I just came across a great New York Times piece on the mail service in the Victorian era. It's full of trivia: for example, did you know that in 1889 London, mail was delivered TWELVE TIMES A DAY? Read this:
In Victorian London, though service wasn't
Especially in apartment complexes. There’s usually a communal outbox for anyone to send out mail. But no, you’ll have to go all the way to a post office to drop off mail. The nearest one is a 20 minute walk for me.
Yeah, it’s kind of weird that this is one of the things the US got right compared to most other countries. If you’re already sending a guy to every house in town, why not pick up their mail while you’re at it.
But you need to wrap the letter or parcel and pay for postage anyway, so unless you’re regularly sending things it’s still easier just to go to a post office.
And that means the postie has to check every single house even if they don’t have any mail which slows things down a lot.
Yeah, I was a little shocked too.
Especially in apartment complexes. There’s usually a communal outbox for anyone to send out mail. But no, you’ll have to go all the way to a post office to drop off mail. The nearest one is a 20 minute walk for me.
That is crazy. In the USA they pick mail up at everyone’s house, and there are big mailboxes every couple of blocks.
Yeah, it’s kind of weird that this is one of the things the US got right compared to most other countries. If you’re already sending a guy to every house in town, why not pick up their mail while you’re at it.
But you need to wrap the letter or parcel and pay for postage anyway, so unless you’re regularly sending things it’s still easier just to go to a post office.
And that means the postie has to check every single house even if they don’t have any mail which slows things down a lot.