Post box toppers in London

 

Post box topper in Long Elms, Harrow, north west London

 Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Post Box topper in Rowlands Avenue, Hatch End, north west London

You can buy post box toppers on Amazon, Ebay and Etsy. Craft groups attached to organizations such as Women's Institutes do them jointly producing a new one every season or every month. This is done in the UK and other countries. See my previous posts on this subject for more details and links.

Flowers and fish decorate postboxes in London - or DIY your own downloading patterns

 On a lovely sunny day in London, bright sun and blue skies. Post boxes are decorated with flowers and fish scenes, made by groups keen on knitting and crochet. For a jolly start to June.

Red post boxes with red rabbits and squirrels. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Americans call post boxes mail boxes. In London post boxes which are this shape are also called pillar boxes.

Websites

On Etsy you can buy patterns for postbox toppings as digital downloads. Designs include flowers and Xmas.

https://www.etsy.com/uk/market/post_box_toppers_patterns

I have other posts with pictures of pillar box toppings. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Post box toppers are back, springtime rabbits in London - for you to view, share, and copy

 

Postbox topper of knitted rabbits in March. Harrow. UK. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

I saw this from the bus and photographed it through the windor. An entertainment for pedestrian shoppers and those passing on the bus. After a week or so without the toppers, I had missed them. Lovely to see them back.

Every one is different. I shall now look for some more. It is a British thing.

I wonder whether the idea will spread worldwide. I think it should. A real expression of creativity and public art. Something to enliven your daily walk. If you are on holiday overseas, show it to your friends, acquaintances, any friends who knit, crochet or like crafts, and ask them to show their local art or craft group.

The designs look impressive. If you google online from a laptop or your phone, you can find knitting patterns for toys and 3D animals, cartoon characters, all kinds of creatures. 

I imagine that once you have tried a couple of basic patterns, you get the idea of how to knit or crochet circles, and spheres, ovals, change colours, draw faces to knit or embroider. Then you can start being inventive, and copy photos of events, turning pictures of animals and people and small cars and palaces and places, turning the flat photo into a 3D model or directly into a knitting pattern. 

For a larger project, one person can create the design over the month. Or you could give each person in a group one part of the design. The teamwork could be a bit like the Bayeux tapestry, and the tapestry this century in Fishguard, Wales, which had panels done by different people, following the colours and stitching styles specified. 

Rabbits

The toppers are seasonal. These for March, when springtime officially starts following the equinox, equal night and day, are rabbits, symbol of springtime, breeding. In the UK, we have chocolate rabbits in the newsagents, supermarkets and corner shops. Now, the same happy symbol on top of post boxes, too.

Post box toppers also celebrate sports wins, holidays, and joyful events.

The offical name is yarn bombing. The idea is relatively recent, and appears to have started in 2021. The items are attached to the top of the postbaox with elastic or cords or fence ties. You can find more pictures in my other posts. Also on Facebook. 

Wikipedia Commons had photos of postbox toppers in Cornwall, London, and Norolk, and Scotland. Other yarn bombing has been done in Italy. In England to decorate the bollards . To cover pillars or lamp posts.

Even if you are stuck at home, you can travel the world's streets on the internet, enjoying the street art. Inspiring.

 See next post.

Useful Websites

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post_box_topper

Facebook.com/hashtag/rejuvenatedstreets

Please share links to this post with your family and friends. And anybody you meet who works promoting tourist destinations. 

Post boxes in London have festive knitted or crochet hats

 

Snow scene decorating a post box. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

This seasonal scene features the colours of snow white, Santa or pillar box red, and pine tree green - actually a brighter nearer emerald green. You can see snowmen, a conical green tree, a red hat, and a black and white hat.

This little scene is in Long Elmes, where the H14 bus stops outside the shops, just after turning the corner from the school and the storage warehouse. The H14 runs from Hatch End to Harrow bus station along this road.

More little scenes are on other boxes in the area. One is just off the Avenue, Hatch End. Another is in the Abercorn Road, the street from my former Stanburn Priary School leading to Stanmore.  These amusing and uplifting little scenes decorate the post boxes all over London, England, the UK.

In my previous posts I have shown other seasonal scenes. 

I am always on the lookout for something amazing and amusing.

Please follow me, bookmark, and share links to your favourite posts.

HM Queen Elizabeth II died Sept 8 2022. What changes does this mean for you and the world?

Queen's Christmas message. (The Queen's Speech is what she gives to the opening of Parliament.)

'The queen is dead. (1926-2022) Long live the king.' TV programmes had already been cancelled in the afternoon of Thursday September 8th 2022 when the family were summoned to Scotland. She died at Balmoral in Scotland. 

Balmoral, Scotland, privately owned.

Who Heard?

The members of the royal family were told she was failing fast and were called to Scotland.

A TV presenter was already wearing a black tie. In fact, all the BBC presenters were in black from the time of the announcement about the queen being under medical supervision.

The flag, the Union Jack, on Buckingham Palace, was lowered to half mast. Phones began pinging with alerts about the news.

A back-edged announcement appeared on the gate.

Notice on Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh, Scotland, the queen's - now the king's, official residence.

Holyrood Palace.

What Next?

Next will be the funeral. In London, England, UK. 

But for everyday life in the UK, and overseas, what does this mean?

1 UK passports will change. Anything with the words queen will change to king. This means

2 Notes and coins.

3 Postage stamps.

4 Pillar boxes. (Post boxes. Americans say mail boxes.)

5 Magazines, newspapers and books and postcards with stories and photos about the queen and her era.

6 TV programmes on history.

7 Uniforms of the military.

8 Stamps around the world.

9 Souvenirs - postcards, tee-shirts, mugs. 

10 Next Christmas we will have the king's message.r countries around the world will be making changes to stamps - as well as souvenir shops.

In addition to postage stamps and regalia in the UK, 

Why so many changes? All so costly. Unnecessary. We have always been the UK, not the UQ.

The Queen's body will be displayed in Scotland, where she died, displayed at a religious building, then moved to London. 

In London the coffin will move from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall in Westminster Palace (which is across the road from Westminster Abbey) where she will lie in state so that the public can file past and see her for the last time.

On the day of the funeral members of the royal family will follow the slow transfer of the coffin down The Mall.

The funeral service will take place in Westminster Abbey, with former Prime Ministers of the UK and heads of state from overseas. Expect security to be tight.

Afterwards, the coffin will be taken in a hearse (carriage for the coffin) to Windsor. 

The final place will be St George's chapel. The royal family, guests will observe a choir singing hymns. The body will be lowered into the vault below the quire. (Centre or crossing point of the arms of the cross shape of the building.)

On the day of the funeral any sports events previously planned for that day will be cancelled. So will strikes. It will be a bank holiday and schools will be closed. 

Who will be affected? 

Cancellations

Horse racing, cycling, golf, football. The Last Night of the Proms, an evening of patriotic and jolly music, cancelled. the good news is that strikes will be cancelled.

Certain flags will fly at half mast for a brief period (quite complicated as to which flags and how they are raised when the new king Charles III is being proclaimed - sworn in?), and events will be televised around the world.

Additions

Bells will be tolled. Canons will be fired (in Wales).

Glossary

casket - American term for the box for a dead body, strictly speaking a basic four-sided rectangle

catafalque - platform for a coffin

coffin - a fancy six-sided box for a dead body (the term coffin is the most usual one used in the UK)

quire - area where the choir (or group of singers) is seated (also a sheaf of paper) 

King Charles III

King Charles III.

Queen Consort Camilla

Places To Visit

UK

London

Buckingham Palace, London, England

Flowers from members of the public.

The Mall

(Black taxi cabs gathered with lights on.)

Piccadilly - pictures of the queen

Scotland

Edinburgh

USA

Times Square

Paris, France - Eiffel Tower

Tel Aviv

Australia - Sydney Opera House picture of queen on the sails, Friday 10th Sept and Saturday 11th Sept nights.

Useful Websites

On You Tube I was offered links to subscribe to the UKs BBC news and America's NBC news.

Plans for the funeral, from the BBC

Map of St George's Chapel, Windsor

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-60617519

Changes

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11195633/Cash-stamps-police-helmets-passports-different-King-Charles-III.html#comments

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Elizabeth_II

https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/death-queen-elizabeth-marked-around-world-with-tributes-flowers-2022-09-08/

Sights

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11196967/Sydney-Opera-House-lit-image-Queen-honour-late-monarch.html

Angela Lansbury, English language expert and speaking and language trainer, travel writer specialising in places: countries, museums, restaurants (wine and dine), romantic destinations, people (famous), and events. Practical, amusing and entertaining books, articles and blogs.