Location
The Postal Museum is situated near Farringdon, Russell Square and just a short walk from King’s Cross and Chancery Lane underground stations.
The museum is located in two buildings across the road from each other. One building houses the Mail Rail train whilst the other contains most of the exhibitions and the cafe. Standard tickets £17 (£1 discount if booked online). Tickets include unlimited access to the Postal Museum for one year plus one Mail Rail ride.
We had arranged pre-booked tickets which include a timed entry to Mail Train so we went there first. We were actually booked on the first departure of the day which proved to be a bonus as the small train wasn’t busy and we enjoyed an entire carriage to ourselves. All bags must be placed into secure lockers due to lack of space but we could of course keep our cameras and phones to record the journey.
The mail train has a driver and is driven manually but used to be automated when it only moved post. It was designed to carry post and was not built as a tourist attraction for carrying people so it’s a tight squeeze as there’s not much space on board. It’s well worth the cramped conditions though as visitors are taken on a 15 minute journey back in time deep under Royal Mail’s Mount Pleasant sorting office, discovering a unique piece of London’s industrial heritage.
We journeyed through the original tunnels and station platforms of London’s 100 year old postal railway. The train paused at various points to view the original platforms where men would grab sacks of letters and others were placed on the train. The post would then be sorted in the sorting offices above the Mail Rail stations.
We were then able to watch projected films on the walls of the station platforms telling us about the train that travelled beneath the streets of London for 22 hours every day, transporting us back to the railway’s 1930’s heyday. The audio visual guide is narrated from the perspective of a former employee and is told in such a way that it is of interest for all age groups.
Once the trip ends visitors are led through to another section of the building which explains about the workings of the railway where we found old machinery and played a post sorting game in a ‘shaking’ carriage. This was great fun for all the family as we had to race to sort out all the post into the correct pigeon holes before the time ran out.
There was also a ‘Mail Rail Signalling Simulator’ signalling computer game demonstrating how both the train at the current station had to signal it was ready to leave and the next station had to signal its readiness to accept its arrival before the train departed.
Having viewed all the exhibits in this building, we crossed the road to view the main exhibition space. Here we found a collection of delivery vehicles through the ages ranging from bicycles to numerous postal vans.
Galleries explore the postal service from the sending of Christmas, birthday and postcards through to wartime letters home, the delivery of business letters and packets and parcels.
On display are examples of everything used for the sorting, cancelling, collection and delivery of mail from the first ever hexagonal pillar box to the ones we see on our streets today.
Another section focuses on stamps with a large philatelic collection including the world’s first ever stamp, the Penny Black. An exhibition of stamps was on display featuring the late Queen Elizabeth II and after viewing them we then had a go at designing our very own stamp which we could email to ourselves as a souvenir of our visit.
The history of the postcode gallery was also very interesting. We discovered that it had been first trialled in Norwich in 1959. This mechanised sorting operation was introduced by Royal Mail to overcome the problems of labour intensive letter sorting.
After trials, in 1966 the eight year programme to postcode the entire country began and was completed by 1974 with the recoding of Norwich. Today, Royal Mail’s online postcode finder is one of the UK’s most used webpages with more than 40 million visits a year.
In addition to the postal history there are numerous hands-on activities such as being able to send items along pneumatic shoots around the museum and then watch their progress. There’s also postal dressing up clothes, a soft play centre ‘Sorted’ (additional charge), gift shop and cafe with outdoor terrace for warmer days. We very much enjoyed our visit to the museum spending over two hours enthralled with its Mail Rail ride and exhibits.
Details: The Postal Museum, 15-20 Phoenix Place, London WC1X ODA.
We were guests of the Postal Museum and as always, all views and opinions are entirely my own.
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The mail rail train looks so much fun, even though it’s a bit of a tight squeeze. It’s neat to see how the process of sorting and delivering mail has changed over the years.
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What a fabulous museum- love the old post bus!
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It’s another of London’s wonderful museums Helen and although not so well known as some others it’s brilliant and we adored riding the Mail Rail train. Thanks for taking the time to comment.
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Another very interesting tour. Thank you. 🙂
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I’m so pleased you enjoyed reading about the history of the British postal service Ian.
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This is a really neat inside view of how the postal service worked in London!
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It’s really super Allie. Thanks for your interest.
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So interesting Marion, never knew it was there. I think that’s something my husband would enjoy. The train looks fascinating. I’ve always wanted to explore the old tunnels of London
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It’s a brilliant museum Alison and with the mail train being authentic and not just built as an attraction, it makes it so interesting. Thanks for commenting.
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😊
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This is where I have to confess that I didn’t know this museum existed. Thank you so much for the introduction. I think I would love to visit and, particularly take the mail train. When I was a student, I spent at least two Christmas holidays working in a sorting office in south London. I think many students did this in those days. I remember it being great fun as well as hard work!
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It’s a really interesting museum and with the mail train being authentic taking you beneath the streets of London, it’s very special.
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It is different from other museums and very informative. About postcodes, I wonder why there is no domestic machine that would allow us to code the mail ourselves to be machine readable. With a discount as an incentive.
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A domestic machine would have been a good idea to reduce the number of letters sent without a postcode added. I enjoyed visiting the Postal Museum and riding on Mail Rail beneath the streets of London. Thank you for your interest and welcome thoughts.
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The Mail Train looks like fun – to take a journey on the 100 year old postal rail must be such a unique experience! And I love the delivery vehicles – how precious is the Horse drawn Postal cart. When I was a little girl, one of my favourite games with my friends were pretending we work in a Post Office … we sorted magazine pages for an entire afternoon 😄. Great tour, thanks Marion!
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I have always had a love for everything postal from being a 13 year old with penpals all over the world. Looking back I must have cost my parents a lot of money I n stamps! Those old delivery vehicles are so beautiful and to ride on Mail Rail beneath London’s main sorting office and the streets of London was so much fun. Along with the Transport Museum these are now two of my favourite London museums. Thanks so much for your welcome thoughts which are always welcome.
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Ah what a lovely slab of British nostalgia. Riding the Mail Rail would be so much fun. The general decline of postal communication is something magical that we’ve lost as a society I feel. Love the horse-drawn postal cart.
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The Postal Service is definitely not what it used to be. Gone are the substantial post office buildings now replaced by counters in the likes of WH Smith aargh ! Bring back the old days. Thanks so much for commenting Leighton and have a good weekend.
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Lovely to see how the history of postal service came to be in London, let alone the UK. Goes to show just how behind-the-scenes, but so vital it is to our daily lives, whether it delivers to us bills, taxes, letters from friends and family, or even the usual spam…all the same, very fascinating stuff!
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Along with the London Transport Museum, these museums both provide fascinating insights into the history of London. I find it so sad now that the beautiful buildings that once served as our post offices are now empty and disused.
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Another fantastic museum that has been put on my list now! I love seeing how something so daily has changed throughout the years 🙂 Great post Marion!
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Thanks so much for your interest Meg. I adored visiting both the Postal and Transport Museums on my most recent weekend in London and think you would enjoy them too. Hope you have a good weekend. M.
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Ohhhh another one high on my list – I’ve always wanted to ride Mail Rail 🙂
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Thanks Hannah, I’d long wanted to visit both the Transport and Postal Museums and finally I got my wish. Verdict: Absolutely enjoyed visiting both of them!
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It is so fun to learn about the innerworkings of something we all take for granted. Thanks for sharing this museum with us, Marion!
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Thanks for your interest Kellye. The Postal Museum recalls a fascinating history of the nation’s postal heritage and riding the Mail Rail a fun experience especially as its not a ‘new’ ride specifically made for entertainment.
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What an awesome tour Marion. I had heard about the Mail Rail. Glad you got to ride it. Happy Friday the 13th. Allan
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It was brilliant Allan. Hope you also manage to visit sometime. It’s an extremely wet day here. Hope it’s better with you. Have a good weekend!
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Wow, what a fantastic museum, Marion. Who wouldn’t want to ride the unmissable Mail Rail? My mum used to work in a post office when I was little and I still have fond memories of visiting her at work. I was even allowed to give her a hand with sorting out letters and delivering newspapers. Thanks for sharing and have a good day 🙂 Aiva xx
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Just adored visiting both the Postal and Transport Museums whilst in London. Riding Mail Rail was so much fun and tracing the heritage of the nation’s postal service fascinating. Thanks so much for your interest and welcome thoughts.
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The ride is great, isn’t it.
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It certainly is, we adored the mail train. Thanks so much for taking the time to comment, is much appreciated.
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Its a must visit for every visitor in London. It reminds me of the busy post office days.
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The London Postal Museum is superb and a great reminder to the heydays of the post office and all of the beautiful, historic buildings they used to have. Thanks so much for taking the time to comment, it’s much appreciated.
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