Survey Data
Reg No
50100001
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Artistic, Social, Technical
Original Use
Post box
In Use As
Post box
Date
1920 - 1940
Coordinates
315998, 233930
Date Recorded
16/05/2016
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Freestanding oval-plan cast-iron pillar box, installed c. 1930, having double letter opening, shallow domed cap, and moulded corona and letter apertures. Curved hinged doors at either side, incorporating raised frame and keyhole. No maker's mark visible. Raised lettering 'Post Office' and 'Next Collection', and P&T motif to front street side. Enamel lettering 'Áth Cliath (Dublin)' over aperture.
Appraisal
A good, well-maintained example of a post-Independence double-opening pillar box, bearing the P&T (Poist & Teileagrafa) motif rather than the Royal cipher of earlier examples. Pillar boxes were introduced to Dublin about 1857 and the distribution of cylindrical pillar boxes began in 1879, with the design having been changed from hexagonal-plan, due to the superior capacity and increased economy of the cylindrical forms. Remaining in use, the postbox is an icon of mass-produced street furniture, and has facilitated postal communications for over one hundred and fifty years. This box was temporarily painted red, the colour of the pre-Independence boxes, as part of the 1916 centenary commemorations.