Editing Pillar box (section)

{{Short description|British free-standing post box}}
{{About ||a method of preserving the original aspect ratio in films|Pillarbox|the type of military bunker|Pillbox (military){{!}}Pillbox}}
[[File:PB1 viii @Warwick.jpg|thumb|right|1856 type PB1/viii at the West Gate, [[Warwick]], Warwickshire, England]]
[[File:Tony Robinson on the Pillar Box.ogg|thumb|Audio description of a [[George V]]-era pillar box in [[Maida Vale]] by [[Tony Robinson|Sir Tony Robinson]]]]

A '''pillar box''' is a type of free-standing [[post box]]. They are found in the [[United Kingdom]] and its associated the [[Crown Dependencies]] and [[British Overseas Territories]], and, less commonly, in many members of the [[Commonwealth of Nations]] such as [[Cyprus]], [[India]], [[Gibraltar]], [[Hong Kong]], [[Malta]], [[New Zealand]] and [[Sri Lanka]], as well as in the [[Republic of Ireland]]. Pillar boxes were provided in territories administered by the United Kingdom, such as [[Mandatory Palestine]], and territories with agency postal services provided by the British Post Office such as [[Bahrain]], [[Dubai]], [[Kuwait]] and [[Morocco]]. The United Kingdom also exported pillar boxes to countries that ran their own postal services, such as [[Argentina]], [[Portugal]] and [[Uruguay]].

[[Mail]] is deposited in pillar boxes to be collected by the [[Royal Mail]], [[An Post]] or the appropriate [[postal operator]] and forwarded to the addressee. The boxes have been in use since 1852, just twelve years after the introduction of the first adhesive [[postage stamp]]s ([[Penny Black]]) and [[Uniform Penny Post|uniform penny post]].

Mail may also be deposited in [[lamp box]]es or [[wall box]]es that serve the same purpose as pillar boxes but are attached to a post or set into a wall. According to the Letter Box Study Group, there are more than 150 recognised designs and varieties of pillar boxes and wall boxes, not all of which have known surviving examples. Like the [[red telephone box]], the red post box is regarded as a British cultural icon. {{as of|2002}}, Royal Mail estimates there are over 115,000 post boxes in the United Kingdom.<ref name = "bbc">{{Cite news |url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/2294797.stm |publisher=[[BBC News]] |title=Campaign to preserve red post boxes |date=3 October 2002 |access-date=23 March 2007}}</ref>