In the days when post went mainly by train, the Post Office
had its own electric railway under the streets of London. As if there weren’t
enough of those already.
Running between 1927 and 2003 from Whitechapel in the east
to Paddington in the west, the system’s focal point was the Mount Pleasant
sorting office.
From there, part of the line has now been reopened as a
tourist attraction - actually, around the maze of tracks beneath Mount Pleasant
itself, unless I’m much mistaken. No good if you are claustrophobic, mind, its
narrow gauge and effectively a shrunk down tube network.
Reassuringly, the formerly driverless trains now have
someone up front. The train stops, periodically, for passengers to view short information
films beamed onto the underground station walls.
Worth a visit, I’d say. We always try to find something we
haven’t done before when we go to London and there’s still plenty to choose
from. As Samuel Pepys said, “The man who tires of London is tired of life”.
OK then, Samuel Johnson.
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