PENZANCE'S gold postbox in honour of Olympic champion Helen Glover will remain gold permanently, Royal Mail announced today.
The sparkling postbox on Quay Street was the first to be painted gold in the UK, to celebrate Helen's victory in the women's pairs rowing at London 2012.
A further 109 postboxes were later painted gold, with the most northerly in Lossiemouth, Scotland, painted to celebrate the victory by Helen's partner Heather Stanning in the same race.
Other gold postboxes in Cornwall included one at Restronguet, outside the Pandora Inn, to mark sailor Ben Ainslie's dramatic Olympic victory and another in St Stephen honouring Jonathan Fox's Paralympic gold medal in the 100m backstroke.
The postboxes, which will each have a plaque naming the athlete and marking their gold medal achievement, have now become cherished local landmarks, with many members of the public visiting them and circulating pictures of them on social media channels.
Painting the iconic post boxes gold was a part of Royal Mail's plans to honour the victories of Team GB and ParalympicsGB, along with the gold medal stamps programme.
The decision to keep the post boxes gold marks the first time in Royal Mail's history that it has painted its iconic post boxes a different colour permanently to mark an historic achievement.
Moya Greene, Chief Executive Officer, Royal Mail Group, said: "We are delighted at the way people took to this simple idea.
"The gold postboxes gave communities even more opportunity to mark the successes of Team GB and Paralympics GB - and became a part of local celebrations of London 2012 across the UK. I am pleased to confirm that these postboxes will be kept gold permanently."
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