A History of Letterboxes In Britain & How It Became A Worldwide Symbol

Of course, like any other important function, a front door letterbox came from somewhere. In our quest to learn more about how letterboxes came to be, we spoke with experts in the field at locksandahrdware.co.uk. Thanks to years of experience in providing letterbox fittings, we thought they made the best people to ask about how letterboxes came to be.

Let’s take a trip down memory lane, then, and see how the letter established itself from an oddity in an era of rare mail to an essential part of everything from day-to-day post deliveries to home décor.

How Letterboxes Became An Icon Of Britain

Today, it is common for just about every house in Britain to receive mail. From the latest promotions in your area to mail about your affairs, bills and everything else, we all get mail at least once per week. However, go back to the 1600s, and the concept of every house in the UK being a mail recipient seemed odd. Hence, letterboxes were not always part of British doors!

In the past, it was pretty rare for people to even get a post; it was really left to the upper classes of the UK to get a post. The courier would knock on the door and drop off the parcel; it was even rarer for post to have an address on it, such was the rarity of having post delivered. A name alone was often all the courier needed. Over the next century or so, though, this changed quite drastically.

So, with more posts being delivered, as well as a larger national population, a solution was sought. With more people educated and working, more mail was needed. While postboxes – a place for people to deposit the post they wanted to send – were common before the 1800s, it was rare for someone to actually have a space on their door for post to be put through.

Indeed, by the 1850s, the Royal Mail requested that all doors have a place where post could be put through. Letterboxes were soon added to doors, with the iconic concept – a small slit in the door with a covering, usually made from metal – coming into common practice ever since. Today, just about every door in the country has a front door letterbox.

A Definitive History Of Letterboxes In The UK

Let’s take a look, then, at how the letterbox became such an indelible part of British history!

The Old Days

Pretty much at any time before the 1600s, the concept of having mail delivered was a bit strange. Most people did not need to get something delivered from afar. Our connections socially and for work meant that we pretty much only knew of people in our local communities. Rather than post something, people would simply visit their neighbour(s) and drop off whatever would today be posted.

The few homes that would receive post were well-known to the country's postal service. It was often a matter for those of the higher classes to receive a post. Letters and parcels being delivered were really only for those of the elite. Instead of having a front door letterbox to use, mail would be given to the person by the courier.

The 1700s

As we moved into the 1700s, this slowly but surely changed. Britain’s population continued to swell, as did the number of people who had a home and were educated. As such, more mail was in demand. Connections, too, grew wider; people were less likely to only know of people and businesses in their own community. Therefore, mail and parcel deliveries slowly but surely became common.

This led to the 1700s trend of adding numbers to houses. This would make it easier for couriers, who used to have nothing more than a name on the parcel to work with, to accurately deliver parcels and letters. At this time, though, the post would still generally be delivered directly to the person instead of being left unattended.

The 1800s

The 1880s, then, is where the postal industry really changed. The main change came with the introduction of the Metropolitan Management Act of 1855. The UK was changing rapidly; cities were larger, more people lived in areas, and thus there was a need to know who was who. The old days of knowing every neighbour and resident in your community were slowly fading away. As such, postal staff needed more than a name; they needed a housing number they could use for deliveries.

The house numbering that we know today only really started with this act, then. With more deliveries to make, Royal Mail staff were slowly getting overworked. As such, it was made clear that any property that would be receiving mail, which was increasingly becoming the majority of homes, should install a letterbox either on their door or next to their door. This quickly spread from the major cities of the country to smaller towns.

Post would now be dropped off at postal offices, holes in the wall or a post box pillar. Postal staff would then collect these parcels and arrange for their delivery across the nation. These were built on the concept of old Receiving Houses, and meant people no longer had to wait around for Bellman, a fellow who would walk around, ringing a bell, collecting post to be sent, to turn up to collect.

By the mid-1850s, then, British cities and towns began to see post boxes appearing on many streets. Before long, horizontal fittings were designed so that these boxes were less likely to collect rain, which was becoming a ruin of many parcels. Intriguingly, though, the first ever post box was added to the small island of Jersey. It did not take long for this to spread inland thanks to the trial's success.

The iconic red post box went from red to green and then back to red eventually. By the 1870s, all post boxes were back to the stylish, famous red that we know today.

The Letterbox Today: Function & Modernity

Really, things have only continued to accelerate into the modern era. The 1900s saw cities grow; populations continued to swell, and the ability for the average person on the street to be able to afford to send gifts, goods and letters across the country continued to become commonplace.

Corporations and companies became increasingly focused on the use of postal communication, too. With the advent of the automobile in the 1900s, too, it did not take long for the post to start being centrally collected into larger central post offices before distribution.

The rise of the internet in the latter part of the 20th century added a whole new layer to postal demand. People would increasingly invest their money into online commerce, buying things to be delivered online that they previously would have had to travel to buy in person. While today things like communication via letter are rarer, as people use various forms of e-communication instead, the rise in commerce means that letterboxes, post boxes, post offices and mail deliveries all still play a key role in the UK today.

From the small and unfashionable slits in a doorway to the opulent door letterbox you can get today, the industry has changed almost entirely. What we send and deliver via mail has changed, too, but the fact remains that, for the last 200+ years, homes have needed a letterbox.

Even as we become even more attuned to digital deliveries, etc., it is highly unlikely that we’ll be doing away with letterboxes anytime soon!