This Penfold pillar box, dating from around 1870 is preserved as an historical monument but is not in use. Please post in Post Office opposite.
Site: Penfold pillar box - NW3 (1 memorial)
NW3, Hampstead High Street, 23
About this pillar box informs: "On 9 January 1914 it was sabotaged by the militant branch of the suffragettes belonging to Emmeline Pankhurst's Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU). Ever since Emily Wilding Davison had tried to set fire to a pillar box in 1911, this had been one of their forms of protest. The Hampstead box had tar and oil "posted" in it, and the interior was then set on fire, badly damaging the mail inside. The women responsible left a message referring to the plight of their imprisoned fellow-suffragettes. So this is now seen partly as a memorial to the suffragette movement."
What a pity the plaque does not refer to this history. We guess that the Post Office deliberately avoid putting ideas into people's heads.
Another pillar box, corner of Highbury Grove and Aberdeen Park, was also attacked by the suffragettes who set it on fire overnight, .
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