Princess Anne opens the Postal Museum and Mail Rail

The Princess Royal takes a ride on the Mail Rail. The Princess Royal explored the quirky history of the most royal of British institutions, the Royal Mail, and discovered the origins of the world's earliest social network: the post. Credit: Miles Willis/Getty Images for The Postal Museum) | Princess Anne opens the Postal Museum and Mail Rail
Credit: Miles Willis/Getty Images for The Postal Museum

HRH the Princess Royal has officially opened the much-anticipated Postal Museum and Mail Rail in London’s Clerkenwell, which will give visitors access to an incredible subterranean world

From next month visitors to London will be able to explore a quirky side to the capital’s heritage as the Postal Museum and Mail Rail finally opens. The museum promises to reveal more about what is being billed as Britain’s first social network: the post.

Opening on 28 July, the museum’s galleries will lead visitors through five centuries of curiosities and grant them access to an underground world, which has been off limits to members of the public…until now.

Located in Clerkenwell, London, visitors on the Mail Rail will descend into a century-old engineering depot of the secret Post Office railway. Once below, they will board a miniature train that will navigate the narrow tunnels, where the city’s mail was once kept on its course 22 hours a day.