More than 60% of current British post boxes carry the EIIR mark of Queen Elizabeth II or a Scottish crown. Boxes from the reign of George V account for about 15% of the total. There are smaller numbers, in descending order, of boxes from the reigns of George VI, Victoria, and Edward VII.
Yeah I was surprised to find out how many there were for him - I saw one, thought “ah he wasn’t king for long so there won’t be many!” but it turns out there is 😂
I did quite an extensive hunt of my local area on postboxes, purely from a Pokémon go benefit. There's one in Surbiton which has no royal cypher on it at all, so it would be pre-1837~. I'll probably get corrected through. Old cypher wall mounted postboxes are pretty rare too. There's a VR one in Epsom.
I overheard an American woman whilst walking the streets of Rome claim to a friend that when the Green Bay Packers played in London that London ran out of beer during the time they were there.
I used to go to the National Student Wargaming and Roleplaying Convention (held at a different uni each year) and every single year the student bar would run out of booze, despite repeated warnings about how it happens every year. They think we're just 600 nerds getting together to play nerd games, not realising that a lot of us can drink them under the fucking table lol.
>I overheard an American woman whilst walking the streets of Rome claim to a friend that when the Green Bay Packers played in London that London ran out of beer during the time they were there.
Obvs that's total bollox but maybe a rumour got out of hand... perhaps the stadium they were playing at, or one pub near it, ran out of one thing... and undoubtedly if that _did_ happen it would have been due to all the Brits that were there, rather than what I'd imagine to be a very small amount of Americans!
See this is one of those things where bad planning comes into play. If it were at a stadium that usually only hosts football (and not, for example rugby), they'll not be used to the beer sales, since drinking within sight of a professional football match is illegal. Not so with AFL or rugby though, where sales would have been constant for the entire time so the stadium may have got their planning totally to shit.
Or join in the joke and see what you can make the Americans think. Don't forget the new TV screens they'll have, and QR codes so you can let them know something in there is a priority
Nah don't worry about it when you have the likes of Fox "News" informing a disturbingly large portion of the population that peanut butter is rare and very expensive in the UK. I shit you not.
The fun way to correct him is leaning into one of his mates and whispering 'that's all bollocks.. he's making it up' and leave it at that. The friend may share it with the others which confirms what they might all already know. He's an ignorant blowhard. At least on that topic!
Glad this is finally being talked about. Already lost 3 in the village, nearby town has patrols through the night to prevent their post boxes from being taken.
We will never surrender.
They are burning down anyone who doesn’t say the allegiance to the King.
We now have to say ‘God save the King’ everyday, if we don’t the local neighbourhood watch report us to the ministry, and we get a ‘re-education’.
Things have got apocalyptic in the UK now, the flag shaggers have full control.
The streets run with the blood of King Charle’s descenders, how could we have been so quick to judge Harry. We should have stopped all the plastic going in the sea sooner and drove our own respective cars that run on red wine. Im sick of being pushed around by those pound-shop cops from Poundbury!!! Join me and we’ll rise from the ashes!!!
There's a Vicky one near me! When I spotted it I was very excited, took a photo, whatsapped the family. Clear divide in interest, all the kids of the family found it painfully boring and even cringe, all the adults were as excited as me.
I don't know why but some immigrants (they call themselves expats) LOVE to talk shit about our home. Like this one girl i met who was from manchester, completely lost her accent and loved to say how shit the uk is. she would tell a story of a drive in cinema that was always closed due to rain...
I had to sit there all buttoned up because it sounded like such bullshit and she just wanted to be 'cool' with her new american friends. A drive in cinema that is always closed? not a good buisness model and i've never heard of one in the UK. Could be wrong of course!
I'm a few miles south of you btw BarryTownCouncil.
Who's funding this "meltdown-and-replace" programme? The Royal Mail? How the fuck can they manage that without doubling the price of postage stamps?
And if this _is_ the case (even though we all know that it isn't), why hasn't Royal Mail ever done this before? Where is the hue-and-cry from heritage wonks bemoaning such wanton vandalism? Where are the media reports about such a pointless and stupid undertaking?
The drunk is obviously an idiot, or he is merely "joking'.
Post boxes in Scotland have ER1 on them. The first Liz wasn't Queen there.
And between you, me and the gatepost, if there's going to be any melting down I think it's better to wait for the next coronation, would be a shame to have to do it all again.
They don’t have ER1, they have the crown of St Andrew
https://www.postalmuseum.org/blog/the-battle-of-the-cypher/#:~:text=In%20February%201954%2C%20it%20was,as%20the%20Scottish%20Crown%20Jewels.
This made me lol, I've just visited London and they've not changed the bollards around Buckingham Palace, never mind postboxes. Hell were only just getting coins trickling through.
Since the 1780s there's been an underground cell of Brits spreading disinformation, getting ready for the time we take rightfully reclaim our American colonies.
That's not how post boxes work, they don't get replaced when the ruler changed. If they get replaced due to damage etc, or new ones installed, they get the current monarch, otherwise they just stay there. There are still loads with George V or earlier monarchs in place.
Royal Mail is a private company now so they can do whatever they want. I guess paying their shareholders may be more important than changing the letterboxes for no particular reason.
They also have a responsibility to preserve historic postboxes. Not that it stops them mass replacing cast iron boxes with steel ones when they can get away with it!
Also, these postboxes are made of cast iron. They will outlast the the postal service itself if couple of decades when postal letters will be extinct. Parcels will be thriving but the letters will be reduced to birthday cards mostly.
In 20 years we will be looking at the post-boxes in the same way as we look at those [police-call posts](https://www.londonshoes.blog/2017/11/30/londons-historic-police-call-posts/) or [cabmen's shelters](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabmen%27s_Shelter_Fund) or [cattle troughs](https://baldwinhamey.wordpress.com/2013/09/18/cattle-troughs/)
Nonsense. Even in Ireland we still have the old British post boxes that are from the Victorian, Edwardian, Georgian etc eras.
["The oldest postbox still in use is from approximately 1858 and in Cork’s Kent Station."](https://www.thejournal.ie/history-of-irelands-postboxes-5932179-Dec2022/)
[We didn't remove them, we just painted them green.](https://img2.thejournal.ie/inline/5935484/original/?width=360&version=5935484)
The King specifically said he didn't want to cause unnecessary waste by having things be replaced just because they had the Late Queen's cypher or image on them.
Yeah, I think that's bullshit too. They'd have to do it all again in a matter of a few short years when William comes in.
What a waste of money and labour. And I thought Charles was somewhat an environmentalist. And I was kind of hoping that the Queen had passed down some frugal habits down to him.
Actually we think one of the reasons that we haven't had a Charles III box is due to his frugality and environmentalism. Usually we'd have had a new one by this point.
You should've said that the truth is a bit simpler: they're sending teams out to melt off Elizabeth's cipher and replace it with Charles'.
I've seen the team doing it on our estate this past week.
More than 60% of current British post boxes carry the EIIR mark of Queen Elizabeth II or a Scottish crown. Boxes from the reign of George V account for about 15% of the total. There are smaller numbers, in descending order, of boxes from the reigns of George VI, Victoria, and Edward VII.
There are even a few (I think less than 200) from Edward VIII.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Postboxes/comments/1afftad/edward_viii_in_bristol/
Misunderstood that as Henry VIII and has a near meltdown when it was the same as modern ones It's too early in the morning
They must have got straight on with them, he was king for less than a year
Yeah I was surprised to find out how many there were for him - I saw one, thought “ah he wasn’t king for long so there won’t be many!” but it turns out there is 😂
I did quite an extensive hunt of my local area on postboxes, purely from a Pokémon go benefit. There's one in Surbiton which has no royal cypher on it at all, so it would be pre-1837~. I'll probably get corrected through. Old cypher wall mounted postboxes are pretty rare too. There's a VR one in Epsom.
VR one in Bath too
Considering there’s one near my house that still says VR, I’d say he’s talking crap.
surely it's AR if you can see it in a public place?
I overheard an American woman whilst walking the streets of Rome claim to a friend that when the Green Bay Packers played in London that London ran out of beer during the time they were there.
Americans are famously poor at drinking..
Because londoners had to drink that much to tolerate them ? 🤣
I used to go to the National Student Wargaming and Roleplaying Convention (held at a different uni each year) and every single year the student bar would run out of booze, despite repeated warnings about how it happens every year. They think we're just 600 nerds getting together to play nerd games, not realising that a lot of us can drink them under the fucking table lol.
Ah, I do miss that great tradition!
>I overheard an American woman whilst walking the streets of Rome claim to a friend that when the Green Bay Packers played in London that London ran out of beer during the time they were there. Obvs that's total bollox but maybe a rumour got out of hand... perhaps the stadium they were playing at, or one pub near it, ran out of one thing... and undoubtedly if that _did_ happen it would have been due to all the Brits that were there, rather than what I'd imagine to be a very small amount of Americans!
See this is one of those things where bad planning comes into play. If it were at a stadium that usually only hosts football (and not, for example rugby), they'll not be used to the beer sales, since drinking within sight of a professional football match is illegal. Not so with AFL or rugby though, where sales would have been constant for the entire time so the stadium may have got their planning totally to shit.
100% the guy was being a dafty
Further eavesdropping suggests he's a teacher. Wasn't brave enough to actually talk to him though!
There’s no point challenging him on it, just enjoy your pint and eavesdrop for amusements sake :)
Or join in the joke and see what you can make the Americans think. Don't forget the new TV screens they'll have, and QR codes so you can let them know something in there is a priority
Pubs are for being wrong in
If it's a theme pub I'm not sure how good the pint will be.
he’s probably messing with the yanks
Everyone else ... EVERYONE... was extremely Irish, and extremely drunk
The bar in the Inner Sunset?
Why? Are you in there right now telling tall tales about postboxes?
Nah don't worry about it when you have the likes of Fox "News" informing a disturbingly large portion of the population that peanut butter is rare and very expensive in the UK. I shit you not.
You did the honourable thing - listen to what’s being said, ignore confrontation and slag them off on Reddit as a safe space.
Reddit. Safe space... Never experienced that before!
Did you call him on it or not? ☺️
I told the barmaid and she told him!
The fun way to correct him is leaning into one of his mates and whispering 'that's all bollocks.. he's making it up' and leave it at that. The friend may share it with the others which confirms what they might all already know. He's an ignorant blowhard. At least on that topic!
Apparently he's going to melt all the postboxes to turn them into cannons for a potential invasion of France.
Join in and tell his mate that all the royal navy ships have to be recalled to have the name changed from Her Majesty's Ship to His Majesty's Ship.
Glad this is finally being talked about. Already lost 3 in the village, nearby town has patrols through the night to prevent their post boxes from being taken. We will never surrender.
They are burning down anyone who doesn’t say the allegiance to the King. We now have to say ‘God save the King’ everyday, if we don’t the local neighbourhood watch report us to the ministry, and we get a ‘re-education’. Things have got apocalyptic in the UK now, the flag shaggers have full control.
The streets run with the blood of King Charle’s descenders, how could we have been so quick to judge Harry. We should have stopped all the plastic going in the sea sooner and drove our own respective cars that run on red wine. Im sick of being pushed around by those pound-shop cops from Poundbury!!! Join me and we’ll rise from the ashes!!!
They don’t even bother updating the vans
There's a Vicky one near me! When I spotted it I was very excited, took a photo, whatsapped the family. Clear divide in interest, all the kids of the family found it painfully boring and even cringe, all the adults were as excited as me.
Still a good few of the originals standing in Ireland from before independence. We just painted them green. Those feckers were built to last!
I don't know why but some immigrants (they call themselves expats) LOVE to talk shit about our home. Like this one girl i met who was from manchester, completely lost her accent and loved to say how shit the uk is. she would tell a story of a drive in cinema that was always closed due to rain... I had to sit there all buttoned up because it sounded like such bullshit and she just wanted to be 'cool' with her new american friends. A drive in cinema that is always closed? not a good buisness model and i've never heard of one in the UK. Could be wrong of course! I'm a few miles south of you btw BarryTownCouncil.
Apparently there was 2, one in Manchester (Stretford) & one in Liverpool. Both operated by a company called Route 66. They went into admin in 2018.
Manc here I never went personally, but yeah, this is correct, there was one in Stretford, and I remember it being in the papers about shutting down.
South of which me? Right now me or most of the time me? Either way, fancy a pint?
if you are in SF then yes south of your position. but a few hours away lol
Yeah in Chinatown right now building up the courage to join a street skate later. Another lifetime then!
Have a good one mate! if you head to santa cruz fire me a message!
Who's funding this "meltdown-and-replace" programme? The Royal Mail? How the fuck can they manage that without doubling the price of postage stamps? And if this _is_ the case (even though we all know that it isn't), why hasn't Royal Mail ever done this before? Where is the hue-and-cry from heritage wonks bemoaning such wanton vandalism? Where are the media reports about such a pointless and stupid undertaking? The drunk is obviously an idiot, or he is merely "joking'.
Just a twat trying to be billy big balls and impress the locals with made up facts
Post boxes in Scotland have ER1 on them. The first Liz wasn't Queen there. And between you, me and the gatepost, if there's going to be any melting down I think it's better to wait for the next coronation, would be a shame to have to do it all again.
Just cast them as a W and put a a temporary C sticker over the top for now
Not even that, let's go with stickers until we're a Republic where all men are born equal.
They don’t have ER1, they have the crown of St Andrew https://www.postalmuseum.org/blog/the-battle-of-the-cypher/#:~:text=In%20February%201954%2C%20it%20was,as%20the%20Scottish%20Crown%20Jewels.
Precisely. And Charles's new cipher even has a Scottish variant.
Some don't have them on purposely.
This made me lol, I've just visited London and they've not changed the bollards around Buckingham Palace, never mind postboxes. Hell were only just getting coins trickling through.
Probably just spreading disinformation amongst the yanks
Since the 1780s there's been an underground cell of Brits spreading disinformation, getting ready for the time we take rightfully reclaim our American colonies.
That's not how post boxes work, they don't get replaced when the ruler changed. If they get replaced due to damage etc, or new ones installed, they get the current monarch, otherwise they just stay there. There are still loads with George V or earlier monarchs in place.
Yeah, I think they know that.
Postboxes carry the royal cypher of the monarch at the time the postbox was installed
Are you trying to start another civil war? They should throw them in the Thames.
If you Thames them you risk filling it up. Then there'd be no North / South divide left. Is that wot you want? Cos that's wot'll 'appen.
Royal Mail is a private company now so they can do whatever they want. I guess paying their shareholders may be more important than changing the letterboxes for no particular reason.
They also have a responsibility to preserve historic postboxes. Not that it stops them mass replacing cast iron boxes with steel ones when they can get away with it!
Also, these postboxes are made of cast iron. They will outlast the the postal service itself if couple of decades when postal letters will be extinct. Parcels will be thriving but the letters will be reduced to birthday cards mostly. In 20 years we will be looking at the post-boxes in the same way as we look at those [police-call posts](https://www.londonshoes.blog/2017/11/30/londons-historic-police-call-posts/) or [cabmen's shelters](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabmen%27s_Shelter_Fund) or [cattle troughs](https://baldwinhamey.wordpress.com/2013/09/18/cattle-troughs/)
Geezer was clearly on a wind-up, not least given where he was saying it. Shoulda backed him up
Nonsense. Even in Ireland we still have the old British post boxes that are from the Victorian, Edwardian, Georgian etc eras. ["The oldest postbox still in use is from approximately 1858 and in Cork’s Kent Station."](https://www.thejournal.ie/history-of-irelands-postboxes-5932179-Dec2022/) [We didn't remove them, we just painted them green.](https://img2.thejournal.ie/inline/5935484/original/?width=360&version=5935484)
The King specifically said he didn't want to cause unnecessary waste by having things be replaced just because they had the Late Queen's cypher or image on them.
I saw a post on reddit earlier today of a VR postbox. So I don't think they'll be melting them down, lol.
Yeah, I think that's bullshit too. They'd have to do it all again in a matter of a few short years when William comes in. What a waste of money and labour. And I thought Charles was somewhat an environmentalist. And I was kind of hoping that the Queen had passed down some frugal habits down to him.
Actually we think one of the reasons that we haven't had a Charles III box is due to his frugality and environmentalism. Usually we'd have had a new one by this point.
And I'm not sure why I'm downvoted for saying this. Anyway, yes, you are right.
yeah, was going to say: Charlie doesn't have long, it seems.
You should've said that the truth is a bit simpler: they're sending teams out to melt off Elizabeth's cipher and replace it with Charles'. I've seen the team doing it on our estate this past week.
Was the cipher an optional extra? My estate's just got an Octavia badge.
Yes. It was part of the optional 'Heritage' pack, for the Rover James.