Visiting with kids? We’ve got it Sorted!

Today we’re excited to finally unveil our new family play space, Sorted! as well as a jam-packed programme of family activities for the school summer holidays.

Sorted! Mail Rail at The Postal Museum’s family play zone

Our fun, interactive play area for 0-8s will open at the same time as Mail Rail on 4 September 2017.

Designed as a miniature town for little ones to exercise their imaginations and use up excess energy, children can play with postal trolleys, slides, parcel pulleys, letter chutes, and even pretend to drive a wooden vintage post van.

Kids can even take on roles as cashiers or customers in a mock-up post office, or work out the best way to deliver parcels to a mini neighbourhood of roads and houses. There is also the chance to be able to send secret messages to each other through specially designed telephone box whispering tubes!

For younger children, there is a specially designed separate play area.

We’ve got everything Sorted! for parents as well. The play area comes complete with baby-changing facilities, designated toilets, buggy parking and lockers, as well as a much-needed coffee area, where you can relax while keeping an eye on your little ones.

Sorted! costs £5 for a standalone 45-minute session, or £1.50 if bought in conjunction with a General Admission ticket to The Postal Museum and Mail Rail experience. Walk-up tickets are available, but booking is advised if purchasing as part of a General Admission.

Adult tickets to The Postal Museum and Mail Rail cost £17.05 inclusive of an optional £1.50 voluntary donation, with a reduced-price ticket available for kids wanting to ride the Mail Rail train. We’ll be confirming our ticket on-sale date will be confirmed shortly, along with full ticketing information so if you haven’t already, sign up to our mailing list to be the first to hear.

Family Activities

For families visiting the attraction during the summer holidays, we will be offering a fun-packed programme of activities for kids of all ages. Sessions range from storytelling and mask-making workshops to designing pop-up cards and messages in bottles, all included in the price of a General Admission ticket. You can just turn up and take part! If you want to find out more see our website. Places are limited, so make sure you turn up early to avoid disappointment!

The Jolly Postman activities © Brendan Foster Photography

After the summer holidays, a regular programme of weekend and holiday workshops including arts and crafts, storytelling, science shows and much more means there will always be something new to take part in. Keep an eye on the website for details.

About The Postal Museum and Mail Rail for Families

The Postal Museum and Mail Rail is London’s most anticipated new heritage attraction. The museum’s interactive galleries will take you on a journey through five centuries of world-class curiosities, providing a different, previously unseen view on some of the world’s most significant historical events, and an insight into the quirky beginnings of the earliest social network.

There are many ways to play in the museum, from stepping back in time and dressing up as a postal worker, to turning yourself into a postage stamp or sending a message through a pneumatic tube and watching it whizz across the gallery. The Jolly Postman’s family trail will also help you along the way.

Once you have taken in the museum, your ticket will then grant you access to a subterranean world that – up until now – remained hidden from public view.
Descend into the old engineering depot of Mail Rail – the one-hundred-year-old little-known Post Office railway – and board a miniature train designed to transport you through its narrow tunnels. The interactive train ride will pass through and stop at the original Mount Pleasant station platforms, where an impressive audio visual display will take you back in time, giving an insight into the heyday of the railway.

Mail Rail includes periods of pitch darkness and loud noises, so could be a little bit scary for under 5s. If so, your little ones can find out about life in the tunnels in our accessible show.

The Postal Museum has been made possible through the generous support of a number of organisations and individuals, including National Lottery players through the  Heritage Lottery Fund, Royal Mail and Post Office Limited. A big thank you to all of them.