When in Regency London, you might rely on a servant to deliver your notes and invitations to save time and money. But what if you don't have a footman to spare? Fortunately, there was an efficient postal system that operated in London independent of the national mail delivery.
London had its own local delivery since 1635, when Charles I opened the Royal Mail. The government eventually took over a private penny post in 1682 that covered letters received and sent within ten miles of London, while the General Post Office, established by Charles II in 1660, serviced the rest of the nation.
From 1680 to 1801, mail was conveyed anywhere within the city for a penny. Letters from the General Post for delivery in London were charged 1d on delivery plus the general post charge, and were limited to four oz. The receiver paid the postage on the letter and the rate was based on distance and weight, just like elsewhere in the country. But the sender paid the London penny post in advance. The first prepaid stamp, the Penny Black, didn’t appear until 1840.
In 1794, London’s five post offices condensed into two, one in Lombard Street and the other in Gerrard Street, Soho. All London mail passed through these offices and service covered the surrounding area.
There were no red pillar boxes yet, but you could take your letter to one of hundreds of receiving houses across the city. Located in shops, clubs, counting houses, and coffeehouses, senders paid the postage when they dropped it off. Some places had a slit in the wall to drop off letters while they were closed. These were marked that the postage had not been paid, and the receiver would have to pay.
Another option to mail your mail was to give it to a letter carrier. Unlike in the country, in London, letters were delivered by hand to people’s homes. In 1792, the General Post established uniformed mail carriers. They wore a scarlet coat with a blue lapel, a blue waistcoat, and a hat with a gold band. If you saw him ringing his bell on his way back, he would take your letter for you. The bellman would have also picked up letters from the receiving houses along the way. He carried one bag to collect the pennies and the other for the letters.
Letters the carrier picked up were returned to one of the two offices who sorted them and either delivered them to the addresses within their division or transferred them to the other office for delivery. You could also use the service to deliver a letter outside of London, but it would have cost more than one penny.
To help finance the Napoleonic wars, in 1801 the government increased the rate to two pennies, and a charge of three pennies for letters to and from suburban areas was instituted a few years later. But it was still affordable and convenient, especially given the six collections and daily deliveries in London. Letters were delivered at 8, 10, noon, 2, 4, and 7 o’clock six days a week.
There are references to mail in all of Austen’s letters, but only Elinor and Marianne Dashwood are in London and mention using the twopenny post. Elinor receives a letter from Lucy Steel through the twopenny post and Marianne hopes to connect with Willoughby:
[…]In length it could be no more than a note: it was then folded up, sealed and directed with eager rapidity. Elinor thought she could distinguish a large W in the direction, and no sooner was it complete than Marianne, ringing the bell, requested the footman who answered it, to get that letter conveyed for her to the two-penny post.
In My Dear Friend, a subscription matchmaking service (see my blog post here) has subscribers—who think they might suit one another—correspond anonymously through letters. Darcy and Elizabeth are in London where the business is located over the winter and are both convinced to subscribe.
Since they don’t know who they’ve been matched with and can’t send a footman to deliver their letters, they have to rely on the post office. But with six deliveries a day and an affordable flat rate cost, they can easily send a letter in the morning and have an answer that evening—very helpful for frequent communication between romantic-minded correspondents.
https://shannondonnelly.com/2010/05/29/the-regency-post-a-pity-weve-lost-letters/
Austen, Jane. Sense and Sensibility. 1811.
Feltham, John. The picture of London, for 1803. R. Phillips (1803)
Le Faye, Deirdre. Jane Austen: The World of Her Novels. Harry N. Abrams (2002).
Murray, Venetia. An Elegant Madness. Penguin Books (1998).
Rowlandson, Thomas. “Letters for Post”. London Cries with Six Charming Children. 1819. Mary Evans Picture Library https://www.maryevans.com/
Rowlandson, Thomas. “The Post Office.” Rudolph Ackerman. 1809. The Metropolitan Museum. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection
The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Art & Architecture Collection, The New York Public Library. "Postman." The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1814. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47dd-e34d-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99
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