The Postal Museum

The Postal Museum is the leading resource for all aspects of British postal history and is located at Mount Pleasant in Central London.

For a number of years, The Postal Museum has sought a new home where rich collections could be held in the appropriate environmental conditions with public access significantly improved. A location was identified for this new facility adjacent to Royal Mail’s Mount Pleasant site.

The overall project involved the conversion and refurbishment of Calthorpe House, retaining its 1920’s façade and creating six interactive exhibition spaces. The scheme also included the creation of a unique visitor experience; an interactive ride in the previously hidden Mail Rail tunnels at this Central London location.

The Postal Museum brings to life five centuries of history that have been hidden from view - until now.

Blue Sky Building was appointed as Construction Manager for this prestigious museum facility following a competitive tender process.

Calthorpe House

A cut and carve refurbishment and extension consisting of two floors of new office space for the Postal Museum’s staff, search room, conservation area, childrens’ learning space and a two storey archive with secure Vault. The ground floor covers a 500m² exhibition space split into six zones:
five of which tell the story of the mail from the reign of King Henry VIII to present day and the final zone holding a regular programme of temporary exhibitions. The objective of the exhibition is to change the preconceptions of the postal system and making this relevant to the lives of people today.

Mail Rail

Opposite Calthorpe House is the main entrance to Mail Rail consisting of a welcome area, family zone, event space leading to an exhibition and platform to board an interactive train ride running beneath the existing operational Mount Pleasant Post Office site.

The interactive ride experience takes you some 70 feet underground to ride the forgotten railway and explore interactive exhibition galleries allowing the public to enter the tunnels of the Post Office’s private underground railway for the first time in its hundred-year history and ride a looping mile on bespoke battery powered trains to experience the secret geography and heritage of the system whilst listening to a narrative with visual and sensory displays.