Outside the new post office and tourism centre building:
The pillar box is emptied daily, even though there is no mail pickup until a ship is in the harbour. Only S. A. Agulhas II, MV Edinburgh and MV Baltic Trader are authorized to carry mail. RMS St Helena used to visit Tristan annually but these visits have been cut back dramatically and the ship will likely cease to visit Tristan upon the completion of the St. Helena airport. MV Edinburgh arrived on 28 August, bringing the letter my friend Anthony had written to me as Poste restante. When mail arrives, the post office staff and the general public gather in Prince Philip Hall. The post office staff stands behind the bar in the hall’s corner and reads off the names of the recipients, who come forward to pick up their mail. Mail is sorted beforehand so multiple letters and packages are distributed together. Since the Agulhas II arrived only fifteen days after the Edinburgh, there wasn’t much mail to distribute so the post office held it on site and informed the recipients to come in to pick it up.
This notice was posted all over the settlement as the arrival of the Agulhas II drew near:
Then this update:
All the postcards I wrote left the island the same time I did.
The old post office building:
It is now the home of Tristan’s Director of Education, Carl Lander.
Prince Philip Hall:
The cornerstone of the hall is seen in the lower right of the above photo. In 1957 the Duke of Edinburgh himself laid the stone:
Inside the Albatross Bar, home of the 86p beer:
One day the café lettering is black:
The next day it’s red:
