The Postal Museum Admission Ticket

Fun and Enjoyable

I like the mail rail very much. It shows the history and how the rail used to work. Had lots of fun even as an adult.

The Postal Museum didn’t quite ‘deliver’

We are two mature ladies who enjoy history, so we were really interested in learning more about the mail in bygone days. The mini-train ride was interesting and fun and was the best part of the visit (bags had to be left on a rack under the eye of staff, but we could take our phones on the train for photos). As adults attending without children we found the main museum afterwards to be a let down. There were activities to interest and entertain young children, but a glance at uniforms, postal vehicles, old phone box and old post box didn’t really hold our interest for long and we were back outside in half an hour or so wishing we had learned more than we did.

A must do for all ages

Fantastic tour with a great small 15 minute miniature train ride. The museum was great, it had so many wonderful pieces of history and plenty of interactive things for kids of all ages. Highly recommend a visit.

Highly enjoyable

Really enjoyed my time here , it’s in a nice quiet area . All the employees were very helpful and extremely friendly and knowledgeable. I would highly recommend this place for anyone looking to get away from the hustle and bustle of the noise of the city for a few hours !

Top museum

Top museum. Top train ride. Friendly staff. Very interesting. Nice café for lunch or tea. Two locations.

Great way to spend a few hours in London!

Great few hours spent at this place, very interesting, nice little train ride too! Plenty to look at in the Museum, highly recommended!

Heya

Heya. In order to beat the crowds we decided to visit this museum on a hot day. It was my first time ever. This is a really nice museum to explore. You must go on the secret train as well. After that maybe go and view the film based on the train in question. Take a look on the website to see the information you will need. Recommended too. I give it five out of five stars. If you are in the area feel free to come and visit. It is certainly something to do on a very hot day when there will be far fewer people indoors. We also rode the mail run train. I will return next year. Book on the phone all entry tickets in advance. You must check the details prior to going there. Next on the list was a hour at the cafe for a rather quick lunch. Check out the museum exhibitions on the ground floor. Additionally you must spend two to three hours here. Try to plan your entire visit carefully however. I recommend taking a packed lunch. Due to our own time limits we didn’t see all parts of the museum. But it is generally worth it. At the very end of your visit make a beeline for the gift store to buy a trinket to take back home. Or purchase a museum leaflet.

Great place to visit

Great place, very interesting look at the history of the postal system. Suitable for all ages. Staff were lovely, very welcoming and polite throughout.

Fantastic place!Extremley interesting

Went to the postal museum a couple of weeks ago and it was fantastic!It was so interesting and fascinating to learn all about the Post office.It was a real insight and we certainly will never think of the post office the same way again.Mail rail was really fun too.They have a lovely little cafe and a couple of merchandise shops on site.They also showed short films as well which were interesting to watch!The postal museum is definitely worth a visit,would wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone!

Excellent museum, highly recommed

Great informative museum, giving the history of UKs postal system. Fascinating facts, loads of interactive things to do for everyone.... highly recommend. Must do the mini train underground trip!

Something slightly different to do!

The postal train ride is the main event and is pretty good. It is cramped and a little hot but worth it. The commentary is really insightful. We all enjoyed it.

FANTASTIC

Fantastic for all ages. Lots to do for the children, well organised. Staff were all friendly. The little cafe was a bit overpriced but nice.

Very nice tour a hidden gem

Great visit to the museum, the exhibits are fun and interactive. The train ride is so well done and very informative We also busted the kids play area - Sorted. Once of the best play area we have ever taken the kids too. Simply amazing Well worth a visit as it’s a real hidden gem

Mail Rail is awesome!

Mail rail was really cool and the kids (6 and 3) loved it. Not recommended for tall people. I’m 5’11” and my head was almost hitting the roof.

The Railway is fantastic....

The Railway is fantastic. Keep in mind that museum contains of 2 parts. The main exhibition and the railway across the street.

a great experience. Highly recommended. Don't miss this fab day out.

Such an unusual and exciting experience. Can't recommend this enough. Staff were brilliant and very knowledgeable.

A must do for kids in London!

A must do if you have young kids. The Mail Rail is both a charming ride and an informative tour. It’s extremely well run and its digital projections are very well put together. The Sorted! play area was an absolute hit. The entries for Sorted! are timed, which does mean that your kids will be sorry to leave, but it also meant that the amount of kids in the area was just right. My two year old and five year old loved the trip.

Unexpectedly Great Tour

Very interesting and informative visit to the Museum which also included a ride on the underground postal train. Fascinating history of the postal system showing it's development over the past 200+ years. Uniforms vehicles, interesting facts as well as some interesting gifts and souvenirs. There is a coffee shop (cashless) and the premises clearly doubles as a facility for younger children and their carers but it was like a creche the day of my visit with lots of wobblers and toddlers (under 3) While it's great to see young children out and about several of the kids were lying on the floor or galloping about without supervision which made me very nervous when other customers were carrying trays of hot drinks. It was also quite noisy. Maybe stick to a later time to visit than first thing in the morning. It could also do with better signposting from the tube station as it's in a part of London off the beaten track. Would return again and would recommend a visit

Brilliant for geeks like me who want to see behind the scenes of everything!

Fantastic experience seeing some of Londons underground history. Great staff and great experience all round. Brilliant for geeks like me who want to see behind the scenes of everything!

I wouldn’t return

We have always wanted to visit the museum so decided to have a look on a Friday. Sadly we spent longer queuing for the train than we did looking round. It was underwhelming and frankly wasn’t worth the visit. We were there 45 mins and 25 mins if that were queueing for the train.

A hidden gem in the heart of Bloomsbury

What a surprise! Planned to spend a couple of hours, but ended up doing almost the whole day. (We are 3 adults who love to read most of the information on the displays, watch the videos and do the interactives.) We used our London Pass to enter the main museum. Received a receipt ticket which allowed us entry into the underground train over the road. The train experience was one of the most interesting things I've ever done. There is also a display with interactive activities and videos, for young and old. The main museum takes you on a journey through the history of the postal service, also including some interactives. You need at least 4 hours to make the most of it. The cafe just has basic sandwhiches, a soup and the usual array of cakes and drinks so if you are wanting something more substantial, there are some pubs nearby. I'd recommend doing the main museum before lunch, book your train time for the afternoon and come back to that after lunch. If you have small children, you might do it in a shorter amount of time. The museum is a short walk from Russell Square Station with the Dickens Museum just around the corner to finish off the day.

Tour good. Booking on line a complete waste of time

The mail train tour is very good and worth the visit. What is a waste of time is booking tickets on line. You’re given a time for your trip but when you turn up you simply join a queue. We queued for 45 minutes before we got on. If you are planing your day don’t rely on the time given if you book on line save yourself the bother of booking on line, just turn up!

A mail adventure through time!

The train ride was fun. Interesting facts along the way. The museum is bright, interactive and we learnt many fact about Mail in general.

Good but it could be much better.

Overall was good. My 6 year old daughter was entertained and there was enough for her to see and interact with. I also found it very interesting. Staff was very polite and helpful. What i found extremely irritating: - Some of the interactive games did not work. Green / red engine race. - The section for children to create your own stamp / uniform with colours did not have cards for them to do so. Why? In addition, the bin slot was full to the top so rubbish has to be left on the table. - I didn't like having to place mine and my daughter's coat on a shelf on top of other peoples clothes before boarding the train. Really? Unhygienic, Covid? - The train ride was excellent. I kindly suggest to make many more ventilation holes as the lack of fresh air was a little bit concerning.

Great place for little train buffs

I took my 7 year old on the Mail Rail after a European holiday where he was “over” museums, but his rating on this was “awesome”. Riding the tunnels is both fun and interesting, and he also enjoyed the hands on displays after you get off. Admittedly we didn’t get into the main part of the Postal Museum as this was our last day in London and we were short on time, but I would recommend the Mail Rsil to anyone who has the slightest interest.

A different museum experience.

A fascinating experience and well worth the effort to see behind the postal system in London from the past and walk back in time through the history of Royal mail. Compliments the Covent Garden transport museum.

Very good day out

Really good day out for adults and children. Mail rail was very good with little history video clips on projectors during the train ride at most platforms. The museum is literally over the road from the train ride station There is parking a few roads down (not cheap) I would recommend getting there by train!

Fun on the train

Well worth a visit, museum is very interesting, loved all the vehicles. It's very entertaining creating your own stamps. The actual train ride is great and amazing to think it has been closed for 20 years, it should be reinstated! with the post now being delivered by road and the congestion and fuel costs!

Would recommend!

What a great little find! Really interesting and enjoyable underground train journey. The rest of the museum (just across the road) was also good. Would recommend.

train ride saves the day

Museum aimed mostly at children, but was still interesting. Was smaller than I thought it would be, so a little disappointed. The cafe is expensive for what it is. The ride on the train was a bit different if a little dull, maybe because I was at the back I could not hear all the commentary.

Great half day tour

Arrived earlier than ticket time but that was no problem this time of year. Boarded the train first (best to do that) for a 30 minute ride through a small section of the line. Excellent narrated tour plus all kinds of visuals. Wish it had been longer but what we saw was good. Then walked up the road to the museum itself. Lots of very interesting artifacts, well presented and explained. There is a small coffee shop at the museum but can get busy especially on kids play days - see their website for schedule of those.

Worth every penny !

Brilliant ! It was interesting as well as interactive. Being able to go down the tunnels was great . Being able to look at and try on the clothes as well as see how things send up tubes etc was great fun.

A tiny train down a tunnel into London's fascinating past

It's tiny underground trains. What's not to like? Or as one of the workers on the Mail Rail quoted in this fascinating and engaging experience put it " it was like having your own train set". Except while it was in operation from 1929 - 2003, the driverless electric trains took up to 5 million letters a day. And now you, as a member of the public, get to ride the route, one formerly only ridden by the children of mail workers at Christmas. Oh and in the 80s, Bruce Willis filmed down here. For this and yet more postal knowledge dating back over 500 years visit the Postal Museum and ride the Rail Mail. Excellent value for children of all ages.

Worth a visit if you are in the area

Brilliant experience. Sue, who helped me find my way and explained where the Mail Rail could be found as well as the exhibition was friendly, polite and knowledgeable. She really couldn’t have been better. The Mail Rail train is genuinely a one of a kind experience, and the history of the system genuinely very interesting. Would recommend.

Hidden gem.

This museum is a hidden gem in London. We were adults but the kids would love it also. It tells the story of the postal service in Britain including it's underground railway used for moving mail around London years ago. You can ride this underground in a little tourist train. As well as the railway there is a very informative, interactive museum showing the history of postal services in Britian. The site is a little out of the way but well worth a visit.

Trip with Wife

Surprisingly interesting tour of what once was the postal railway and sorting office. Insightful to see how mail was transported around or under rather, London!

Fantastic museum for big and small

We paid a visit to this museum as a present to our 8yrs old son. He was on top of the moon after we finished our trip! Upon arrival, you had to go down to the Mail rail site to take the train and then got back to the exhibition site of the museum. These are separate buildings, just over the road. There are some construction works nearby, so care when crossing. The Mail rail was absolutely stunning, a great combination of a ride, multimedia and artefacts from the time when those trains did work! My kids loved it! You can get some stuff from the gift shop once you finish the ride! Toilet facilities were very clean and comfy! Then just on the other side of the road is the exhibition site where you can learn a lot about how letters, parcels were delivered, what transport has been used and how stamps have been made. Another great place where kids learn a lot by just playing and exploring. The cafe offered various of cakes and hot drinks! Again toilet facilities were clean and the staff was friendly! The ticket allows reusing within a year time, but that is for the exhibition site. If you want to do the train ride, you have to pay £6. Highly recommend this place!

Mail Rail a definite highlight!

The mail rail section was definitely a highlight of the visit - immersive and very informative. The main museum was also very good and seeing a sheet of penny blacks in person was great. I would have enjoyed more about the history of the development of the post code system and changes with localisation of sorting offices, but the museum was very informative.

Excellent visit - very interesting.

What a fabulous visit to this informative museum. We spent 3 hours here, which included the train trip. Lots of things for children to do (and adults!). We learnt so much and the train trip is very well laid out. So up to date with information about the new King Charles 111 stamps.

Great day out

The museum was fantastic 👏. Great fun very interactive. Both educational and entertainment in one. Suitable for all ages.

Fantastic for kids

People kept raving about this museum and I thought, ‘Really? A museum about the postal service? Doesn’t sound much fun’, but I have honestly never been so impressed with a museum in my life. What struck me is that it is a museum designed by people who actually know what it is like to take kids to a museum. An example of this is that next to where you queue for the excellent underground mail rail ride there is not only a whole bunch of stuff for kids to play with whilst they wait (foam blocks and tubes, wheels and parts to make ride on vehicles, toy phones, a baby pen with a post box game in it) but also a member of staff playing with and engaging the children. Another example is in the Sorted play area there are pretend letters and parcels for the kids to post in mini houses and letter boxes, collect in post bags, scan, drop through sorting bags etc. My kids are a bit hesitant and I thought I would have to spend the whole time apologising and asking other kids if we could have a couple to play with but there are loads and loads of them, enough that every kid has plenty to play with. There are many other things that impressed me about this museum, such as all the genuinely fun interactive elements (not just a couple of touch screen like you find in many museums), the kindness of the staff, and the lovely shop. The historical information is also really well well presented, whether you are interested in machines, personal stories, or how the postal service operated and adapted within the wider historical context. I learned so much about something I didn’t even know I was interested in. Will 100% be back!

Disappointing

Really disappointed. Despite paying for an annual ticket and there being no queue; we were informed we would have to pay an extra £6 each if we wanted a second ride on the train. This was after being approached by a manager and made to feel like idiots despite this not being set out anywhere in our confirmation emails or tickets. The museum wasn’t great. So much of the interactive stuff not working or broken. Wouldn’t go again despite having an annual pass. What a let down!

Great experience for everyone

Great museum and the trip on the Mail Train was excellent with a great narration. Easy enough for people to access the wagons and the multimedia show was excellent. It has to be a unique experience. Even the museum section was excellent with much informative interaction. Children would really appreciate it as well.

Illuminating

This is a museum of two halves- the Mail Rail bit with a ride on the old lines used to transport post around under London and info all about that, and then the history of the British postal service & stamps in the building in the other side of the street. I was surprised by the origins of our postal service & by the things they did to try & make it more commercially profitable during the last 40 years- some of which I’d never heard of before, so it was illuminating. They now have the proofs for stamps bearing the new King’s head portrait & explanations of how and why they picked the ones they’ve finally used, which was interesting too. I was done, start to finish, in just under two hours. The cafe is a little pricey but the latte is delicious & made a nice post-tour treat.

Over priced.

Sadly I found this museum way over priced for what it was. The postal train was good and the short stops with the video and explanations were interesting. But, sadly we couldn't hear any of the other audio through the noise of the carriage. I understand it's old but maybe work on your audio equipment. The explanation from the guy at the beginning was also inaudible, people gave up trying to hear his facts etc. The small exhibition afterwards, there a few interactive things for little ones, like sorting a few wooden 'letters' out in pretend sorting office. No way enough for the price. I definitely wouldn't bother if you have kids over 10. We were finished in 30 minutes.

Wonderful!

It’s a bit out of the way for most visitors to London, but it’s totally worth the journey for adults or kids! The main attraction for many is the mail rail train which is an incredibly unique actual train ride with a bit of history mixed in. It can be mildly claustrophobic for some, so just be prepared. The main museum segment is geared more to families but anyone with even a passing interest in mail, the stamps or history in general will find it well worth the money. Many interactive exhibits help make it even more memorable. They have a good gift shop and a small snack stand as well. Allow for 2-3 hours and go visit!

Good

It is okay but not realise it is small museum and separate museums Nice display Food is expensive Price is expensive as well

The postal museum

What a great time out. Started with the Mail train. Great little ride and loads to see and hear. Very in depth way to see the way things where. Then back to the museum to se all post office has done for Mail over the years . Loads of information and lots of displays. Even young children seem to be enjoying it. Well worth the money. Go see you will not be disappointed

Well thought out experience.

The ride on the small train was the highlight of this visit. Staff all were very helpful and imformative. Enjoyable food in the cafe.

Loved it!

Travelling on an old mail train under central London was a really unique experience. The commentary and films projected onto the station walls really brought the history alive. The museum itself was excellent.