One of the lampposts on the Outer Circle

HISTORIC Queen Elizabeth lamp posts around Regent’s Park will be not be updated with King Charles III cyphers, Crown Estate paving chiefs said.

Regent’s Park is celebrated as having the finest collection of operational historic lamp posts in the country. Some retain the gilded royal ciphers from 18th-century monarchs, George IV and William IV, but the majority were recast following the accession of Queen Elizabeth II.

Crown Estate Paving Commission director Nick Packard said: “The ciphers on the CEPC’s street furniture at Regent’s Park signify the monarch at the time the item was installed rather than changing upon succession. Thus those items bearing the late Her Majesty’s cipher will not be changed.”

The CEPC maintains all the street lighting on Crown Estate roads around Regent’s Park that also boasts a rich heritage of historic bollards. EIIR-stamped obelisks were introduced in the mid-20th century.

A CEPC report about the lamp posts said: “A number of early designs survive bearing a variety of royal ciphers, including George IV and William IV, and also later replace­ments cast to original patterns emblazoned EIIR. All were designed to the same proportions as a classical column with a defined plinth, shaft and capital as part of the original laying out of the area, complementing the classical architectural vocabulary used on the buildings.”

The Queen’s royal cypher (EIIR) is stamped on dozens of official documents and objects including postboxes and police helmets.