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

Kingsway tram tunnel / Strand underpass

Kingsway tram tunnel / Strand underpass

The title of Wikipedia's page "Kingsway tramway subway" has way too many 'way's, but the page is very informative. The tunnel was constructed 1906, enabled by the 'slum clearance' project in the A...

Building, Transport

1 memorial
London General Omnibus Company

London General Omnibus Company

Transport company. It was originally an Anglo-French enterprise, also known as the Compagnie Generale des Omnibus de Londres. It became the largest omnibus operator in London, buying out hundreds o...

Group, Transport

3 memorials
Temple Mills

Temple Mills

A district on the boundaries of Newham and Waltham Forest. The name derives from the water mills which straddled the River Lea. Medieval Hackney was largely rural and crops were grown that needed ...

Place, Commerce, Transport

1 memorial
Battersea Bridge

Battersea Bridge

In 1771 a ferry was replaced with a wooden toll bridge designed (badly, apparently) by Henry Holland - shown in our image. The replacement bridge was begun in 1887 and opened in 1890.

Building, Transport

1 memorial
Croydon tram derailment

Croydon tram derailment

The tram carrying 69 passengers, had left New Addington bound for Wimbledon. At 6.07 a.m. as it approached Sandilands station on a sharp bend, it overturned on its right side. Seven passengers were...

Event, Tragedy, Transport

2 memorials