Most of surviving heritage post box found in Georgetown was erected before Malaysia’s Independence in 1957. A few of this red box can still be seen standing around George Town at Jalan Macalister, Jalan Air Itam, Jalan Residensi and other part of the town.
The boxes of different shapes such as the pillar box, wall box and lamp box were made from cast iron and some of them displayed the Royal Cypher of the reigning monarch.
The top of this pillar box is slightly bigger to protect the rain from getting into the entry slot. On the other hand, the entry slot was designed slanted to allow deposit of mail.
The collection time for this box is indicated by the side of the box. The name of the manufacturer, Carron Company can be seen at the base of the box which was painted black.
This particular heritage post box is one of those with a unique shape that I have come across so far. This box displayed the Crown and the Royal Cypher "GR" or George Rex, the reign of King George V (1910-1936).
The collection time is indicated at the bottom of the box
This box with a beautiful coat of new paint also displayed the Crown and bears the Royal Cypher of King Edward VII (1901-1910). The base of this box can no longer be seen as its laid beneath the road.
Last but not least, the regular small size lamp post box without the Royal Cypher can be seen in many places around town.
Hopefully these post box stand on for the decades to come even though the sending of letters, post cards and greeting cards are getting lesser by the day with the wide use of electronic mails.
I am trying to find more of this type of post box, maybe one during the reign of Queen Victoria. Please share with me if you do come across any of this post box around town! :)
9 comments:
There's one opposite E&O Hotel, outside the entrance of Garage.
Jerine - That's wonderful. Thanks for sharing...will check it out.
this is a good work, u can't find it in tourism brochure. keep it up. mentioned here in Twitter http://twitter.com/TourismMalaysia/status/7151419089
to the best of my knowledge there is only one quen victoria post box in georgetown and it is located at beach street (near the banking district) ....hope you can include it in your blog :) - k.ganesh
There used to be one at Pulau Tikus post office, but it's no longer there.
There's also one on Upper Penang Road.
Anonymous - Thank you for dropping by and thanks for your compliment
K.ganesh - I will track down those box that you kindly shared with me and when I do get it, I will definitely update it in my blog.
Hi CK
My dad used to be the Postmaster of Pulau Tikus and later Jelutong Post Offices.
Obviously, there are many red post office boxes like those shown in your blog here in London.
See the attached link for more info re post boxes.
http://postalheritage.org.uk/collections/museum/letterboxes/lampboxes/
Regards
Eric Ng
Eric Ng - Thank you so much for sharing that link to so many post boxes. It was indeed an eye-opener...the green pillar ones are awesome.
Hi CK, I'm very interested in Colonial era postbox, coz myself is a stamp collector, and I'm interested to find out from you where is the King Edward VII postbox located.
So far I found two VR postboxes in Penang, in on the Beach Street, near to Indian House, and another one is at the Summit Road, Penang Hill.
Please let me know if you could find more.
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