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Tuesday 10am - 5pm Wednesday 10am - 5pm Thursday 10am - 5pm Friday 10am - 5pm Saturday 10am - 5pm Sunday 10am - 5pm

The Postal Museum

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The Postal Museum

An independent museum telling the story of postal communication and its impact on global society. Home of Mail Rail, London's secret underground railway.
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03/06/2026

Part of our longstanding Enhancing Mail Rail project, visitors can now experience 270-degree views of the Mail Rail tunnels in the Mail Rail Explorer.

This new immersive space is available for all visitors, with design and content shaped by our access advisory group.

The Mail Rail ride has also been enhanced with updated audio commentary, a new audiovisual show and a new platform lift to increase accessibility.

We want to thank Arts Council England and the Post Office Remembrance Fellowship whose generous support made this possible, and our access advisory group for their work to create a more inclusive Mail Rail experience.

Find out more about the project, part of Mail Rail's upcoming centenary and the museum's 10 year anniversary plans, via the link below.

👉 https://buff.ly/oUyquWr

02/06/2026

Find out about our upcoming Home Educator events, featuring self-led visits and our very own Jolly Postman show! This June and July at The Postal Museum.

👉 https://buff.ly/wK0c8vX

01/06/2026

On this day in history, Mail Rail ceased operations.

From 1927 to 2003 Mail Rail, formerly known as the Post Office Railway, transported letters and parcels below London from Paddington in the west to Whitechapel in the east.

Driverless trains powered by electricity ran through tunnels far smaller than the much better known London Underground system. It operated without many of the city's inhabitants even knowing about it.

Now you can ride parts of the network of tunnels at our museum on board our own custom Mail Rail trains. See how it compares to archive video of the railway filmed in the 1980s.

Museum

31/05/2026

A photo of Mail Rail, then known as the Post Office Railway, taken in 1937.

From 1927 to 2003 it transported letters and parcels below London from Paddington in the west to Whitechapel in the east. Driverless trains powered by electricity ran through tunnels far smaller than the much better known London Underground system. It operated without many of the city's inhabitants even knowing about it.

It closed on this day in 31 May 2003 but there was more behind the closure than merely a decline in the number of letters being sent. Find out more below.

👉 https://buff.ly/VSEJ1y5

28/05/2026

The recent sunny weather has inspired us to find an equally picturesque image from our digital archive library. This photograph taken outside Lympstone Post Office in Devon doesn't have a date catalogued.

Can you work out an estimate based on the photo itself?

26/05/2026

We've got first class news for postal workers past and present this June.

On Sunday 14 June we're hosting our next Postal Workers Open Day where you can bring family and friends for just £2 per ticket!

Plus, on Saturday 20 June you can join us on a Postal Worker Tunnel Tour and explore the Mail Rail tunnels on foot for just £12.50.

Find out more via our dedicated Postal Workers page below.

👉 https://buff.ly/lzgBPiU

24/05/2026

It was World Bee Day earlier this week and we were positively buzzing to find so many stamps in our world collection.

Stamps featured 👇️
Great Britain - 1985
Bulgaria - 1987
Luxembourg - 1986
Türkiye - 1996
North Korea - 1979
Norway - 1984
Mexico - 1969
Tanzania - 1986
France - 1979
Poland - 1961
USA - 1988
Switzerland - 1954
East Germany - 1990
Yugoslavia
Cambodia - 1988
Sweden - 1990
Hungary - 1980
Vietnam - 1982
Romania - 1987

23/05/2026

Happy Postbox Saturday! This week we spotted this Queen Victoria cyphered pillar box on the streets of North London whilst enjoying the longer evenings.

21/05/2026

It's World Tea Day today, which got us thinking about The Jolly Postman's copious amounts of tea provided for him on his Fairytale delivery route.

If you want to see these illustrations up close then you can do so at our new exhibition that brings Janet and Allan Ahlberg's childhood classic to life at The Postal Museum.

Entry is included with every ticket to the museum and runs until 2027. Find out more via the link below.

👉 https://buff.ly/CCdy8Mg

Images copyright Janet and Allan Ahlberg.

18/05/2026

It's International Museum's Day! To mark the occasion we thought we'd step back in time to show just how much our museum has changed since this promotional film was shot at the end of the 20th century.

You might notice that our current home looks a lot different, that's because we were previously housed in The King Edward Building, London's former main Post Office. After the building was sold in 1998 the collection and archive was transferred to a new, independent charitable trust and renamed the Postal Heritage Trust.

This helped pave the way for a new museum on our current site and the opening of Mail Rail in 2017 near the current Mount Pleasant sorting office.

Address

15-20 Phoenix Place
London
WC1X0DA

Opening Hours

Tuesday	10am - 5pm
Wednesday	10am - 5pm
Thursday	10am - 5pm
Friday	10am - 5pm
Saturday	10am - 5pm
Sunday	10am - 5pm

Telephone

+44 (0)300 0300 700

Website

http://www.postalmuseum.org/

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