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Bradley Wiggins' Gold Post Box, Chorley

Royal Mail celebrated Bradley Wiggins’ Olympic gold medal win in the men’s cycling road race, by painting two post boxes gold; one outside the post office at the Eccleston Carrington Centre (SD5216 : Gold Post Box, Eccleston Post Office) and this one, opposite Chorley Town Hall on Market Street.

Royal Mail celebrated every gold medal won by a British athlete during the London 2012 Olympic Games by repainting one of their iconic red pillar boxes gold for each gold medal winning Olympian. In total there were 29 Team GB Gold Medals for the Olympic Games; for team medals, a post box was painted gold for all team members so that over 53 post boxes were painted Gold (see Link for list and more examples). Hopefully, this number will rise further during the Paralympic Games.

This is the first occasion in modern times when Royal Mail has changed the colour of its post boxes. Red has been the standard colour for UK boxes from 1874, with very few exceptions. The boxes will be returned to their traditional red colour in due course.