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In a year rich in artistic commemorations it has been easy to overlook the 150th anniversary of the Penfold letter box. Letter boxes have an interesting history, although few people consider that items of street furniture are designed by anyone. For NADFAS members there is a particular resonance: these hexagonal boxes have distinctive acanthus leaves on the top, surmounted by an acanthus bud fi nial, a classical symbol of new life. Street art The Penfold letter box is often overlooked as just another piece of street furniture, yet it is a design classic that deserves greater attention. Tony Cross explainsArchitect John Wornham Penfold (1828–1909) was commissioned to create the design – he chose the hexagonal shape, with a horizontal slot, which had been popular when used in the Guernsey letter box experiment 12 years before. Born in Haslemere, Surrey, he also designed many local buildings and is buried in the town; in April 1993, a ‘working’ reproduction letter box of his design was installed in the high street.UK letter boxes were introduced in 1852; the ‘hexagonal Penfold’ box comes in fi ve different versions with three sizes, and was installed between 1866 and 1879. It was soon realised that they were not large enough for the quantity of mail posted by our Victorian forebears, so they were soon replaced by a more voluminous cylindrical design (the pillar box) that was also easier and cheaper to make; there have been many letter box designs since then. In the early days there was no standard colour, although bronze-green was common from 1859. However, this made the letter boxes diffi cult to spot, especially in rural settings, so pillar box red made its introduction in 1874. Over a ten-year period, every box in the country was re-painted, although a few boxes in historic locations, including Haslemere, still use the ‘old’ colour.Only 20 of the original boxes of 1866 are still in use, including eight in Cheltenham. But there are 70 examples of Penfold’s design on the streets of the UK, about half being in London (there is a reproduction a stone’s throw from NADFAS House on Gray’s Inn Road outside the Eastman Dental Hospital). Royal Mail are refurbishing all of them for the anniversary. An additional 28 are in museum and private collections and there are 41 overseas. Production of the boxes in New Zealand continued into the reign of King Edward VII; two examples with the ‘EVIIR’ cypher can still be found in Wellington.So popular is this design that cast iron reproductions have been manufactured since 1988 for use in conservation areas, places of historic interest and tourist areas. The box was also featured in a set of stamps issued by Royal Mail in February to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the postal service in Britain.• Penfold boxes will feature alongside many other design icons when The Postal Museum opens in London next spring, the fi rst major new museum for a decade. Find out more at www.postalmuseum.org. ■Below left: Original Penfold box at the IOW Postal MuseumRight: PenfoldÕs design sketchBelow: The Penfold box in the historic bronze-green colour, commemorated on a stamp 60 NADFAS REVIEW / AUTUMN 2016 www.nadfas.org.ukLETTER BOXES