Products and Services

In the years after both world wars re-establishing full use of services became a priority. During the 1920s and 1930s new equipment increased the rate at which parcels could be handled, and the growing use of road transport increased the speed of collections and deliveries.

In its vehicles, the Post Office had a valuable advertising medium, making it possible to reach out to every part of the country. Reporting in 1935, Stephen Tallents described Cheaper Parcel Post as one of the excellent letter-press strip posters.

Cheaper Parcel Post was part of a campaign to make the public aware of the new cheaper parcel post rates in Great Britain and Northern Ireland, as a result of reforms brought about by improvements in parcel post methods in recent years.

The expansion of capacity made possible by mechanisation and technology is communicated in The Post Office handles 23,000,000 letters day, one of a series promoting volumes of the services in the years after World War Two.

The Post Office Guide and books of stamps are among the products that recur in poster design. Buy stamps in books may have been a direct response to a report noting the particular decline in sales in 1958. Highlighting the "sudden letter you write on Sunday" it stated "if you have a book in your pocket the problem is solved."

The photograph to the right shows a poster in the top left corner on display in Latimer Sub-Post Office in 1947. Posters such as these (the whole poster can be also seen below) advertised the services of the Post Office. They informed the public of such things as current postal rates, telephone services and even reminded people to buy their wireless licence.

Is your wireless set licensed?

designed by Clifford Bayly, 1946 (POST 110/1207)

Cheaper Parcel Post

designed by Barnett Freedman, 1935 (POST 110/4227)

The Post Office began to promote its services on its vehicles in 1934 with posters such as this. The simplicity and clarity of this design helped to communicate a message to a passer by in a fleeting glance.

This traditional relief printing process involved the inking of raised type and images, with the impression obtained through contact with the paper surface. Freedman's previous work as signwriter is perhaps hinted at in this poster design.

Buy stamps in books

designed by Peter Huveneers, 1958 (POST 110/2536)

Peter Huveneers created a number of designs for the Post Office during the 1950s. Some, like this poster, advertised products and services. In it he uses a comic character to promote the sale of stamps in books.

Sales of stamps in books had decreased since 1944, and the years 1957 and 1958 saw a particular decline. The November 1958 edition of the Post Office Circular stated that it should be put on display in all Crown Offices after the Christmas period.

A Postal Guide to the Maze of London

designed by Jan Lewitt and George Him, 1950 (POST 110/2507)

Polish designers Lewitt and Him moved to Britain in 1937, continuing the partnership they had formed in Poland. Humour and fantasy underpinned some of their designs in that decade, which continued in later commissions such as this. This poster advertised London Post Offices and Streets, a publication providing details of Post Offices, their streets and district numbers, hours of business and a listing of street names. The functional nature of the product is treated in a witty manner with the postman aided by this guide on his journey into the intricate maze of streets.

The Post Office handles 23,000,000 letters day

designed by G R Morris, 1947 (POST 109/195)

Buy the 'Post Office Guide' July 1949. On sale here one shilling

designed by Tom Eckersley, 1949 (POST 110/3204)