In the 1980s, the secret agent Danger Mouse and his trusty sidekick Penfold would rush out from their secret base — in the bottom of a post box on Baker Street — to save the world from Baron Greenback.
In April 2022, to mark the (almost) 40th anniversary of Danger Mouse’s first adventure, a post box at Baker Street gained a very special Blue Plaque.
Famously, Danger Mouse’s sidekick was called Penfold, which is the name of a type of post box designed by John Wornham Penfold in 1866, so having their secret base inside a post box was a nod to that heritage. However, the post box used in the cartoon series was not an actual Penfold post box, but a mere interloper. The horror!
(c) Cosgrove Hall Films
Actually, that turned out to be fortunate for the Blue Plaque though, as locating a Penfold design post box on Baker Street would be impossible, but there is one that looks just about close enough to the cartoon series — and it’s in roughly the correct location, just down the road from the Sherlock Holmes Museum, on the corner of Baker Street and Melcombe Street.
So, in April 2022, it gained a Blue Plaque.
Applied by Neil from Blast Process, candidly, it’s just a sticker, albeit quite thick and decently printed to survive so long, and is peeling off a bit at the sides. So unless someone pops along with some glue, it might be worth paying a visit soonish in case it finally succumbs to the weather and disappears.
But isn’t it just glorious that someone noticed the anniversary, printed a decent Blue Plaque and took the trouble to put it onto the post box — just to delight anyone who stumbles upon it?
“He’s the greatest, he’s fantastic / Wherever there is danger, he’ll be there / He’s the ace, he’s amazing / He’s the strongest, he’s the quickest, he’s the best.”
Incidentally, John Wornham Penfold, the man who designed the Penfold post box also has a blue plaque on his home in Haslemere, Surrey.
There is a similar blue sticker also at the base of a post box in Chorlton, south Manchester, just along the road from where the animators Cosgrove Hall were located.
My partner lives nearby there. We point it out to everyone that walks past. Interestingly, two roads from there is where the first ever Bentley was built. New street Mews.
Thank you for the wonderful feature of our little tribute to the Greatest Secret Agent in the World.
Since adding the “blue plaque” it has gained a life of its own and the amount of joy that this little blue circle has brought to others genuinely brings a warm glow.
Rest assured “agents” on the ground are available in if a future replacement is required.