal near Colebrooke Row

We note that the plaque, twice refers to 'Angel', not 'the Angel', and realise that we are not sure which usage is correct.

3 subjects commemorated, 1 creator
Siegfried Sassoon - W8

Siegfried Sassoon - W8

W8, Campden Hill Square, 23

Siegfried Sassoon, 1886 - 1967, writer, lived here 1925 - 1932. English Heritage

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator