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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." 

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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.

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Anthony Trollope - pillar box - Piccadilly

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

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Anthony Trollope - pillar box - Rutland Gate

5 similar plaques have been erected.

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Anthony Trollope - pillar box - Strand

5 similar plaques have been erected.

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Charlotte Dujardin gold post box

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

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Other Subjects

Caldedonian Sleeper

Caldedonian Sleeper

From the website: "Travel in comfort Between Scotland and London, allowing you to arrive refreshed  The Caledonian Sleeper is the most civilised way to travel between Scotland and London, allowing ...

Group, Transport, Scotland

1 memorial
Bentley Motor Car

Bentley Motor Car

Walter Owen Bentley (1888 - 1971), "W. O." to his friends, founded Bentley Motors Limited. The first Bentley was designed in 1919 and built in New Street Mews, the site of the plaques. It took just...

Vehicle, Engineering, Transport

2 memorials
Bawley fishing boat

Bawley fishing boat

Whitebait were caught by this type of craft in the River Thames, until 1950. The picture source website tells us that the Bawley is a variation of the 'smack' type of ship. The name "is probably de...

Vehicle, Food & Drink, Transport

1 memorial
Kilburn Bridge

Kilburn Bridge

The ever-useful Underground Map gives "Kilburn Bridge once marked the spot where the Edgware Road crossed the River Westbourne. Kilburn Bridge, which was recorded in 1398 and thought to have been b...

Building, Transport

1 memorial
Grove Road Toll Bar

Grove Road Toll Bar

"In use in the 18th and 19th centuries" so the dates we give are very approximate.

Building, Commerce, Transport

1 memorial