Post-war reconstruction

At the beginning of 1945 Mount Pleasant was the premises of the Inland Letter Sorting Office, the London Returned Letter Branch and the Headquarters of the Post Office (London) Railway. The site also held administration offices, the North Postal Engineering Section, the Central London Mail Van Garage, and the Supplies Department.

The inland letter section alone had a staff of over 3,000, who handled more than 17 million items per week. A significant part of the work was now dealing with bulk correspondence from large publishers, business firms and advertising agents: 1940s 'junk mail'.

The 1943 air raids meant that the Parcel Section had been moved to the nearby Royal Agricultural Hall in Islington whilst reconstruction took place. But rebuilding the Parcel Section was just the first step in a comprehensive renovation at the Mount, which was itself part of broader modernising changes in British industry in the post-war era.

In notes to accompany plans for the new parcel building, the hope was expressed that more mechanisation would increase the capacity for parcel traffic by 100%. Proposals were made for the fitting of the experimental ‘Sovex’ sorting machine (which was later installed) and for a helipad on the roof of the building (which was not).

From the 1950s onwards, technological advances challenged the old assumption that mechanisation was limited to the conveyance of mail from one part of a manual sorting process to the next. The possibility of installing 'segregators' - machines that could disentangle items in the mail of odd shapes and sizes from regular letters - put a more ambitious view of mechanisation on the agenda.

The 1954 fire

Such technical developments received attention in the press, but Mount Pleasant hit the headlines in 1954 when a fire destroyed the top floor.

On 5 October 1954 thousands of employees and large amounts of mail were evacuated from the building when the Supplies Department caught fire at 10.15am. The call went out to Clerkenwell fire station, conveniently situated immediately opposite the buildings, and firemen were on the scene within two minutes.

The event caused some controversy when it emerged that over twenty minutes had elapsed between the discovery of the fire and making the emergency call. On 3 November 1954 the incident was raised in Parliament where the Postmaster General was asked to explain the delay. Ironically, the reason for the hold-up was not negligence but over-preparedness: the Mount had its own firefighting squad to handle small fires and it was only when this team realised they were unable to quell the blaze that the fire brigade were summoned. 

The Chief Fireman’s Report stated that the fire caused the following damage: "A building of three floors and basement covering an area of 24,000 square feet used as workrooms, offices, and stores. About two thirds of floor used as store severely damaged by heat, smoke, and water. Floors under [were damaged] by water [and] window glass by breakage".

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