Mount Pleasant Mail Centre facts for kids
The Mount Pleasant Mail Centre is a large building in London, England, where Royal Mail sorts and handles mail. It's often called Mount Pleasant for short. In the past, it was one of the biggest mail sorting offices in the world. You can find it in the London Borough of Islington, right on the edge of the London Borough of Camden.
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Where is Mount Pleasant Mail Centre?
The mail centre is built on a big piece of land, about twelve acres in size. It's in an area called Clerkenwell, at the corner of Farringdon Road and Rosebery Avenue. It's also right across the street from a popular place called Exmouth Market.
History of Mount Pleasant
The land where the mail centre stands today used to be a prison called Coldbath Fields Prison. This prison closed down in 1885. A man named Frederick Ebenezer Baines, who helped start the parcel post service, thought this site would be perfect for the Post Office.
How it Started in the 1800s
In the mid-1880s, the Post Office's parcel sorting was in a very small basement. Baines wanted to move it to a bigger place, especially one close to London's main train stations. The old prison site was perfect for this.
In 1887, the Post Office started using a part of the old prison as a temporary parcel sorting office. This helped them handle all the mail during the busy Christmas season. To buy the rest of the land, a special law called the Post Office (Sites) Act 1889 had to be passed. The mail centre officially opened on August 30, 1889.
The Post Office workers didn't like the name "Coldbath Fields" because it reminded people of the prison. So, Baines decided to name it Mount Pleasant, after a nearby street. Fun fact: that street got its name in the 1730s because people used to dump trash there!
The law also said the Post Office had to provide some land or money for a public park. They chose to give £10,000, which was used to buy Spa Green Gardens in Clerkenwell.
At first, the Post Office used the old prison buildings for different departments. For example, the prison's bakery became an office, and the governor's house was used by engineers. They also started building new Post Office buildings. A Telegraph Factory was built in 1890. From 1889 to 1900, a huge new Parcel Office was built. This building was so big that its last section was also used for sorting letters. It had special loading areas with glass roofs for mail vans.
Mount Pleasant in the 1900s
Some of the original prison buildings stayed until the early 1900s. The prison gate was taken down in 1901. The governor's house and chapel lasted until after the First World War. They were eventually removed to make way for a new Letter Sorting Office, which started being built in 1920. The very last parts of the prison were gone by 1929.
The new Letter Sorting Office was built using reinforced concrete. It was said to be the largest in Europe and the British Empire when it opened in November 1934. The Duke and Duchess of York (who later became King George VI and Queen Elizabeth) opened it. This new office had the latest machines for sorting mail. A public post office was also built as part of the complex and opened in 1937.
During the Second World War, the Parcel Office was badly damaged by bombs in 1940 and 1943. It was rebuilt at ground level and used again by 1944. However, a full rebuild never happened. In 1984, most parcel sorting moved to Brent Cross, and the old Parcel Office building was taken down. The northern part of the site then became mainly a parking area for vans.
From 1927 to 2003, Mount Pleasant was an important station on the London Post Office Railway. This underground railway connected many Royal Mail offices and train stations across London. In 1979, Mount Pleasant was one of the first places to use special machines called optical character recognition to help sort mail.
Mount Pleasant in the 2000s
The main Letter Sorting Office building, built in the art-deco style, is still used today. It has been changed a lot over the years, both inside and out.
In 2017, a new Postal Museum opened on the site. It's located in Freeling House, behind the sorting office. Visitors can even go underground to see the old Post Office Railway depot, which now runs as a heritage railway for fun rides.
Mail Sorting Areas
Today, the Mount Pleasant Mail Centre sorts mail for several important postcode areas in London. These include the EC postcode area, the N postcode area, the W1 postcode district, and the WC postcode area.
Future Plans for Mount Pleasant
In 2012, Royal Mail suggested selling the northern half of the site, along with some land to the west. The idea was to build homes and businesses there. These areas were mostly used for parking vehicles and staff cars, which would then be moved underground. The part of the site still used for mail sorting was also planned to be updated and made more modern.
After some discussions about how many affordable homes should be built, the development started in 2018. This project, which includes about 680 new homes, is called 'Postmark'. The first part of the project was finished in 2021, and the whole project is expected to be completed in 2024.
Images for kids
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Inside Tanner's Parcel Office, 1910.
