The Postal Museum and Mail Rail

Published 20 September 2026 · By the Guide to London editorial team · Editor: Terje Moy

Mail Rail is a narrow-gauge railway the Post Office built under London to move letters, and you can ride a section of it in a train barely big enough to sit upright in. The ride lasts about fifteen minutes, twenty-one metres below Clerkenwell, and it comes with a ticket that also gives you a year's entry to the museum across the road.

One adult ticket was £20.50 on the museum's published price list, with children aged 2 to 17 at £11 and under-twos free. Book it. Weekends and holidays sell out, and walk-up tickets are limited.

The important thing to understand before you go is that this is two separate buildings on the same street, and you go to the wrong one first if nobody tells you. Head for Mail Rail, across the road from the museum, arriving just before the time printed on your ticket. Staff then send you round the rest.

How the ticket works

A single ticket buys three things: the ride, the exhibitions, and unlimited return visits to the museum for a year from the date on it. The Mail Rail ride is valid on your first visit only; if you come back within the year and want to ride again, annual ticket holders can buy a Mail Rail top-up for £7.50 a head.

Tickets are non-refundable, because the museum is a charity and treats the purchase as a donation. If the museum has to close, you are offered credit for another date. If you simply cannot come, contact them at least 24 hours ahead and they may move the booking. Prices change, so confirm on the ticket page before you book.

What the ride is actually like

You go down to the lower ground floor of the Mail Rail building, leave everything loose in a cage or a locker, and get into a carriage. They are small, low and covered over, and the museum publishes their dimensions on its ticket page for anyone who wants to check before booking. Then the train sets off into the original tunnels.

The numbers explain the experience. You descend twenty-one metres, about seventy feet, below street level. The tunnels are no wider than 2.1 metres, about seven feet, at their narrowest. The train runs at a maximum of 7.5 miles per hour, which feels faster than it sounds in a space that tight. The whole thing takes roughly fifteen minutes including getting in and out at the depot where you started.

The ride includes stretches of complete darkness, loud noise and flashing lights. The museum says the use of these effects is limited, but they are there, which is why it publishes the warning at all. For most visitors it is atmospheric rather than frightening, and it is as close as anyone gets to travelling inside the working infrastructure under London.

Who should not ride, and the rules that decide it

The museum is unusually direct about this, which is helpful. The ride may not suit small children, or anyone with claustrophobia, mobility difficulties, or a condition made worse by loud noise, confined spaces or flashing lights.

The rule that settles most cases is the evacuation requirement. If the train has to be evacuated, passengers must be able to walk at least 100 metres unaided on uneven ground in poor light, and then climb at least seventy steep steps. If you could not do that, you should not board.

The other conditions:

• You must be able to transfer yourself into the carriage. Mobility aids are left in storage beside the platform, where you also get back off.
• Nothing loose comes with you, including handbags. Use the cages or a locker.
• Anyone under 12 must be with an adult over 18.
• No food or drink, and no one under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
• Pushchairs stay in the buggy park on the ground floor of the Mail Rail building; they are not allowed on the lower ground floor.
• Latecomers are not admitted to the ride except at the staff's discretion.

Mail Rail's entrance and welcome space are step-free on the ground floor, and the ride platform is reached by lift as well as stairs. A Changing Places toilet is on the lower ground floor of the Mail Rail building, open to the public as well as to visitors. The exhibition building across the road is fully accessible to wheelchair users. Our guide to accessible London covers what to check at attractions generally.

The queue nobody warns you about

The time printed on your ticket is the time you would ride if there were no queue. That is not a promise. On busy days the museum says the wait can reach forty-five minutes, with an average of about twenty.

The practical response is to book the earliest slot of the day you can manage, and to treat the printed time as a target rather than a booking. Arrive a few minutes before it, join the queue, and plan the rest of the visit around whenever you surface.

The museum across the road

The exhibitions across the road tell the story of the postal service and of the people who ran it, with interactive displays alongside the objects. The museum recommends allowing two to three hours for the whole site, and four during school holidays, which is a realistic figure rather than an optimistic one.

Mail Rail itself opened in 1927 and ran underneath London until 2003, moving post between sorting offices without ever touching the traffic above. The tunnels you ride are a short loop of the original railway, and the displays in the old engineering depot explain how it worked and who kept it running.

There is a café in the Welcome Space, accredited under the Kids in Museums Family Café Standard, which is a small thing that tells you a lot about how the museum expects to be used. Lavatories, with baby changing, sit on the main building's ground floor and on Mail Rail's lower ground floor, as individual self-contained cubicles that anyone can use.

Sorted!, and what to do with small children

Sorted! The Postal Play Space is a separate ticket, and it is where under-eights will want to spend their time. Sessions last 45 minutes, a child aged 1 to 8 costs £5 and an accompanying adult £2.50; every adult going in needs a ticket, and under-ones come free. It is not soft play, and children must be supervised throughout.

The booking advice matters: if you are doing the museum as well, book the Sorted! session about an hour before or after your museum entry time, so that you are not trying to be in two places at once. It can also be booked on its own, without a museum ticket, which is useful for local families.

The Archive

The Postal Museum also holds the archive of the postal service, which is open to researchers on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays and on the second Saturday of each month, from 10:00 to 16:30, by appointment. If you are tracing a relative who worked for the Post Office, or researching a place through its postal history, book before you travel.

Getting to Phoenix Place

Phoenix Place is a quiet street in Clerkenwell with four stations less than a mile away in different directions: Farringdon, Russell Square, Chancery Lane and King's Cross St Pancras. Farringdon puts you on the Elizabeth line and Thameslink as well as three Tube lines, and King's Cross St Pancras connects almost everything; our guide to London's main railway stations explains which is which.

Buses 17, 19, 38, 45, 46, 55, 63 and 341 stop nearby. There is a cycle rack in the museum's courtyard, and you get the access code at the admissions desk; Santander docking stations are close by. There is no car park, and local parking is paid.

The walk from any of those stations goes through Clerkenwell, which is worth the ten minutes in its own right, and the museum publishes suggested walking routes with things to see on the way.

Combining it with other museums

The obvious pairing is London Transport Museum, twenty minutes away in Covent Garden, for a day of trains, tunnels and the machinery of a working city. Between the two you will have been underground twice and seen most of how London moves things.

Closer at hand, the Foundling Museum is ten minutes north in Bloomsbury and Sir John Soane's Museum fifteen minutes south towards Holborn, both small enough to add to a half day. Something enormous afterwards means the British Museum, a quarter of an hour west on foot, and King's Cross is the easiest place nearby to eat.

For families deciding between attractions on a wet day, see what else works with children when it rains and our wider family guide to the city. The Science Museum is the other place in London where machinery is the point.

Frequently asked questions

What does a Postal Museum ticket cost?

£20.50 for an adult and £11 for a child aged 2 to 17 on the museum's published price list, with under-twos free. The ticket includes one Mail Rail ride and readmission to the museum for a year. Check the current price on the ticket page before booking.

How long is the Mail Rail ride?

About fifteen minutes, including boarding and getting out again at the depot where you started. The train reaches a maximum of 7.5 miles per hour and runs twenty-one metres below street level in tunnels no more than 2.1 metres wide at their narrowest.

Is Mail Rail suitable for young children?

Children of any age can ride, but anyone under 12 must be with an adult over 18, and the museum warns that the ride may not suit those sensitive to confined spaces, motion, loud noises or flashing lights. Under-eights often get more out of the separate Sorted! play space.

Do I need to book the Postal Museum in advance?

Yes, to be sure of getting in. Weekends and busy periods sell out, and walk-up tickets are limited. Booking also fixes your Mail Rail time, although that is an estimate rather than a guarantee: queues of up to forty-five minutes occur on the busiest days.

Is Mail Rail accessible for wheelchair users?

The entrance and welcome space are step-free and a lift reaches the ride platform, but riders must transfer themselves into the carriage and leave mobility aids beside the platform. There is an evacuation requirement to walk 100 metres unaided and climb seventy steep steps. A £13 Reduced Access ticket covers the exhibitions for visitors who cannot ride, and brings a companion in free.

Sources

• The Postal Museum - Visit us (checked September 2026)
• The Postal Museum - Tickets and prices (checked September 2026)
• The Postal Museum - What to expect (checked September 2026)
• The Postal Museum - Accessibility (checked September 2026)