In the 1850’s, the post office realised it needed a quick way of transporting mail short distances between post offices, primarily in London. In 1853 the first ever so called “mail tube” went in to service. Although it was just over 200 metres long, it used the equivalent of a giant Vacuum cleaner to power the system and shoot the mail between depots. It was very successful. Over the next few years various forms of this system were built and tested, even to the point of carrying passengers!

On 9th October 1874, at the end of a conference held in Berne, Switzerland, the General Postal Union was founded, with 22 countries as members. Austria, Hungary, Belgium, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Rumania, Russia, Serbia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and The United States Of America.

Henry Archer was an Irish Born Writer and Classicist born in the 19th Century, who invented the first officially adopted machine for perforating postage stamps.

Archer left Ireland in 1829 and headed for London to work as an advisor for the General Post Office, and in 1847 he explained his concept to the Postmaster General, The Marques Of Clanricarde, and the following year the treasury authorised a trial of Archers plans. He was granted a provisional patent in England on November 23rd 1848.

William Dockwra was a London merchant and customs official who pioneered his own Penny Postal service. The post provided for the collection and delivery within the London districts, and began around 1680. This sort of service was not provided by the General Post Office of the time.

The urban areas were divided into postal districts, each with a conveniently situated office, where mail could be received, sorted and dispatched. The head office was listed as being at Dockwra’s home residence in Lime Street, London. In addition to the main sorting offices there were several hundred receiving houses scattered around the area. An operation of this size before had never been seen in a city.

Stanley Gibbons is probably the most famous philatelic company in the world, specializing in collectable postage stamps and related products from all around the world.

The company was established by Edward Stanley Gibbons in 1856 after he purchased a sack of rare triangular stamps from the Cape of Good Hope. Stanley Gibbons had two different premises on The Strand, London, 425 and 391 before finally settling at 399 where they still reside to this day.

In 1914 the company received a Royal Warrant from George V, making them the official British Philatelic company. Since that time they have been producing the most comprehensive stamp catalogues in the world, and their catalogue numbers are used by all serious collectors.

The first postcodes in the world were introduced in the UK around 1856, by the man who pioneered the reform of the postal services, Roland Hill.

London, as the largest city in the UK, was rapidly growing larger all the time. Unlike other cities and towns around the country, where postmen knew where all the local addresses were, London was becoming too large to rely on local knowledge alone.