Photo by Bob Cox-Wrightson

Spiked Pillar Box, Cambridge

Pillar Box, Riverside

At the junction of Priory Road and Riverside is a rare ‘anonymous’ pillar box, made all the more unusual because of the spikes on the top.

Cylindrical pillar boxes were introduced in 1879, but it took 13 years to add the royal cypher and the words “Post Office”. There are a number of these ‘anonymous’ pillar boxes in Cambridge.

It is thought that this pillar box was moved from its original location near the gasworks – now Newmarket Road Tesco – with the spiky top remaining, which was originally added to stop people using it to climb over the gasworks wall.

1981

14 May 1981 — removal of the spiked pillar box

Cambridge’s unique 100-year-old spiky pillar box has been moved from the corner of Newmarket Road and Cheddar’s Lane after local firms protested that its seven-inch aperture was too small for modern-day packages. It was built about 1880 and does not have the royal cipher or the words ‘Post Office’ on it. But nobody knows why it has spikes on the top. Some say it was to stop people climbing over the gas works wall, others that it was to frighten away a troublesome swan that used to perch on the top or provide an uncomfortable landing for a hapless German parachutist. 81 05 14a
Credit: Mike Petty, Cambridge Newmarket Road Scrapbook 1897 to 1990, entry 1981 05 14.