A Day In the Life Of A Postie

By Rob Last edited 231 months ago
A Day In the Life Of A Postie
1Postmand-pat Walking Pat.jpg

Yesterday's Times offered us a fascinating insight into the world of a London postman.

Being the Times, this was of course a day in the life of an Islington postie, but nevertheless we learned some interesting stuff:

- The office manager of the sorting-hall behind the Almeida Theatre is called Steve Marvel: “Yes, my name is funny. Yes, I have a very loud voice". Cool - a superhero postie with special 'extra loud voice' powers.

- Dogs are a problem, but small ones are the worst ("A colleague was bitten by a Jack Russell recently"). Plus, each round has its own “Dog Hazard Warning” list "chronicling every residence with a frisky furry friend". We're also told that there's a man on Upper Street who's trained his dog to bring him the post each morning: "it waits by the letterbox, and if I don’t put anything through it barks furiously at me."

-Razor sharp letterboxes can be deadly. Those that "snap back" can be a real problem, as can ones which are low to the ground - causing back problems (any Londonist readers who ever had a paper round will feel the postie's pain).

- The posties get treated a bit like Santa at this time of year: "Mince pies, cups of tea, everything,”. But if a different postman is put on the round people are likely to get upset. So there is such a thing as 'postman loyalty' - and we thought it was just us being weird.

Londonist would like to remind all its readers to be nice to their postie this Christmas. So the service might not be completely up to scratch just yet, but show some festive spirit and let him know how much he/she means to you. You could even nominate them for the postman or woman of the year award.

Last Updated 14 December 2004