Two For Joy’s Louise’s social media rant over Charles ‘monstrosity’ hits over 2.2m views
Britain’s red post boxes are an iconic part of the landscape but enthusiast Louise Richardson, founder of Two For Joy Illustration, has something to say about the latest King Charles III incarnation – she absolutely hates it!
And the publisher hasn’t been shy about making her views known, with her Instagram reel on the subject, which can be seen below, going viral and clocking up over 1.5million views to date, plus more than 700,000 on TikTok.
“Someone tagged me in a video of the ribbon cutting and the big reveal,” Louise told PG Buzz, “I was so utterly disappointed at the shoddy craftsmanship of this new box. I was honestly horrified! So, I recorded a reel to vent my frustration. “I’d just come in the door from a baby class and successfully transferred my baby twins from car seat to cot, and sat on my bed exhausted from the morning. I watched it back and thought ‘should I have at least redone my floppy old ponytail to record that? Should I have put some make up on?’ But I thought ‘no, screw it, I’ll post it’!” In her post Louise said: “Someone at Royal Mail needs a lil trip to Specsavers because this absolute monstrosity has been revealed today as the first King Charles cyphered post box. I almost have no words for this. Post boxes are a beautiful part of our street architecture (well mostly) and a part of British history and somehow we’re cutting all the corners to get a box on a street.”
Explaining that they’re traditionally made in cast iron with the royal cypher and Royal Mail working as an integral part of the design, she said the new one has been made from sheet metal with “a strange cypher box stuck on” and the “awfully messy welded Royal Mail plaque stuck on” that’s not in the company font, looking like a “stock stencil cut out”. Following the reveal on 12 July, Louise added: “I would have assumed that the very first new monarch’s boxes would be the absolute best example of craftsmanship but instead they’ve rushed this thing out. Sorry for the rage but I’m quite passionate about post boxes. I love them and I’m horrified at this – is it just me!” Clearly thousands of people are also interested given the numbers viewing her posts, and Louise followed up with a further explanation, which can be seen below, because “there were so many comments where people did not understand how post boxes work, including people saying they’ve done it cheaply because it won’t last long, as William will be on the throne soon and they’ll have to replace them all – of course, that’s not how post boxes work, so I’ve posted another reel to explain this”.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Louise | Two For Joy illustration ✏️🌈 (@twoforjoyillustration)
Describing herself as a post box enthusiast, Louise loves spotting them around the country and working out how old they are by the royal cyphers. Sad as the news of Queen Elizabeth II’s death was in 2022, the illustrator was excited to know there would be new post poxes with Charles’ royal cypher, which was revealed shortly before his coronation last year.
She added: “It fascinates me that some of these boxes have been stood there for 100 years, and I like to imagine what life in the community was like when that post box was first being used.”
Having built up a reputation, her Instagram page is often tagged when customers and publishers find old boxes both in the UK and across the world and she has an Instagram highlight that can be seen here.
She’s just bought herself a replica post box and is planning on personalising it for Two For Joy, then get her stockists involved with using it, hopefully for Thinking Of You Week in September, to add to her stickers that she puts on every order saying “thank you postie”, and a whole collection of greeting cards featuring post boxes in on her to do list.
Louise laughed: “The very first Charles II post box was a huge moment in history for post box enthusiasts like myself, less so for normal people but I really love post boxes.
“This has given me the confidence to talk about them a bit more without people thinking I’m a total geek – I even went to the Postal Museum for my birthday treat to see all the old boxes, and the Henry Cole Christmas card!”
