Oxford post boxes: Victorian pillar boxes
Park Town (originally Park Crescent)Manufacturer: Cochrane & Co., Dudley
Hexagonal pillar box in excellent condition, complete with decorative finial bud on top of acanthus leaves, and a coat-of-arms. Designed by the architect John Wornham Penfold, these boxes date from 1866 to 1879. It is the only surviving pillar box of the nine that Jackson's Oxford Journal listed in the city on 3 August 1867, and it is also recorded in Webster’s Oxford Directory of 1869 |
Farndon Road (at junction of Warnborough Road)Manufacturer: Cochrane & Co., Dudley
A second hexagonal Penfold pillar box of the design dating from 1866 to 1879. This one is not as early as the Park Town example, and has lost its finial and coat-of-arms. These Penfold boxes were made in three different sizes |
Rawlinson RoadManufacturer: Handyside & Co., Derby & London
“Anonymous” pillar box (lacking the words “Post Office”, and with no royal cipher), of a design dating from 1879–1889. This box is listed in Kelly’s Directory for 1894. |
Outside Sunnyside, 78 Banbury RoadManufacturer: Handyside & Co., Derby & London
“Anonymous” pillar box (lacking the words “Post Office”, and with no royal cipher), of design dating from 1879–1889. This box was installed by the Post Office in 1885 specifically for the benefit of Sir James Murray, who had just moved into this house, to cope with the huge correspondence generated from the “Scriptorium” in the garden where the Oxford English Dictionary was being put together. |
Covered MarketManufacturer: Handyside & Co., Derby & London
Pillar box of design dating from 1889–1901: slimline version of the former one in George Street, right). Now often sporting a topper created by Woolhound: examples here |
George Street REMOVED in 2021/2Manufacturer: Handyside & Co., Derby & London
Pillar box of design dating from 1889–1901 (large-capacity version) |
Pillar boxes in 1867
Jackson's Oxford Journal lists just nine pillar letter boxes in Oxford at this date, of which only the one in Park Town (then Park Crescent) survives:
Broad Street
High Street
LittlegateMagdalen Street
Osney
Park CrescentPark End Street
St Giles
St Clement
Pillar and wall boxes in 1899
Kelly's Directory lists pillar and wall boxes together without differentiation. There were then the following 31 boxes (in a city much smaller than today, with Cowley, Headington, Littlemore, and Wolvercote still being separate villages). The ten boxes listed in bold type survive and are still in use in 2023
Banbury Road
Broad Street
Bullingdon Road
Chalfont Road
Cripley Road
Farndon Road
Fyfield Road
G.W.R. station
Iffley Road
King Edward Street
Littlegate Street
Long Wall Street
Magdalen Road
Magdalen Road east
Magdalen Street
Market, The
Merton Street
Newton Road
Norham Gardens
Osney
Paradise Street
Park Crescent
Queen Street
Rawlinson Road
St Aldate's Street
St Margaret's Road
South Parks Road
The Plain, St Clement's
Turl Street
Woodstock Road
Worcester Street
In 1899 all the pillar boxes pictured above were emptied eleven times a day Mon–Sat with the last collection at 10pm, but only twice on Sunday, except for the one in the Covered Market, where 98 different businesses operated: this was emptied nine times a day, with the last collection at 8pm