The Royal Mail Archive is free and open for members of the public to use and enjoy.

The Royal Mail Archive is based at Freeling House, Phoenix Place, London WC1X 0DL, which is also the main office for The British Postal Museum & Archive. This section of the website contains further information about the Archive, including getting to the Archive, our opening times and facilities and access.

Our Museum collection (which includes vehicles, pillar boxes, furniture and sorting equipment) is at the British Postal Museum Store in Debden, Essex.

Conducting Research in the Search Room

We welcome those who wish to use the Archive for research. To find out more about our holdings please consult our collections, catalogue and archive research guides.

You do not need to make an appointment to see most of the archive material we hold (except for philatelic material). However, as with any archive, it is always a good idea to contact us or consult our online catalogue before your visit to find out if we have records that could be useful to you.

We operate a user card system for researchers at the Archive. Click here to find out about the application process.

There is no charge to use the archive, unless you wish to make copies of the material. For more information see copying services.

Due to essential building works taking place adjacent to our building, the Search Room is sometimes experiencing high noise levels. We are working closely with the contractors to minimise the disruption. This work is expected to continue until further notice.

Please keep this in mind when planning a research visit. You may want to consider using ear plugs. The noise levels may also make dealing with telephone enquiries difficult, please do bear with us.

Archive Search Room Exhibition

We have a small exhibition area at the Archive which is used to display some of highlights from our collections. All Search Room exhibitions are free and you do not require a user card to view them. Further information about our current Search Room display can be found in Current & Future Exhibitions.

Archive Tours

We operate several free tours of the Archive each year. Come along for an introduction to the archive and a behind the scenes tour of our collections, which stretch over 2.5 miles and cover social, postal and design history from 1636 to today. Further information about our Archive Tours can be found in Events.