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Post boxes are funny old things in this day and age, and often we wonder whether they’re even necessary anymore. But some represent something far more than old fashioned post, in fact two post boxes in Manchester are of interest. The first is the famous post box on Corporation Street, outside what is now Marks & Spencer, which still exists as a symbol of defiance, being the post box that survived the devastating 1996 IRA bomb that saw most of the surrounding area collapse – but it’s the standalone blue Royal Mail post box in Manchester that we’re particularly interested in.
In the Castlefield area on Liverpool Road, just outside the newly refurbished Campfield Market Hall, you’ll find this mysterious landmark. Painted bright sky blue, this post box stands out from anything else in the surrounding area, yet most of the time we just walk past it without taking a moment to consider what it actually means.
Why is this Manchester post box blue?
Blue post boxes are not an entirely new phenomenon – they were introduced for air mail letters in the 1930s. The colour blue was chosen to honour the RAF, matching their blue uniforms – but there were only ever 300, and while some were removed most were repainted red.
Of course, this example of a blue post box remains at Castlefield in Manchester, and there’s just one other in the UK, outside Windsor Castle. The post box outside Windsor Castle is the only original air mail post box which has remained in its sky blue livery and in the same position since the 1930s, which makes the Manchester one a bit of an imposter as blue isn’t its original colour – it was painted blue in commemoration of the blue post box phenomenon, paying tribute to air mail and the armed forces.
Can people use the blue post box in Manchester now?
Yes! You can use the blue post box on Liverpool Road as normal.
It has inscribed on a plaque: “This box is painted blue to represent the special Air Mail boxes erected in Great Britain between 1930-38. It commemorates not only the long association of the Post Office with British aviation but also our support for the Manchester Aerospace Museum. – P J Howarth, Head Postmaster, Manchester, November 1983″.
The phenomenon of painting post boxes
Instagram post via @juliavhill
It’s not all that uncommon to find a Royal Mail post box in a colour other than red, and some examples of this have confused the public in the past. The classic red was ditched for some lucky post boxes to celebrate the 2012 London Olympic Games, when post boxes in the hometowns of Team GB winners were painted gold – and subsequently, and more confusingly, the 2019 Cricket World Cup prompted post boxes to be painted… um… blue.
Most recently, in 2020, some were also painted mid-blue to say ‘Thank You’ to NHS and social care workers during the Covid-19 pandemic. So it’s kind of hard to distinguish the ‘cricket post boxes’, NHS post boxes and the legitimate remaining air mail post boxes – but we can assure you, the ones in Manchester and Windsor are certainly the only two remaining in the distinctive sky blue that we know of…
