210:): a Telegraph Factory was built in 1890 in the southern corner of the site; and from 1889-1900 a vast new Parcel Office was built, in stages from north to south, over the whole of the northern (north-west) half of the site. (In spite of its name, the third and final section of the building was designed to accommodate the sorting of letters for the Inland section of the GPO, which was transferred here from St. Martin's Le Grand in 1900.) When finished the building was square in plan, with corner pavilions containing offices and ancillary services, and the central areas used for sorting. Two-thirds of the building was two storeys high, but the final section was double that height. On either side were glass-covered loading bays for the mail vans.
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187:'s house was used by the Telegraph Superintending Engineer (whose workshops expanded into other buildings in the eastern corner of the site); the chapel housed a hundred clerks of the Money Order Office (with a similar number being accommodated in what had been the governor's offices on the floors below), while the adjacent long cell-block was used for postal stores. (The Money Order Office moved out in 1897 to temporary accommodation in
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231:. Not long afterwards, however, they too were swept away (the Stores Department having moved out in 1915) for the building of a new Letter Sorting Office, designed by A. R. Myers, which was built (again in stages) across the southern half of the site, beginning in 1920. (The last vestiges of the prison were demolished in 1929.) In contrast to the red-brick Parcel Office, the new Letter Sorting Office was built in
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In 2012 Royal Mail proposed selling off the northern half of the site, together with land to the west (on the other side of
Phoenix Place) for residential and commercial redevelopment. The sites being sold for redevelopment had been mainly used for operational and staff vehicle parking, which was to
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The Post Office clerks did not like the name
Coldbath Fields, which was associated with the prison in the public mind, so Baines took the name Mount Pleasant from an adjacent street (the name-change being announced in November that year). The street called Mount Pleasant had gained its name
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After a protracted dispute over affordable housing, development of the site, to include some 680 homes and named 'Postmark', began in 2018. The first phase, alongside
Phoenix Place, was completed in 2021. The project as a whole is scheduled for completion in 2024.
235:; the eastern half was completed in 1926, the steel-framed western half in 1934. The Letter Sorting Office, said at the time to be the largest in Europe and the British Empire, was opened in November that year by the
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Some of the original prison buildings survived into the 20th century. The prison gate was demolished in 1901 for an extension to the
Telegraph Factory; but the governor's house and the chapel lasted through the
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in 1940 and 1943. By 1944 it had been rebuilt (at ground-floor level only) and brought back into use. An intended rebuild never took place, and eventually (in 1984) most of the parcel sorting was moved to
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and the remains of Tanner's building were demolished. Subsequently the northern half of the site has functioned mainly as a van park (the last remaining parcel work was removed from Mount
Pleasant to
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was opened on the site, located in
Freeling House on the back of the sorting office. It provides public access below ground to the Post Office Railway depot, which now operates as a
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To begin with the prison buildings were used to house various Post Office departments: the prison bakehouse became the office of the Post Office Stores
Department, the
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house as a temporary parcel sorting office, and the GPO moved in in time to meet the
Christmas rush. The sale of the rest of the site had to wait until an
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for use as open space. The Post Office chose to retain the entire site, and provided the funds, which were used to purchase Spa Green
Gardens in
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Letter
Sorting Office building remains in use, albeit much altered, both externally (with plastic windows and cladding) and internally.
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be relocated underground as part of the scheme. The remaining operational part of the site was due to be modernised at the same time.
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London's largest sorting office, Mount Pleasant, in 2007 (seen from the west, across the old staff car park on Phoenix Place).
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191:; whereupon the stores department moved into the chapel and other vacated areas, and the cell-block was demolished.)
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The Post Office (Sites) Act 1889 required the Post Office to provide a portion of the site, or £10,000, to
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Meanwhile, the Post Office began to erect its own buildings on the site (designed for the most part by
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It is located on a twelve-acre site in the Mount Pleasant area of Clerkenwell, at the junction between
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635:"A first-class address: new homes on former Royal Mail site at Mount Pleasant to launch this summer"
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The Mail Centre as seen from the north, looking along Farringdon Road (prior to redevelopment).
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that ceased to function in 1885. Its potential use for Post Office purposes was championed by
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In the mid-1880s the parcel sorting office was located in the cramped basement of
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ironically in the 1730s after locals had begun to dump cinders and other refuse.
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Denyer, C. H. (July 1895). "Money Order Office Gossip and History (Part III)".
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c. ccix), was passed. The centre was then officially opened on 30 August 1889.
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From 1927 to 2003, Mount Pleasant was the central station and depot on the
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Survey of London volume XLVII: Northern Clerkenwell and Pentonville
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397:"Future efficient costs of Royal Mail's Regulated Mail Activities"
57:, England. The site has previously operated as one of the largest
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137:. The Coldbath Fields Prison site fitted these criteria. In 1887
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Forty-fourth Report of the Postmaster General on the Post Office
444:. New Haven & London: Yale University Press. pp. 42–51.
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as part of the same complex of buildings, which opened in 1937.
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Temple, Philip, ed. (2008). "Mount Pleasant Sorting Office".
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Buildings and structures in the London Borough of Islington
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The Mail Centre as seen from Mount Pleasant (to the south).
456:"INFORMATION SHEET NO 9: Headquarters of the Post Office"
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for sorting purposes with the installation of a machine.
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The public post office on Rosebery Avenue (to the east).
571:"Royal Mail to sell off half its London sorting office"
557:"Royal Mail criticised over £32m development plans"
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Municipal Parks, Gardens, and Open Spaces of London
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485:"Mount Pleasant, Islington/Camden"
25:Mount Pleasant Post Office (2023).
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545:. London: HMSO. 1898. p. 24.
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89:and Rosebery Avenue and opposite
16:Sorting office in London, England
463:Great Britain Philatelic Society
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633:Spittles, David (3 July 2018).
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414:"Mount Pleasant Sorting Office"
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383:"Mount Pleasant Mail Centre"
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41:and officially known as the
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243:was built on the corner of
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600:. London Borough of Camden
284:London Post Office Railway
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43:London Central Mail Centre
37:, known internally as the
31:Mount Pleasant Mail Centre
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107:Frederick Ebenezer Baines
747:Infrastructure in London
620:"CBI visit to the Mount"
237:Duke and Duchess of York
67:London Borough of Camden
179:Mount Pleasant (street)
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338:W1 postcode district
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713:51.52472; -0.11194
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326:mail centre
277:Camden Town
273:Brent Cross
262:During the
241:post office
189:Fore Street
170:Clerkenwell
115:parcel post
47:mail centre
732:Royal Mail
726:Categories
696:51°31′29″N
369:References
279:in 1996).
51:Royal Mail
699:0°06′43″W
143:treadmill
340:and the
303:art-deco
185:governor
127:GPO East
73:Location
328:of the
97:History
45:) is a
644:25 May
604:29 May
469:25 May
348:Future
336:, the
332:, the
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55:London
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