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Where can I see old post boxes?
Links to other useful websites
Home Places to visit - In the UK
There are several good places to see preserved post boxes in good numbers. Most of the institutions listed here are open to the public regularly and I have NOT listed the other private collections in existance.
So you want to know more about British Post Boxes? Why not visit the website of the group whoREALLY know? The Letter Box Study Group is the acknowledged authority on thehistory, reporting, identification and classification of British Post Boxes. For physical artefacts, it is hard to beat The BritishPostal Museum & Archive. The BPMAhouses Britain's national philatelic collections and has anunrivalled collection of postboxes in the Museum Store which can be viewed byappointment and on open days.
Mention must be made of the superb private:
run by the affable Arthur Reeder and his lovely wife, Kim. Their collection now runs to well in excess of 160 boxes and is set in a lovely rural garden between Ryde and Newport, well worth a visit. If you have Google Earth - try searching for their garden, you can see the pillar boxes!
Three other Museums with good displays of postboxes are:
- The Bath Postal Museum excellent display of early wall boxes including 1st & 2nd National Standard types
- Bruce Castle Museum, Tottenham, London includes a rare VR fluted pillar from Lyndhurst and a genuine Air Mail box.
- Inkpen Post Box Museum David & Kate James will make you very welcome although the collection is now reduced in number from the heady days of 2003 when this site was put up.
Other locations worth mentioning are:
- Great Central Railway Lougborough. Inside the Gresley TPO set is a very good collection of Lamp Boxes and a Ludlow. Unfortunately you need to be there on a day when the TPO set is running to gain access to this collection.
- Amberley Working Museum, SussexVermillion Giant TK31/K4 at Amberley, EviiR A size pillar, GR lamp box and various other postal and telephone related objects. Recommended.
- Carlton Colville - East Anglian Transport Museum, Norfolk The East Anglian Transport Museum near Lowestoft has a superb Street Furniture and Post Office collection in addition to trams, trolleybuses and narrow-guage railways. The highlights are A size VR pillar 1887 (seen above with the K2 stamp machine) and a very rare WB83/5 Eagle Foundry wallbox. In addition there is a K1 telephone kiosk and two RAC kiosks! Well worth a visit!
- East Lancashire Railway, Bury, LancsVermillion Giant TK31/K4 at Bury Bolton Street station.
- Severn Valley Railway, Bwedley, Worcs Vermillion Giant TK31/K4 at Bewdley station, Penfold replica at Kidderminster.
- Manchester Transport Museum , Cheetham Hill PB29 E type pillar with built-in SVM.
- East Somerset Railway, Cranmore Vermillion Giant TK31/K4 at Cranmore East station.
The national Telephone Kiosk collection can be viewed at: Avoncroft Museum of Buildings
where you will also see a Second National Standard (WB75) wallbox at the main entrance.
For Excellent Street Jewelry collections try these:
Cotswold Motor Museumno less than 9 AA Village signs!
Coventry Transport Museum- NOW FEATURING "Moving the Mails by Road" Exhibition of GPO vehicles from the BPMA collection until 28th October 2006. Not to be missed!
Ipswich Transport Museum- 11 AA village signs!
In Singapore:
Highly recommended if you are in Singapore on business or vacation is the Singapore Philatelic Museum on Coleman St. They have two EiiR pillar boxes and two lamp boxes in their collection, in addition to a good selection of locally-made boxes in different liveries. They also have a very well-stocked shop and knowledgable staff who are most helpful and can point you to the remaining Colonial-era boxes in the City. 
In South Africa:
The two best known British boxes are at Table Mountain summit (an EviiR Type A pillar by Handyside) and on the Stellenbosch University campus - an early vertical aperture fluted box by Smith & Hawkes from 1856. The later is the oldest post box in Africa.
In the Carribean:
Inside the Forte Crest Hotel in Georgetown, British Guiana,is the only surviving Penfold in the Americas. Many more later colonial boxes are still on the streets here and in Trinidad & Tobago. Barbados, Caymen and Bermuda all have British boxes on the streets.
In Malta:
Just about everywhere on the islands of Malta & Gozo there are ex-British boxes.
In Hong Kong:
Very few colonial era boxes left now, but one D-type pillar remains in use in Central (right), an 1887 Jubilee pillar is inside the HQ of HK Post with this Carron LB216(left) and the pillar box at The Peak was still in situ in 2003. Of five other locations which had colonial boxes after the handover a quick check during July 2006 revealed only Singapore AA style boxes instead. These included Stanley PO, Star Ferry Kowloon Side, Ocean Terminal and Supreme Court Rd. The depot at Kowloon East PO has also been closed and moved, the new location is unknown. 
In Guernsey:
Union Street, St.Peter Port,Guernsey is home to Pillar Box No.1, the only surviving Vaudin box still in-situ.
In Jersey:
Inside the Central Market and at Fort Regent, both in St.Helier, are the only Penfold boxes in the Channel Islands.
In the Isle of Man:
Onchan TSO is home to one of two PB29s. The other is also in Douglas, near the main Post Office. There is a replica Penfold on the platforms of Douglas Station.
In the Republic of Ireland:
The Folk Museum at Daingean County Offaly has a National standard and a Penfold - both in red. These are the only red boxes left south of the 1922 border. Collins Barracks outstation of National Museum of Ireland has the only surviving Ashworth of Burnley PB1, whilst the only Econnomy London Ornate is to be found inside the Kent Railway Station in Cork.
Shortal 2006 DuckDriver Ltd.