post box

Freestanding round-plan cast-iron pillar postbox, installed c. 1925, having shallow domed cap, moulded corona, neck moulding, cylindrical shaft and moulded plinth base. Curved hinged door facing west with letter slot and lettering 'Post Office' incorporated into neck moulding. Raised lettering to plinth base reads 'Handyside Derby & London'.

A surviving example of an early twentieth-century postbox in Dublin, installed around the time of the founding of the Irish Free State. Handyside foundry of Derby was a prominent manufacturer of British Victorian postboxes, but was defunct by the 1920s. This example is notable for its lack of 'P&T' insignia which otherwise appears after the foundation of the Irish Republic, and the absence of the British royal monogram which predated it. This postbox constitutes a working, functional component of Dublin’s postal heritage, its survival adding to the overall architectural character of the streetscape.