Lamp boxes are the smallest of the post boxes used by the Royal Mail in the UK, by its counterparts in the Commonwealth of Nations and also by An Post in Ireland. Their name derives from the fact that they were designed to be affixed to lamp posts,[1] although they may equally be found embedded in walls or mounted on poles.
Lamp boxes were introduced on an experimental basis in September 1896, being used in parts of London as an inexpensive means of supplementing the existing Pillar box network. By July 1897 these boxes had proved successful and from then on their use spread to rural areas where the greater expense of a Ludlow wall box was not justified.
The original pattern of lamp box was produced from 1896[2] to circa 1935. During this time there were several variations of styles.
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It is interesting to note that although the lamp boxes were made by the same foundry as the Victorian ciphered pillar boxes, the ciphers differ slightly. The V and R have equal length arms with an oval loop however, no curl on the toe.
Again two slightly different ciphers were used to those on the Pillar boxes. With the introduction of the LB205 in 1905 came the larger tablet holder. Prior to this all Lamp boxes used the smaller style tab.
In 1977, the design was changed so that the cast front was fitted to the galvanised steel back by four riveted lugs rather than 6 internal screws. These are henceforward known as "1977 Pattern". For the first three years the round-profile Collection Plate holder was retained. However, from 1980, they were always supplied with a Universal Collection Plate Holder (UCPH).
In 1994, the letters business of the Post Office was split from the retail business. The former retained the title Royal Mail Letters whilst the later became Post Office Counters Ltd. This necessitated changing the castings yet again so that in future they would read Royal Mail rather than Post Office.
The first new Lamp Letter box design for some years was introduced by Royal Mail in 1999. Designated Type N, or "The Bantam" box, the ultra-modern design is made in traditional cast iron, with polished steel fittings. These are more truly "pedestal boxes" such as Type L and Type M, but due to their size, are considered by the Letter Box Study Group to be Lamp Letter boxes.
All of the above Elizabeth II boxes can also be found with the Scottish crown.[4] The new Bantam box is also made with a bi-lingual Welsh/English branding.
The term "lamp box" is also used to refer to a computer running Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP, and generally used as a web server.