Event    From 10/1/1840  To 1890

Penny Post

Categories: Commerce

First established in London in 1680 by William Dockwra and his business partner, Robert Murray, operating only within the City of London, the City of Westminter and Southwark. From 1765 similar services were being set up in other populous areas.

From January 1840 letters could be sent anywhere in the UK for one penny. From May 1840 the cost of postage could be prepaid with the purchase of the first postage stamp, the Penny Black. In 1898 the Imperial Penny post extended the rate to the whole British Empire. The penny post rate ended in 1918. Prior to the uniform penny post the cost of sending a letter was based on the number of sheets and the distance travelled, and the recipient paid, not the sender.

Anthony Trollope’s ‘The Claverings’ was published in serial form 1866-7. Trollope gives two characters this conversation: “I used to think myself the best lover in the world if I wrote once a month.” “There was no penny post then Mr Burton.”

Elizabeth Gaskell's 'Wives and Daughters' was published 1864-6 but set c.1820: "Mrs Gibson was occasionally inclined to complain of the frequency of Helen Kirkpatrick {her daughter}'s letters {from London to the country}; for before the penny post came in, the recipient had to pay the postage of letters; and elevenpence-halfpenny three times a week came according to Mrs Gibson's mode of reckoning when annoyed, to a sum 'between three and four shillings'. 

Later in the book: "Mrs Gibson was busy reading a letter from Cynthia which Mr Gibson had brought from London; for every opportunity of private conveyance was seized upon when postage was so high."

To us, almost a shilling (5 new pence) for a letter seems extremely expensive given how the value of money has fallen over time, no wonder Mrs Gibson was annoyed!  Also, in the mid 1960's the cost of a stamp was 4 old pence, i.e. one third of a shilling, a third of what it was in 1820. These differences are astonishing.

To celebrate the jubilee in 1890 the General Post Office set up the Jubilee Celebration Committee and in 1891 published a book: "Account of the Celebration of the Jubilee of Uniform Inland Penny Postage at the Venetian Chamber, Holborn Restaurant - at Guildhall - at the Museum of Science and Art, South Kensington - and at Various Towns and Villages throughout the United Kingdom."

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This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Penny Post

Commemorated ati

Penny Post - 1890 jubilee

This stone was laid by the Right Honourable Henry Cecil Raikes, M. P., Her Ma...

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Penny post - Westminster

City of Westminster This building was the site of the Westminster office of ...

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Rowland Hill - NW3 - second erection

The 1892 erection must have been on the house in which Hill lived and died, B...

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Rowland Hill - NW3 - third erection

Rowland Hill, KCB, originator of the Penny Post, lived here, 1849 - 1879. Bor...

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Rowland Hill statue

{On the front of the red granite plinth:} Rowland Hill He founded uniform p...

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Show all 6

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W. H. Smiths

W. H. Smiths

Henry Walton Smith and his wife Anna opened a small newsvendors in 1792 in Little Grosvenor Street. HW and then Anna died, and their sons took over, renaming the business after one of them, William...

Group, Commerce

6 memorials
Edmund Matthew Shemeld

Edmund Matthew Shemeld

Trustee of the Lambeth Hayles Estate development in 1894. Edmund Matthew Shemeld was born on 18 January 1836 in Woburn, Bedfordshire, the second of the five children of Thomas Shemeld (1806-1864) ...

Person, Commerce, Politics & Administration

1 memorial
Mont Blanc restaurant

Mont Blanc restaurant

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Place, Commerce, Food & Drink

1 memorial
Harry Selfridge

Harry Selfridge

Born Wisconsin. Too small to join the navy he became a clerk in a department store, where he rose to manager and then set out on his own. Very successful, he "retired" in 1906, moved to London and ...

Person, Commerce, USA

2 memorials
Ernest Eugene Pither

Ernest Eugene Pither

Art dealer and importer as "E. E. Pither and Sons". 1881 "Commission Agent" living with his mother and brother.  1882-99 operated out of various addresses in the area including 53 and 38 Mortimer S...

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1 memorial

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Georges Levillain

Georges Levillain

In 1961 Mayor of Clichy, France, and Vice-President of the General Council of the Seine.

Person, Politics & Administration, France

1 memorial
Quintain

Quintain

Construction and property management company.

Group, Property

2 memorials
Kingston Spiritualist Church - Foundation Stone 1 - Welbeloves

Kingston Spiritualist Church - Foundation Stone 1 - Welbeloves

KT1, Villiers Road, 40

We have numbered the foundation stones from left to right.

1 subject commemorated, 2 creators
Guss Strehle

Guss Strehle

The foundry in Germany where the statue of Saint Volodymyr was cast.

Group, Craft / Design, Germany

1 memorial