This is about STL containers and allocators. It looks like a mistake in the STL containers but I don't think there is any possible workarounds if the Boost library is based on it. When I look at the code of GCC's std::list: template<typename _Tp, typename _Alloc> void _List_base<_Tp, _Alloc>:: _M_clear() { typedef _List_node<_Tp> _Node; _Node* __cur = static_cast<_Node*>(_M_impl._M_node._M_next); while (__cur != &_M_impl._M_node) { _Node* __tmp = __cur; __cur = static_cast<_Node*>(__cur->_M_next); #if __cplusplus >= 201103L _M_get_Node_allocator().destroy(__tmp); #else _M_get_Tp_allocator().destroy(std::__addressof(__tmp->_M_data)); #endif _M_put_node(__tmp); } } I think it should make use of the allocator's specific pointer as such: template<typename _Tp, typename _Alloc> void _List_base<_Tp, _Alloc>:: _M_clear() { typedef _List_node<_Tp> _Node; typedef typename _Alloc::rebind<_Node>::other::pointer _NodePtr; _NodePtr __cur = static_cast<_NodePtr>(_M_impl._M_node._M_next); while (__cur != &_M_impl._M_node) { _NodePtr __tmp = __cur; __cur = static_cast<_NodePtr>(__cur->_M_next); #if __cplusplus >= 201103L _M_get_Node_allocator().destroy(__tmp); #else _M_get_Tp_allocator().destroy(std::__addressof(__tmp->_M_data)); #endif _M_put_node(__tmp); } } Meanwhile I don't think there is any workaround possible for this for use of an allocator with specific pointer in Boost?