The Postal Museum

Welcome to the Postal Museum, a fascinating and relatively new addition to London's cultural landscape. Located in the historic district of Clerkenwell, near the massive Mount Pleasant sorting office, this museum tells the…

The Mail Rail is undoubtedly the centerpiece of the museum, a 6.5-mile engineering marvel that opened in 1927. As we board the specially designed, narrow carriages, we must acknowledge the cramped conditions—these tunnels were…

Returning to the main museum building, we encounter the artifacts of a social revolution: the first postage stamps. Before the 1840s, the cost of sending mail was high and was usually paid for by the recipient, not the sender. …

The iconic red post box is a staple of the British landscape, but here in the museum, you can trace their evolution through the reigns of different monarchs. Each post box features a royal cypher—the initials of the reigning king…

One of the most moving sections of the museum is the temporary exhibition 'Voices from the Deep,' which showcases mail recovered from the SS Gairsoppa. This ship was sunk by a German U-boat in 1941 while carrying silver, tea, and…

In a lighter but no less historical section, the museum documents the official employment of cats by the Post Office. Because the mail sacks were made of cloth and stored in warehouses, they were often plagued by rats and mice. …

As we conclude our sections, we look toward the Mount Pleasant sorting office, located directly across from the museum. At its peak, this was the largest sorting office in the world, a massive industrial complex that processed…

Our tour of the Postal Museum concludes back at the heart of Clerkenwell. We have traveled from the early courier routes of the Tudors to the driverless electric trains of the Mail Rail. …