Royal Mail yesterday revealed that it will be painting some of its iconic and much-loved red post boxes gold to celebrate every Team GB and ParalympicsGB gold medal win during the London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games.
This will be a unique, highly visible and fitting way to recognise the successes of Team GB and ParalympicsGB during this summer’s global sporting events. The UK is believed to be the first country to paint its post boxes gold to celebrate Olympic and Paralympic gold medal wins.
A dedicated team will be on standby to transform the specially selected post boxes within days of a win. The post boxes chosen will, wherever possible, be in the home-town of the winning athlete, or both home-towns for teams of two. To celebrate a gold medal win by teams of more than two competitors, the post box chosen to be painted gold will be in a location relevant to all team members.
The gold boxes will remain in use and customers will be able to post mail in these boxes as normal. Mail collections from the boxes will also be unaffected. The boxes will be repainted in Royal Mail's traditional red in due course.
Royal Mail demonstrated how the boxes will change from red to gold by painting a box in near to Westminster Abbey, London.
Mark Thompson, Olympics Director, Royal Mail and Postman, Paul Sheldrake apply the finishing touches to a post box in Westminster, central London. Photo: Justin Grange
If you spot one, send send us a photo with location, we'll upload some here.
Does anyone know if this box at Westminster in gold is going to stay like this for a while even though this is not a home-town of a winning athlete?
ReplyDeleteMy understanding is that this one will stay that way for a while and all others that are painted gold will not be repainted for some time, possibly until it is necessary for them to do so.
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