Post box, Sunnyside St near Junction with Rushfield Ave, Belfast

A free-standing cast-iron post box erected on Sunnyside Street between the junctions with Deramore Avenue and Rushfield Avenue, sometime between 1931 and 1936. This is a standard cylindrical pillar box of the type first introduced in Britain in 1879, standing 5 feet high with fluted cap and painted in the distinctive 'pillar box red' throughout except for the black base.

The box measures 21 inches in diameter around its cap, 15½ inches around the shaft, and 17 inches around the base. Below the shallow oversailing cap sits the door, hinged at the left with a raised cup handle on the right and keyhole above. At the top of the door is a hooded rectangular aperture for posting letters. Above the aperture is a small holder containing a removable plate for the next collection date, with 'NEXT COLLECTION' in raised letters beside it. Below the aperture is a notice plate holder containing collection days and times. The lower section bears a 'GR' cipher with a raised crown above and 'POST OFFICE' below.

The foundry plate at the base records the maker as 'CARRON COMPANY STIRLINGSHIRE'. Carron was one of the most famous Scottish ironworking firms, founded in Falkirk in 1759. This box appears to be a B-type (smaller variety) post box, as recorded in specialist literature on British post box history.

The pillar box dates to the reign of King George V (1911–36), confirmed by its 'GR' marking and its first appearance on the Ordnance Survey town plan of 1938. The Royal cipher on the door is historically significant. Although the precise number of George V post boxes surviving in Belfast is unknown, these appear to be more numerous than those from previous monarchs' reigns. Post boxes of this era were of great social importance as the principal means by which people communicated with one another. The first pillar boxes in the British Isles were introduced in 1853, with the idea originally suggested in 1840 by Rowland Hill, the reformer of the British postal system. By the end of the nineteenth century, pillar boxes had transformed the postal network throughout urban centres across the United Kingdom.