The Postal Museum London: Everything You Need to Know (2024)

The Postal Museum London is one of the city’s hidden gems, tucked away in the historic area of Clerkenwell.

If you’d like to visit the London Postal Museum, here’s everything you need to know to make the most of your visit.

I’ll go over everything from timing to tickets to how to ride the Mail Rail, as well as give you some important tips for visiting with children.

Illustrated cover image for 'Visiting The Postal Museum London' featuring a stylized graphic of a red postal pillar box, assorted envelopes, a mail tunnel entrance, and a postal worker carrying a large mail bag while checking a mobile device. The illustration is set against a beige parcel-colored background.

London Postal Museum Opening Times

The London Postal Museum is only open Wednesday to Sunday 10:00 – 17:00. It’s closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.

Getting to the London Postal Museum

Illustrative map highlighting routes to the Postal Museum in London, with arrows pointing from Chancery Lane, Russell Square, King's Cross, and Farringdon stations to the museum's location. Decorative elements include a classic red British postbox and floating letters on the right side, with the title 'Getting There' in bold red letters at the top.

The Postal Museum in London is a short walk from several different tube stations.

If you’re traveling by tube, the closest stations are:

Chancery Lane Station: 12 minute walk
Farringdon Station: 13 minute walk
Russell Square Station: 14 minute walk
King’s Cross Station: 17 minute walk

There are also several bus routes that take you even closer to the museum. Read my full guide for using London buses here.

To Eat Nearby:

Exmouth Market: a lovely Georgian street with several restaurants, cafes, and food stalls.
Bloomsbury: Historic district with several restaurants, cafes and shopping.
Russell Square: Area surrounding the University of London, with lots of cafes, restaurants, and shops.
Coal Drops Yard & Granary Square at King’s Cross: Newly refurbished shopping and dining destination.

Museums Nearby:

The Postal Museum is also nearby some more incredible London museums.

The British Museum
Charles Dickens Museum
The Foundling Museum
Sir John Soane’s Museum

Postal Museum London Layout

Map layout of The Postal Museum in London indicating two separate buildings: Building 1 with exhibition and café, and Building 2 featuring Mail Rail and Sorted Play Space.

Before I explain ticket booking, it’s important to understand the layout of the Postal Museum.

The London Postal Museum is in two different buildings, separated in the middle by Phoenix Place.

Building 1 contains the main exhibits and the cafe.

Building 2 contains a gift shop, the Sorted Play Space, and the Mail Rail ride.

The buildings aren’t connected, so you’ll have to cross the street to get between them.

When booking your tickets, it’s best to decide if you want to ride Mail Rail and/or do the Sorted Play Space before or after you see the main exhibits (explained further below).

Tickets for the Postal Museum in London: Explained

Informational graphic with ticket tips for The Postal Museum, London, advising visitors to book entry times for the Mail Rail and to book Sorted separately, with a reminder to allow a 15-30 minute gap between bookings, featuring postal-themed illustrations.

As with most London museums, you can book your ticket ahead to save time and money. But I found the booking system a bit more confusing than most, so here it is, simplified.

Entry Ticket: Booking Ahead

Your primary entry ticket includes your ride on Mail Rail.

The time you book for entry is the time slot you will ride Mail Rail. So if your entry ticket is for 11:00, you’ll need to ride the Mail Rail at 11:00.

You can visit the exhibits before or after this, but it takes a bit of planning ahead to figure out what time you’ll want to ride Mail Rail.

The ride takes at least 15 minutes, plus a bit more for queueing and loading.

Adults: £16
Young people (16-14): £11
Children (3-15): £9
Concessions from £3-£14

Your ticket is good for unlimited entry to the main exhibits for one year, so if you live in London, this is a great deal.

Sorted Play Space Tickets

Tickets for the Sorted Play Space require a separate ticket, which is £5 on the day or £4 when booked ahead. You will need to book a time slot for entry for this as well.

Sorted time slots last 45 minutes, so I would book it at least 1 hour before your Mail Rail time slot to give you time to queue for the train.

Timing

I would allot the following times to explore the entirety of the Postal Museum:

Exhibits: at least 1 hour
Mail Rail: 15 minutes for the ride, plus 10 for queueing, and 20-30 for the exhibits at the exit
Sorted Play Space: 45 minutes

Total: Roughly 2 hours, depending on how much time you spend browsing the main exhibits in building 1.

You could spend as much as 4 hours here if you also want to visit the cafe and explore everything in-depth. Since I visited with a toddler, we were there for less than 2 hours.

Building 1: Postal Museum London Exhibits

Exterior view of The Postal Museum in London, labeled 'Building 1' with text overlays indicating 'Postal Museum Exhibition' and 'Cafe'. The modern façade with a large graphic panel is seen from across the street, with a clear blue sky above. Decorative postal icons such as a parcel, letter, and a red mail box are graphically added around the image.

If you want to start at the main exhibits, go to building 1 on the west side of Phoenix Place.

You’ll enter into a small courtyard and then into the Welcome Space, where they will look at your ticket.

From here you can visit the cafe or begin the exhibits.

A historical Royal Mail coach on display at The Postal Museum in London, painted black with red wheels, featuring gold 'Royal Mail' lettering, and a royal crest, with the route 'York London' on the side. The background includes a decorative postal pillar box and the text 'Postal Museum Exhibits' overlaid at the top

The exhibits will take you on a journey from the first postmen of the 1500s to the modern day.

Some of the highlights are the various vehicles used to deliver mail over the centuries, like this incredible carriage above.

You’ll journey through the centuries with historic correspondence, ornate post boxes, historical documents, postcards, wartime stories and artifacts, and so much more.

Exhibit at The Postal Museum in London featuring a vintage red and yellow Royal Mail Post Bus with the ER royal cipher, alongside a backdrop image of the bus on a countryside road.

There’s also a small portion dedicated to the biggest debacle to ever hit Royal Mail – the Horizon computer system scandal.

If you’ve been keeping up with your TV shows and podcasts, you’ll have heard this story in Mr Bates Vs The Post Office and the BBC podcast The Great Post Office Trial.

I wish I had more time to explore all these items in depth, but with a very active toddler, we went to ride the Mail Rail and explore the Sorted Play Space.

Good thing my ticket is good for a year, so hopefully I can go back and see the exhibits more in depth on my own!

Building 2: Mail Rail London & Sorted Play Space

Exterior view of the Mail Rail building at The Postal Museum in London, with 'MAIL RAIL' lettering above the entrance and playful postal graphics such as letters, envelopes, and a mail box floating around the building facade.

Entering building 2, you’ll run right into a gift shop. If you’re visiting with toddlers, this is a nightmare.

As soon as I parked the buggy in the designated area, he ran right toward the toys: brilliant marketing plan, terrible for parents.

After some screaming and crying, I finally coaxed him down the stairs to join the Mail Rail queue.

Riding Mail Rail London

Split view of the historic Mail Rail at The Postal Museum in London, with the left side showing a green and black carriage and the right side showing a red carriage, both on tracks inside a brick tunnel with 'Riding Mail Rail' text overlaid at the top and 'London in Real Life' at the bottom.

Entering the queue, you’ll see the tiny train carriages all lined up and ready for you. I was really surprised by how small they are, but since these used to be driverless trains lines only for mail, it makes sense!

It’s sort of like boarding a theme park ride, where you’ll climb in and they they will come shut the doors securely.

I would not recommend Mail Rail for anyone who is claustrophobic. The cars are tiny, and the tunnels are the same size – it gets very narrow and very dark in some parts.

Child dressed in a skeleton costume enjoying the Mail Rail ride at The Postal Museum, London, with a view of the exhibition screens inside the train carriage and the historic underground postal railway tunnel.

Going through the tunnels, you’ll hear a voice over explaining the history of the tunnels and what they were used for.

Periodically you’ll stop and a film will be projected on the tunnel walls, which was really cool and very much like an amusement park ride.

The ride itself takes 15 minutes end to end.

You can’t lean on the doors or windows or the train will stop, which with a curious toddler is impossible. Still, he was mostly entertained by the ride and loved that the train carriage was just his size.

Interior of The Postal Museum’s Mail Rail exhibition showing the overhead industrial machinery and the 'Travelling Post Office' train carriage, giving visitors a glimpse into the historical mail transportation system.

When you disembark Mail Rail, you’ll exit around through a set of exhibits that will eventually lead you back upstairs to the gift shop and Sorted play space.

This set of exhibits are very hands-on and were the ones that most entertained my toddler.

His favorite was the “Traveling Post Office,” which replicates the inside of a moving train car. You have to sort the mail correctly while the floor moves and shakes – it was really fun!

There are also some historic train cars and machinery in this area, and a train conductor panel where you can try to arrange the carriages.

Sorted Play Space at The Postal Museum London

Children's Sorted Play Space at The Postal Museum in London, featuring a miniature red postal van, a postal office with a red pillar post box, and a child in a skeleton costume playing postmaster.

Upstairs in building 2 – just up the steps from Mail Rail, and next to the gift shop – there’s a very cute interactive play space called “Sorted.”

Sorted requires a separate ticket, but if you’re visiting the Postal Museum with children ages 0-8, it’s a must-do.

Inside is a mini-town where everything is made for children, from the pretend post office to the slide to the mail carts.

For me, it’s one of the best soft play centres in London, and well worth the £4 entry price.

Interactive play area at The Postal Museum in London, featuring a child in a red hat engaging in parcel sorting and another playing postmaster in an office setup with packages and a skeleton costume.

My child particularly enjoyed the parcel sorting, where he could crank the conveyor belt to drop packages into different bins.

He loved playing post office, complete with a Royal Mail hat and apron, punching the buttons on the cash registers and using the scales.

When we arrived it was nearly empty, but as we were wrapping up some nursery groups came in and it got quite crowded. The earlier you can get there, the better.

In fact, it might be best to book your Sorted time slot before Mail Rail, to give your children a chance to get their energy out before sitting still on a train.

Sessions are 45 minutes, and your child will have no trouble using all of that time and more.