Royal Mail says gold post boxes will offer permanent Olympic honour

Royal Mail has said post boxes painted gold this summer, in honour of local gold medal winners at the London Olympics, will now remain gold permanently. The top achievements by TeamGB and ParalympicsGB were recognised by 110 post boxes being painted gold this summer across the UK, from Lossiemouth in Scotland down to Penzance, Cornwall.

The move has been widely covered in the national and local press, providing a big publicity boost to Royal Mail this summer.

Royal Mail said the post boxes have now become “cherished local landmarks”, with many members of the public visiting them and circulating pictures of them on social media channels.

It has set up a website at www.goldpostboxes.com for details of the box boxes, including pictures uploaded by visitors. Each gold post box will have a plaque which names the athlete and marks their gold medal achievement, or marks the location’s connection with London 2012.

The postal service said its decision to keep the post boxes gold marked the first time in Royal Mail’s history that it has painted its iconic post boxes a different colour permanently to mark an historic achievement.

Moya Greene, Chief Executive Officer at Royal Mail Group, said; “We are delighted at the way people took to this simple idea.

“The gold post boxes gave communities even more opportunity to mark the successes of Team GB and Paralympics GB – and became a part of local celebrations of London 2012 across the UK. I am pleased to confirm that these post boxes will be kept gold permanently.”