I wonder how long these will be part of British life? Who uses these nowadays? Will email and direct debit kill them off? I can’t see any reason why they will survive.

Edit
This was a moderately glib statement. I actually took this picture because firstly I rather liked this post box in the sun, and secondly, there’s a website that I use which has a pool of post box pictures which I thought I’d contribute to. (I also, occasionally, take pictures of dog signs.)

Since people are commenting on this, however, let’s explore this a little more.

I’m not saying that the postal service will become dead. It’s clear that the postal service – rather, a postal service (whether Royal Mail or not) – has a good future. Direct mail, bank statements, bills: they’re all driving more post into our homes. Buying online generates a tremendous amount of small packets; and the Financial Services Authority also requires paper statements for many things. Change in a direct debit means that I have to, by law, get a written and individually-addressed letter telling me that the price of, for example, Sky, will be changing in future. My bank has to write to me with certain of its charges, by law: even if I indicate that I don’t want these charge-advice mailings, I still get them because I have to get them. So, the future’s bright.

But, that’s the postal service. Not post boxes.

In terms of post boxes: let’s just look at where we are now. On the five-minute walk to the station in central London, I walk past two postboxes. On the five-minute walk from the station to home in the suburbs, I walk past three of the things. But, what are they used for?

Let’s look at what we – that is, householders and individuals – use the post for. We don’t send cheques through the post any more to pay for bills: direct debit, online banking, and other areas of culture have changed all of that, not least the fact that too many cheques get stolen from the postal system. We don’t, unlike our ancestors, use the postal service to stay in touch with relatives: the telephone and email have taken care of that these days, but it’s notable that 150 years ago, Charles Dickens sent so many letters to just one of his friends, William Wilkie Collins, that selected letters fill two volumes of a book.

Excepting Christmas cards and the odd thank-you letter, we individuals really make very little use of the postal service these days. So, postboxes that aren’t near significant amounts of businesses are being less and less used. Why there are three postboxes on my five-minute walk home every day, I really don’t know: I can understand one being in the town centre, but not two more being in suburban streets. In any right-thinking society, they’d have been removed by now. And I predict that more will be removed in the next five years.

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