This July will see the opening of the new Postal Museum in the capital, which will showcase the history of Britain’s mail system and the forgotten underground railway it ran on.
This new heritage attraction in central London will offer two experiences in one: The Postal Museum and Mail Rail.
Visitors will have the chance to explore 500 years of social history as well as travel 70-feet under London to ride the Post Office’s forgotten railway.
Enter the museum
In the Postal Museum, groups will able to learn about Britain’s industrial heritage, and explore inspiring galleries packed with objects, stories and interactive displays.
Visitors will learn about postal workers: the horsemen who galloped the 217 miles from London to Plymouth in a week for Elizabeth I; the armed 18th-century mail coach drivers who fought off knaves and highwaymen; and the Scottish postwoman who crossed Highland rivers using only a rope during World War Two.
You can also discover postal memorabilia, from creative stamps and Victorian pop-up cards to what’s reportedly the world’s earliest Christmas card.
Climb aboard the forgotten railway
The London Post Office Railway, also known as Mail Rail, stretched from Whitechapel in east London to Paddington in the west and ran for 22 hours a day, before closing in 2003. The new museum will offer visitors the opportunity to ride through part of the tunnels on the modern equivalent of a mail train.
‘Mail Rail’ will be a subterranean train journey lasting 15 minutes, complete with a few theatrical surprises.
The train journey will be accompanied by a Mail Rail exhibition, which will display everything from a battery-powered locomotive that was used in the past to come to the aid of broken down train carriages, to engineer’s tool kits and mailbag exchange systems.
Group rates have not yet been confirmed but group enquiries for parties of eight or more people can be made by visiting www.postalmuseum.org/visit.
For further information about the Postal Museum, visit www.postalmuseum.org.
(Photo credit: The Postal Museum, Miles Willis).
