Cherry Orchard Hospital

Rectangular cast-iron post box, erected c.1955, comprising single aperture, side-hung door and ‘P & T’ monogram over aperture. Set in roughcast rendered wall flanking entrance to Cherry Orchard Hospital.

This post box was manufactured by Jessop Davis of Enniscorthy, which was also known as Saint John’s Foundry until it closed in 1964. The post box bears the monogram of the Department of Posts and Telegraphs (fl. 1924-84). The post-Independence post box is a notable example of high quality mass-produced cast-iron work produced in Ireland in the early twentieth-century. It is likely that the post box may date from c.1955, following the construction of Cherry Orchard Fever Hospital in 1953. Located at the entrance gate of the hospital, the post box is of social importance for the communication of patients in the hospital, as well as residents of this area of Ballyfermot developed for public housing in the 1940s and 50s.