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Sunday 19 August 2012

We’ve got a gold pillar-box!

Pillar box; post box; letter box; mail box…. whatever you call them, in Britain they are painted red.  Originally in the 1800s they were green, but red was chosen later so they would be easily seen.  Here, we have two types of mail box – the  box that is fitted into a wall and the freestanding pillar or cylindrical “box” that stands on the edge of a pavement/sidewalk.

Peebles gold pillar box During the  Olympics though, Royal Mail decided to paint gold a pillar box in each British Gold medallist’s home town – and because one of the Equestrian team was born in Peebles, the  pillar box in Peebles High Street was quickly painted after the team’s gold medal performance in London.  (click on the lower of the two pillar box icons at Edinburgh on the map to read about Scott and you can see more of the Peebles box here.)

How long they will stay gold I have no idea but they will eventually be repainted in their usual red (with black base).

Apparently when it was first painted – when I was still down at Colin’s, loads of people were getting their photographs taken with it!  The novelty has worn off now so I was able to capture the box in its new livery without anyone hanging around!

Just a quickie entry today.

Talk again soon.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a happy idea!
[Valerie, NZ]

Lesley Mason said...

When we were in Ireland, they were all green. Here in Oz they are red and white, but not many left now on the streets. More and more email users.

Lesley Mason said...

Hey maybe we should get silver or bronze ones!

Mary Ann said...

We were Olympics crazy here in Kansas, so what a fun fact to know!

Evelyn/Ev/Evee said...

Yes, I remember the green phone kiosks as well! I remember the red and white boxes in Oz too! I'm not sure if they are cutting back on boxes here. Maybe collections from our boxes are less frequent, as I for one hardly ever use a post box now, and I won't be alone.
Apparently we are the first country in Europe to paint post boxes for our Olympic gold medal winners. I wonder if anyone else does it! Anyway I hope we don't end up with multicoloured boxes for this, that and the other achievements, but I hope they continue the idea for the paralympic gold medal winners.

Evelyn/Ev/Evee said...

It IS quite a fun and happy thing to do, isn't it? Hard to get used to seeing a gold pillarbox though!!It's growing on me now but I didn't like it when I first saw it! Love the idea behind it though!
Thanks Valerie and Mary Ann. Hope you enjoyed the Olympics from London!

Katrina said...

I hope it's still gold by the time I eventually make it to Peebles!