Radlett Village Box

[hb88banzai]

The Box on Watling Street in Radlett Village, opposite the War Memorial - S9.

Note that in theory there were two Radlett Boxes, with S1 being planned to be resited at the other end of Watling Street in 1953 after being removed from Oxhey, but this resiting apparently never took place so there was actually only one Metbox in Radlett.

Photo supposedly from 1938 per the website it came from, but the paint scheme of the Box places it in the late 1950s instead --



Blowup --



Photo taken circa 1948 during an Armistice Day parade --



Blowup (behind and under the sign at centre frame) --




A few Frith photos:

Circa 1955 per Frith --


Blowup --


Circa 1954 per Frith, but the paint scheme places it later than the above c1955 photo --


Blowup --


Circa 1960 --


Blowup --


Kilroy was here!  


From a couple of postcards that appear to be from the late 1950s:

Photo 1 --


Blowup --

It looks like the Chameleon Circuit was having a particularly bad day.

Photo 2 --


Blowup --



Current Streetview of the Box Site --



A closeup --



Site Streetview URL: https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Watling+Street,+Radlett,+uk&hl=en&ll=51.683967,-0.317482&spn=0.000007,0.003943&sll=51.683931,-0.317438&sspn=0.007636,0.015364&hnear=Watling+St,+Radlett+WD7+7LA,+United+Kingdom&t=m&layer=c&cbll=51.683967,-0.317482&panoid=679dxzvEMPsE3U23rsLKFg&cbp=12,262.37,,1,-1.47&z=18

And finally from 1970, the only OS map that shows this Box (marked "PCB" at centre of map) --

[Dalekoracle]

I do like the photo at the top of the post. Absolutely lovely!

[hb88banzai]

The juxtaposition of the War Memorial to the Box with its A.R.W. Siren is just an amazing composition.

[petewilson]

Here's the Hi-Res version of the 1955 Photo  (What's going on over there in front of the box and the sign?)

Pete

[hb88banzai]

Good question...



Seems more like a Box closer to the end of the war. Pretty decrepit looking.

[Mark]

Looks like a rack of clothes, and the person to its right looks like a woman with a potential purchase in her hands.

[domvar]

I'm beginning to think some boxes intentionally had their sign boxes painted white as I have seen this sort of patterning a few times. I thought it was due to wear initially but could it have been done during the war for blackout reasons ?

[hb88banzai]

Usually seems too splotchy to be intentional, but you never know.

Roof looks pretty tatty here as well, though.

[petewilson]

I'm going to guess and say that box was undergoing the colour update program that was happening around that time (there's a few box photo's on here similar)
Also the box is parked nicely behind a little street market (hence the clothing rail in front of it)

[petewilson]

Here's the Hi-Res version of the later Frith Photo from around 1958