From boiler house to archive

This photograph from the 1970s shows a view of Mount Pleasant which is very similar today... with a notable exception: The Royal Mail Archive is now located where the boiler house used to be, together with the main offices of the BPMA. Freeling House (named after 19th century Post Office Secretary Francis Freeling) replaced the boiler house in 1990 and the archive moved in; just another stage in the ongoing development of this site.

The Royal Mail Archive has been the source of material for this exhibition. Amongst the many files, volumes, posters and stamps, it also contains thousands of photographs, like the one below showing the Mount Pleasant branch post office when it was first opened in 1968.

The archive records the history of this major site in Clerkenwell, and gives an insight into the lives of the postal workers who have passed through the Mount in the last 130 years. Despite the fears of the first workers to sort mail in 'Cold Bath Fields', there have been lighter moments. We couldn't help but show this image, of celebrity Jimmy Saville on a promotional visit to Mount Pleasant in the 1970s. Jimmy looks unimpressed with the contents of a rogue parcel...