Group   

Royal Mail

Categories: Transport

Before the 2012 Olympics started the Royal Mail committed to turn a red post box gold for each British Gold medal, Olympic and Paralympic. In the event this meant that over 100 boxes turned colour. Each one is associated with a particular gold medal and has been chosen to be close to the medallist's home town/borough. Here's the map. We don't believe that the Royal Mail despatched an employee with a pot of gold paint the instant the medallist crossed the line but they have said the colour is permanent.

The Royal Mail have their own website of memorials, nationwide: https://www.royalmail.com/memorials/home .

2022: Londonist have posted (ha ha) an excellent page on postboxes

2024: We read a WW2 'Letter from London' by Mollie Panter-Downes with: "Posting a letter has acquired a new interest, too, since His Majesty's tubby scarlet pillar boxes have been done up in squares of yellow detector paint, which changes colour if there is poison gas in the air and is said to be as sensitive as a chameleon." 

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

This section lists the memorials created by the subject on this page:
Royal Mail

Creations i

Anthony Trollope - pillar box - Fleet Street

5 similar plaques have been erected.

Read More

Anthony Trollope - pillar box - Piccadilly

This plaque commemorates the bicentenary of the birth of Anthony Trollope (18...

Read More

Anthony Trollope - pillar box - Rutland Gate

5 similar plaques have been erected.

Read More

Anthony Trollope - pillar box - Strand

5 similar plaques have been erected.

Read More

Charlotte Dujardin gold post box

{On plaque attached to side of box:} This post box has been painted gold by R...

Read More

Other Subjects

Croydon airport

Croydon airport

Croydon was London's first international airport. The terminal building, 1928 - 1959, was one of the first purpose-built terminal buildings in the world. The air traffic control tower is the first ...

Place, Aviation, Transport

3 memorials
Tower subway

Tower subway

A tunnel beneath the Thames with entrances at Tower Hill and at Vine Lane on the south side. The second tunnel under the Thames (the first being Brunel's) and the first tunnel anywhere built using ...

Place, Transport

1 memorial
Capt. W. Goodley, OBE, MC

Capt. W. Goodley, OBE, MC

Commissioner in the St John Ambulance Brigade, No. 1 District, 1921-1947. Knight Grace in the Order of St John. The Chelmsford Chronicle - Friday 10 January 1947 carries an obituary: "Captain Will...

Person, Armed Forces, Emergency Services, Medicine, Politics & Administration, Transport

1 memorial
Geoff Harrison-Mee

Geoff Harrison-Mee

Director of transport systems in Ireland, Qatar and the much reviled Connex rail company in South-East England.

Person, Transport, Ireland

1 memorial
Charles Tyson Yerkes

Charles Tyson Yerkes

First things first - pronounce his name to rhyme to with turkeys.  He has a claim to having created London Transport. Born Philadelphia. The memorial describes him as 'creative' and 'imaginative' ...

Person, Transport, USA

2 memorials

Previously viewed

Jane Austen

Jane Austen

Jane Austen, novelist of 6 major novels including Pride and Prejudice. Born: Steventon, Hampshire. Died: Winchester, Hampshire. For all Austen-related London locations see Londonist. A statue was u...

Person, Literature, Seriously Famous

3 memorials
Leslie Palmer

Leslie Palmer

From Trinidad. Director of the Notting Hill Carnival 1973-1975. He found sponsorship, recruited more steel bands and reggae groups and introduced static sound systems, live music stages and  genera...

Person, Community / Clubs, Politics & Administration, Caribbean Islands

1 memorial
William Marsden

William Marsden

Surgeon who founded two hospitals. 1828 established a small dispensary in Greville Street which was the first to provide free treatment even to people not sent by the benefactors of the institution...

Person, Medicine

3 memorials
Francis Owen Salisbury

Francis Owen Salisbury

Painter. Born in Harpenden, Hertfordshire. Known as Frank, his forte was in portraiture and he also painted over forty large canvases of historical and national events. He also produced a large qua...

Person, Art, Craft / Design

2 memorials
Eton Mission Rowing Club

Eton Mission Rowing Club

From Hear the Boat Sing: "EMRC has a fascinating history and was started in the East London docklands in the late 19th century by a group of old Etonians, who saw it as their mission to help boys i...

Group, Children, Sport / Games

1 memorial