Region ID

Work ID

Manual Reference

Type

Title

Foundry

Date of design

Year of unveiling

Unveiling details

Road

Precise Location

A to Z Ref

OS Ref

Postcode

Work is

Listing Status

Duty of Care

Commissioned by

Notes

A square cast iron post painted white, of the standard City Post design. It has moulded bands round the top, chamfered edges to the shaft, and is capped by a shallow pyramid. On the front face, which would have faced the road or track, is the coat of arms of the City of London, a shield containing the red cross of St George with an upraised sword of St Paul in the top left quarter. Beneath this, in raised lettering picked out in black, is the inscription making reference to the act under which these posts were set up. The post shows about one metre of its total length above ground. It has a bolt protruding from the back. Type 2 post.

Coal tax posts were set up around London in compliance with the Coal and Wine Duties (Continuation) Act of 1861 to mark the points at which duty had to be paid on coal and wine being brought into the city. The boundary was set at that of the Metropolitan Police District, and the resulting revenue was used by the Corporation of the City of London to fund public works. Two earlier acts, of 1845 and 1851, had set the bound at 20 miles from the General Post Office and the later reduction to the area accounts for some discrepancies in the location of the posts. It was the responsibility of the coal merchants who received coal inside the defined area to ensure that it was paid. The money raised in this way went towards the works on the Thames Embankment, funded the Holborn Viaduct and some open spaces, and helped to abolish the need for tolls by purchasing seven of the bridges across the Thames and Lea Rivers. The duty ceased when the London County Council was set up in 1889.(1) The City of London had collected taxes on coal coming into London from Mediaeval times. In 1667 an Act of Parliament authorised money to be raised in this way to help rebuild the city after the Great Fire, financing among other things the new St Paul’s Cathedral. Other acts were passed over the years and the tax had a troubled history until the act of 1861 regularised the situation, and also made provision for the Coal Posts to be set up round London. Some markers from previous acts were reused and moved to new positions but the vast majority were made under the new act. The posts, around 220 of them, are found beside tracks, roads, railways and waterways circling the outer edge of the Greater London area, although some are no longer near any obvious route. Most are cast iron City Posts, of a standard design, made by Henry Grissell at the Regents Canal Ironworks at Eagle Wharf Road in Hoxton, London. These are square with lettering and a coat of arms cast on the front face. The posts have chamfered corners and two bands of moulding round them with the coat of arms between, and the top rising to a shallow pyramid. The arms are the shield of the City of London, a red cross of St George with an upraised sword of St Paul in the top left quarter. The posts are six foot long although only about half that length shows above ground, and today many appear shorter as the ground level has been raised around them. On the ones where the whole upper part of the post can be seen, the maker’s plate is visible cast into the base, and there is shaping at the bottom edge which gives the appearance of small feet at the corners. Mostly the posts are painted white with the lettering picked out in black and the crest in red, but as they are now in the care of individual boroughs, there are variations in the colours used on the City arms, with some, for example, using a black background. Coal Posts were given Grade II listed status in 1985. The inscription on the front refers to the act under which the posts were set up, the full reference being 24 & 25 VICT CAP 42. Some have a short version, 24 VICT, and were made before the Coal and Wine Duties (Continuation) Act of 1861 had actually been passed and therefore before the full details of the regnal year and chapter number were known. Some of the posts then had an amending plate fitted over the inscription although few of these plates are still in place. On the posts without their plates, very often the first 2 and part of the T of 24 & 25 VICT are missing, the explanation probably being that these had to be chipped off to allow the plates to be fitted properly. Small bolts protrude from some of the posts near the inscription, now painted over and given a black dot on the tip so that they appear to be part of the post, but in fact may be evidence of the fixing of a lost plate. The other types of post used were obelisks in either stone or cast iron, usually taller than City Posts and set beside waterways and railways. In 1985 Bromley Council carried out a programme of restoration of the posts in its care. Some had become dislodged and these were set upright in their original positions, and all were cleaned and painted. This work was carried out by Orpington Community Care Association (OCCA) Workforce, a local organisation which provides practical help for elderly people such as decorating and gardening. On 16 August 1985, the Mayor unveiled one of the newly restored posts in Green Street Green High Street (BR015), and an information plaque was set beside it. Further work of cleaning and painting was carried out in 1994, organised by a local group, Environment Bromley.(1)

circa

raw year

Condition

At risk

Inscriptions

Signatures

Whole post

Cast iron painted white

97cm high x 33.5cm square

Shaft

Cast iron painted white

24cm square

Top from top of shaft to pinnacle

Cast iron painted white

34cm high

Band with crest on

Cast iron painted white

29cm square

Corrosion, Deterioration

Rusty. Paint on shield coming off

Biological growth

Lichen on top

Previous treatments

All posts in Bromley cleaned and painted in 1985 and 1994

None