Postal Museum, London facts for kids
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_Air_Mail_Post_Box.jpg)
An air mail postbox at the Postal Museum
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| Established | 2004 |
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| Location | Clerkenwell London, WC1 United Kingdom |
| Public transit access |   Farringdon Russell Square |
The Postal Museum is a super cool place in London where you can learn all about mail and how letters have traveled through history! It's run by a group called the Postal Heritage Trust. The museum first started in 2004, but it opened its doors in Central London as The Postal Museum on July 28, 2017.
Contents
Where to Find the Museum
The main Postal Museum is located in Clerkenwell, London. It's close to the big Mount Pleasant sorting office, which is where lots of mail gets sorted! The museum also has a storage area in Loughton, Essex, and a smaller exhibit about post offices in Blists Hill Victorian Town in Shropshire.
How the Museum Started
Early Days of Postal Records
Long ago, in 1838, a law was made to help organize government records. This included all the important papers from the Post Office. This was the very beginning of what is now the Royal Mail Archive. By 1896, someone was officially hired to look after these Post Office records. More laws in 1958 and 1967 made it even clearer that the Post Office needed to keep its old records safe and available for people to see.
The First National Postal Museum
In 1966, the first National Postal Museum opened. This happened partly because a huge collection of Victorian stamps, called The Phillips Collection, was given to the country. Queen Elizabeth II herself opened the museum on February 19, 1969. It was located in the King Edward Building near St Paul's Cathedral in London. Over the years, the museum collected many items, like old postal equipment, uniforms, and even vehicles. There was so much stuff, it couldn't all be shown in the small museum!
Changes and a New Beginning
In 1998, the King Edward Building was sold, and the first museum closed. But don't worry, all the amazing collections were kept safe! The museum and archive were then managed together by the Post Office.
Later, the Royal Mail Group decided to create a special independent charity to look after this history. This charity, called the 'Postal Heritage Trust', started in April 2004. It was known as the British Postal Museum & Archive (BPMA). From 2004 onwards, the BPMA started doing more. They put on events, special exhibitions, and created educational programs and online resources for everyone.
The New Postal Museum Experience
In February 2016, the BPMA changed its name to The Postal Museum. They began building a brand new museum, which opened in 2017 in Clerkenwell, London. This new museum cost about £26 million to build!
Mail Rail: An Underground Adventure
One of the most exciting parts of the new museum is that it lets visitors ride a special underground train! You can explore a 1 kilometer (about 0.6 miles) stretch of track from London's Mail Rail. This was the world's first electric railway that didn't need a driver. Imagine mail zooming around underground!
Amazing Things to See
Inside the museum, you can find many cool things. For example, there's a special stamp that would have been used if the Scottish football team had won the 1978 FIFA World Cup. You can also see telegrams from the night the Titanic sank. There's even the childhood stamp album of the famous singer Freddie Mercury! Another interesting item is a first edition of the book Ulysses, which was banned in the UK until 1936.
The Museum and Royal Mail
The Postal Museum is an independent charity, but it works closely with Royal Mail Group. The museum manages the Royal Mail archive, and Royal Mail gives them money each year for this important work. Even though the archive is part of the museum, Royal Mail is ultimately responsible for these public records. The records are so important that they have been given "designated status," meaning they are recognized as nationally important. Researchers can come and look at them to learn about history.
See also
- Postal museum
- Connected Earth
