London 2012: Vandals daub graffiti on Jessica Ennis's golden post box in Sheffield
Related articles
A vandal has attacked a postbox painted gold in Jessica Ennis's home city to celebrate her Olympic triumph.
Graffiti was daubed on the box in Barkers Pool in Sheffield city centre, which has already become a tourist attraction, within 24 hours of it being painted.
A new layer of gold has been applied by a Royal Mail engineer, a Sheffield City Council spokeswoman said.
Royal Mail said it did not know what the graffiti said as an engineer repaired the damage very quickly as "a point of pride".
A spokeswoman said: "We are extremely disappointed that someone has chosen to vandalise the gold postbox."
Crowds gathered in the city centre on Sunday to watch the first gold coat being applied, the day after Ennis won gold in the heptathlon.
The box outside the City Hall is overlooked by a giant 80ft poster of the Olympian on the front of the John Lewis building.
People stopped to take photographs as a team applied a coat of primer followed by four coats of gold.
It has since become a tourist attraction, with one man reportedly travelling all the way from London to see it.
Following the incident, a Twitter account claiming to be the post box tweeted a former Council Leader and the police asking for protection.
South Yorkshire Police later confirmed the graffiti said "Go Jess" in small writing and was removed shortly after it was found.
Sport blogs
iBet: Mercedes and Hamilton to roar in Monaco
Monaco is a street circuit where driver ability is more important than anywhere else and if we take ...
by Gareth Purnell
24 May 2013 02:00 AM
On The Road at the Giro d’Italia: It sounds sadistic, but the team live for the mountain stages
Three weeks ago as I drove off the Eurostar, I remember thinking what a very long time it was until ...
by Martin Ayres
23 May 2013 05:29 PM
iBet: Rose has the ammunition for Wentworth
McDowell did brilliantly to land the World Match Play title in Bulgaria last week, but it’s a format...
by Gareth Purnell
23 May 2013 09:13 AM
- 1 Man and woman arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to murder victim of Woolwich machete attack, named as Drummer Lee Rigby
- 2 'Sickening, deluded and unforgivable': Horrific attack brings terror to London’s streets
- 3 Grace Dent: I’m not sure how these people can avoid being called ‘bigots’. And the more ‘civilised’, the worse they are
- 4 Woolwich murder: They killed, then they performed - these men should be starved of our attention
- 5 Woolwich attack: The EDL will seek to exploit this evil crime for their own evil ends
Get your summer started with British Military Fitness
BMF is the UK’s biggest and best loved outdoor fitness classes
Visit York
Find out what The Independent's resident travel expert has to say about one of the most beautiful small cities in the world
Making reading fun for kids
Nook is donating eReaders to volunteers at high-need schools and participating in exclusive events throughout the campaign.
Introducing the 'Get Reading' campaign
Get the latest on The Evening Standard's campaign to get London's children reading.
Enter the latest Independent competitions
Win anything from gadgets to five-star holidays on our competitions and offers page.
Business videos from commercial thought leaders
Watch the best in the business world give their insights into the world of business.
Day In a Page
The man who's eaten everywhere
A Berliner in 1963 – but did John F Kennedy once admire Adolf Hitler?
Banned Iranian director to attend Cannes Film Festival
The 10 Best salt and pepper sets
Ferran Soriano: Predicting success if Manchester City 'vision' is followed
Edward VIII’s phone calls - and how MI5 bugged them




Comments