Today we a explore a lesser-known London district with a very important place in the history of our nation. We tell the story of posting a letter from earliest times to the coming of the GPO, visit the brand new Postal Museum and take a ride on the Mail Rail beneath the streets of London. Meet our expert Blue Badge guide for morning refreshments included in the tour fee at a City pub at 10.30am. We will tailor the morning walking to suit your group. We can do the whole morning on foot or we can start off on foot but finish by coach. We will seek out visible reminders of our postal history from the inns where the mail coaches called with their scarlet clad, blunderbuss wielding guards to the coffee houses that were part of the Penny Post network. We use eyewitness accounts from such as Mendelssohn and Samuel Taylor Coleridge and recount tales of drunken poaching mailmen, corrupt politicians, the Victorian internet and a canny public utterly determined to avoid paying for their post. It’s a cracking tale. We’ll practice blowing our mail horn and follow the visual clues of old parish markings, street signs, property marks and shop signs to deliver our Penny Post letters from the time before house numbers or postcodes. We’ll look at how the GPO added to the landscape of street furniture alongside the existing bollards and milestones, cattle troughs and stink pipes as we wend our way from pillar to post. Free time for lunch today in Exmouth Market where there’s a thriving lunchtime food market (and a secret park full of benches) alongside traditional pubs and cafés. In the afternoon we visit the brand new state of the art Postal Museum to enjoy an incredible collection spanning five centuries and covering everything from ground breaking design and quirky technology to the intimacy of personal letters. During the afternoon we’ll also ride the hidden tunnels of the Mail Rail - a unique piece of industrial heritage that kept the capital’s communication network flowing for over 75 years. There’s time to buy refreshments before heading home at 4.30pm.
