More About The Pillar Box...

Post Office official souvenir cover - introduction of the new style posting box, 31 July, 1980.

We wrote about the poor old Coronation Street pillar box destroyed by a tram in the (then) latest story-line for sensation hungry viewers last year. Replaced with a new style box apparently from Planet Zog, we now discover that it is from Planet 1980s as Postmaster General has written with the details:

The original box from the sixties was a double ring box with the Victorian cipher. I think the box was a replica, possibly fibreglass, I did see a good closeup on youtube. The famous box that was destroyed by the tram was an odds and sods box. It was fitted with a George 5th door on a later Elizabeth 2nd body, made by Carron Company. The present box is known as a K-type, and this particular one is made by Carronade, I just caught a glimpse of the maker's name one day whilst watching. There were five makers through the years of this box, which started in 1980, finished 2000.

Many thanks. So, Coronation Street now has a 1980s-style pillar box, very like the one in Brookside Close way back then.

Lovely.

Back On The Street - On The Tour....

Found some more Granada TV Studios Tour pics the other day...

It was the early 1990s, and Bet Gilroy was doing her lone landlady bit at The Rovers,
whilst Alf Roberts had briefly regained control of the Corner Shop...

The new side of the Street was in fine form, and the viaduct was (thankfully) silent...

I was thinking the other day about 1989 and the building of the new houses and the Duckworths' stone cladding. Was it really a good year for the Street's architecture, I wondered?

Mind you, at least 1989 didn't go beggaring about with the (now) late, lamented pillar box! Looking at the newly rebuilt Street, post-tram crash, I cannot see any noticeable differences to the old. Although Producer Phil Collinson said that Weatherfield would never be the same again, the only real difference I can spot is that darned pillar box!

Speak Easy - February...

In one of her despondent moods, Mavis Riley came across a book called 1001 Ways To Fill Your Spare Time in The Kabin library. "None of them work!" she sighed. But that was 1976, and things are very different today. So, Mavis, if you fancy writing to Back On The Street from your home in the glorious Lake District and letting us know how you're getting on, we'd be very glad to hear from you. And it would be a great way for you to fill the odd minute or two!

All comments and ponderings welcome here at the Speak Easy!

And so, here we go...

Jane writes:

Your stuff about the Corrie pillar box was genius - just a pleasure to read. You're very funny, but obviously know your stuff. Watch out, Daran Little!

LOL - Mr L has watched every episode of the show, acted as archivist and written episodes. We just like looking back in our own way and sifting through old episodes and newspaper articles. We do promise accuracy though, in fact we're downright pedantic!!

Sara writes:

Loved your article about the teens in the show. I remember an episode in the '70s when Gail Potter made Mike Baldwin feel old by mentioning Stevie Wonder. "Stevie WHO?!!" said Mike. But Stevie had his first hit in the late 1960s, so you would of thought Mike would of known about him!

I've got that episode, and yes, it was funny. The Street being terribly modern in the late 1970s... never mind the Buzzcocks - let alone the Sex Pistols!

James writes:

Don't you think Phyllis Pearce was a fruitcake?

Eccentric and highly colourful she was! But there was a reality about her. She hadn't aged mentally - very much the oldest swinger in town - but in the back of her mind lurked the knowledge that she was no spring chicken any longer. She was very grateful to Martin Platt when he was nice about the dress she chosen for a dance in the late 1980s, after Gail Tilsley had made a good natured joke about what Phyllis SHOULD be wearing at her age, and she was terribly insecure about her job at the cafe. It gave her something to do, a place out there in the community, but she knew her age was against her, that the job might be taken from her and given to somebody younger, and that she stood zilch chance of getting another.

All flirty and cheerful on the surface, relentless in her pursuit of Percy Sugden, underneath it all Phyllis knew she was far from being sweet sixteen. I admired her courage - and zest for life.

That's it for now, folks - keep 'em coming. I'm off for a little lay down and a spot of Classic FM...

The Coronation Street Pillar Box - Another Casualty Of The Tram Crash?

Chewy has written:

I reckoned you'd find this of interest, they've got a new postbox in the show now (after they lost the old one) was the old one there since the start or was it knocked over in the train crash?

Here's a pic of the new one

Love the blog though, even though it cuts off the year I was born in :D

Glad you like the blog. Thanks for writing.

Hmmm... interesting question...

Well, of course, Coronation Street had a pillar box outside the Corner Shop since Day One, and I thought it might be rather nice to take this opportunity to look at the highs and lows of its life on that draughty old corner, and indeed ask the question: "Was it always the same box?"

And did the original box survive the train crash of 1967?

The screen grab recently sent to us by Sky Clearbrook of Ida Barlow's funeral in 1961, clearly shows our old pal the pillar box, standing respectfully behind Florrie Lindley (Betty Alberge).

The tragic train crash of 1967 - and the pillar box has been knocked over - just follow my clumsy pink arrow! Oh, no! It does not appear to be damaged, however.


Look out for a glimpse of the fallen pillar box on this YouTube footage of the train crash (from about 0.44 in).

Of course, the pillar box was not always present in the Street from the late 1960s to the early 1980s, the era of the first outdoor set. Well, even pillar boxes need a break occasionally!

No, seriously, the pillar box was removed whenever filming was completed as the set was often visited by vandals and the box could have been damaged or pinched.

In the excitement at the end of the ITV strike in 1979, the Corrie production team appear to have forgotten to put the pillar box in place before recording Bet Lynch (Julie Goodyear) and Len Fairclough (Peter Adamson) welcoming us back to Weatherfield. The box-less 1981 picture (on the right) was taken on a non-filming day.

"Morning Ma'am!" The pillar box meets the Queen in 1982, and is immortalised on a mug in 1985. Ironically, later that year the shop changed dramatically, retaining its "Corner Shop" title, but also becoming "Alf's Mini Market" - with a drastically modernised frontage.

From the building of the 1982 outdoor set onwards, the pillar box appears to have been a permanent, immovable feature.

A pillar box through the decades - with Ken Barlow (William Roache), Emily Bishop (Eileen Derbyshire) and Len Fairclough in the 1970s; with Curly Watts (Kevin Kennedy) and Shirley Armitage (Lisa Lewis) in the 1980s; and with me in the 1990s. I posted some postcards to friends and relatives in that box whilst on the Granada TV Studios Tour, and they were received with the postmark: "Posted In Coronation Street"!

Note that the pillar box in the pics above is actually two pillar boxes! The design of the box seen in the 1970s photograph appears to be the same as the one in the 1961 funeral cortege screen grab. The 1980s/1990s/2000s pillar box is slightly different to the earlier model. Take a close look and compare the two!

There may actually have been other models used over the years but, from the evidence available to me, I can say that the box incorporated into the latest Coronation Street exterior set when it was built in 1982, looks the same as the box on duty outside the Corner Shop until the recent disaster.

Note that the box in the 1970s photo is positioned some way from its original early 1960s position just outside the shop and is much closer to the viaduct. This move would appear to have taken place when the new outdoor lot was established in the late 1960s. The box seen in the 1980s and 1990s is back in its original early 1960s position just outside the Corner Shop.

Eek! The Corner Shop, the pillar box and Molly Dobbs (Vicky Binns) are aghast as a tram crashes off the viaduct and heads straight for the shop. Molly, highly sensible as always, heads back into the shop. But, according to the screen grab on the right, the pillar box appears to have left the scene before the tram reaches its location.

Rather than being annihilated by the tram, I, being a whimsical little beggar, like to think that the old faithful pillar box skipped the country for a well-earned retirement and is, even as I write, swigging back the gin and tonics on a lovely beach in Portugal with Elsie Tanner, whilst both reflect on the good old days.

Okay, that's unlikely I know! But then so is a hammer murder, an explosion and a tram crash all in one night - and as for the ghost of Vera Duckworth...

UPDATE

Oh dear, for all my fanciful longings, having just viewed the tram crash scenes and taken some screen caps, I must face facts - the pillar box was destroyed.

Oh well...