post box

Freestanding round-plan cast-iron pillar postbox, installed c. 1900, having shallow domed cap, moulded corona, neck moulding, cylindrical shaft and moulded plinth base. Curved hinged door facing north with raised frame and 'VR' cipher, lettering 'Post Office' incorporated into neck moulding, and raised lettering to plinth base reading 'Handyside Derby & London'.

A relatively rare surviving example of a late-nineteenth-century postbox in Dublin. Handyside foundry of Derby was a prominent manufacturer of cylindrical Victorian postboxes from 1879, representing improvements from the former hexagonal boxes which had limited capacity and were uneconomic in terms of manufacture and maintenance. The postbox's early date can be distinguished by its 'VR' monogram dating it to before the death of Queen Victoria in 1901, and as such it stands as a relic of pre-Independence Ireland and developing communication networks in the nineteenth century.