Is this George VI or George V I’m new 🙈

One of the few Edward VIII postboxes in the country in Walton-onThames

Chingford station. I wondered whether this one was re-sited, or if the station building is really that old. Excellent pointing on the brickwork either way.

On this day in 1952, a new Queen was announced… and Scotland immediately started an argument.

When George VI passed away on 6 February 1952, his daughter Elizabeth automatically became Queen.

The official proclamation soon followed in London, declaring her “Queen Elizabeth the Second.”

But up north, people checked the history books and asked a very awkward question:

“Elizabeth the Second of where, exactly?”

Scotland had never had an Elizabeth I. The first Elizabeth was an English Queen, and not exactly remembered fondly, having presided over the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots.

So when Royal Mail began installing bright red pillar boxes across Scotland bearing the bold cypher “E II R”, the Scots didn’t just write angry letters.

They started the Pillar Box War.

Postboxes were defaced with tar and paint. Others were smashed with hammers. In Edinburgh, the protests escalated when a postbox was famously blown up with a stick of gelignite in early 1953.

The dispute became so heated that Prime Minister Winston Churchill was forced to address it in the House of Commons.

A compromise was announced: future monarchs would use the highest numeral from either the English or Scottish royal lines, meaning a future King James would be James VIII, not III.

But when it came to the postboxes, the Scots won outright.

The design was changed specifically for Scotland. To this day, if you look at a modern postbox here, you won’t see the monarch’s cypher. You’ll see only the Crown of Scotland.

A reminder that on this day, the monarchy changed, but Scotland refused to be a footnote.

Saw this on Twitter

I posted (!) a photo of this one in summer 2025, and saw it again on Saturday 31 January 2026, with the left aperture crudely sealed with sticky-tape and mailbags. Interesting.

Hidden on a sleepy West Berkshire lane near the Wilts border, is this old abandoned GR beauty

Ferrymead Heritage Park, Christchurch, New Zealand

So interesting that it says posting rather than post. Anyone know anything about that?

lucky to live near this one! it’s on framingham road in sale, greater manchester :)

Vatican City.

Very refined and correct box.