Government postal operator of Gibraltar, uniquely granted Royal title overseas.
The Royal Gibraltar Post Office is Gibraltar’s government postal operator. Originating from merged offices in 1857, it has operated from 104 Main Street since 1858 and became a government department. In 2005 Queen Elizabeth II granted it the “Royal” title, unique among Commonwealth and British Overseas Territory post offices outside the United Kingdom.
The Royal Gibraltar Post Office is the postal services operator in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar and functions as a department within the Government of Gibraltar. Gibraltar’s postal service dates back over 150 years. In 1857 the Overland Post Office, run from the colonial authorities’ premises in Secretary’s Lane, merged with the Packet Agency, which had its offices in Turnbull’s Lane. The first British stamps went on sale in Gibraltar in September 1857, and from 1 September 1858 the main post office has been based at 104 Main Street, where it remains today. On 1 January 1886 the local colonial authorities took control of the Gibraltar Post Office and were authorised to issue their own stamps. Initially they used overprinted Bermuda stamps before introducing their own designs later that year. In 2005 Queen Elizabeth II granted the office the title “Royal”. Gibraltar is the only Commonwealth or British Overseas Territory post office outside the United Kingdom to bear this distinction. Today the Royal Gibraltar Post Office provides letter and parcel post, airmail, express mail, poste restante, post office boxes, registration services and postal orders, serving the whole territory from a network that includes its historic Victorian main office on Main Street.
