Post Office

Map

The overlays that highlight 17th century London features are approximate and derived from Wenceslaus Hollar’s maps:

Open location in Google Maps: 51.513889, -0.088617

6 Annotations

First Reading

Cumgranissalis  •  Link

The first Two[2] references be for the Poste House, where the mares and nags be stabled, available for rent to those that be without carriage and 6 , also they be used to send by carrier letters and packages to the the outer reaches of the kingdom.

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

The Post House to which Pepys went was on Threadneedle Street.
It was destroyed by the fire of London 2-5 September 1666.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

For a comprehensive description of the development of the Post Office I found a free book on line:

THE HISTORY OF THE BRITISH POST OFFICE by J. C. HEMMEON, Ph.D., published by CAMBRIDGE HARVARD UNIVERSITY in 1912

http://www.gbps.org.uk/informatio…

The first two chapters cover the early years and Pepys' times.

Third Reading

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

In 2003 Glyn explained Post Days like this:

This excerpt is from service in 1722, but Glyn thought it wouldn't have changed much from 1660:
"The Post Days to send Letters from London to any part of England and Scotland, are Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays: And the Returns certain on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
But to Wales and Ireland, the Post goes only twice a Week; viz on Tuesdays and Saturdays; and comes from Wales every Monday and Friday:
but from Ireland the Return is uncertain, because it (as all other foreign Letters do) depends upon Winds.
When the Court is in the Country, the Post goes every Day to the Place where it resides. The same is with Kent, and the usual Stations of the Royal Fleet, as the Downs, Spithead, and other Places: to which we may send every Day but Sunday; and from whence we may also hear every Day but Sunday."
So if this is a Tuesday, it counts as a "Post Day" for letters to Cambridge, or wherever Montagu/Sandwich currently is staying.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

After the Great Fire, the Post Office building in London moved to Lombard Street:

"Today, in London, one may read every morning letters from France. It was not so three centuries ago. The mails for France, the "ordinary," as it was then called, left London twice a week, on Monday and Thursday.[28]
An answer would be forthcoming a fortnight later, if no mishap had taken place, that is to say, if the carrier had not been drowned on the way,[29]
or if the Secretary of State had not caused the bags to be opened in his office.
"Here," wrote Cominges to Louis XIV, "they know how to open letters with more dexterity than anywhere in the world; they think it the right thing to do and that no one can be a great statesman without prying into private correspondence."[30]
The Record Office preserves the melancholy letters that never reached those to whom they were addressed.

"The present house-to-house delivery of letters was unknown. They had to be called for at the Post Office in Lombard Street. Contemporary guides never fail to give a lengthy description of the building, and the grand court where the City merchants used to walk up and down while the officers sorted the foreign mails."

[28] Chamberlayne, op. cit. ii. p. 254.

[29] Jusserand, French Ambass. p. 206.

[30] Jusserand, idem. p. 193.

Excerpt from
The Anglo-French Entente in the Seventeenth Century,
by Charles Bastide
Published by London, John Lane; New York, John Lane Company, 1914
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1341103447
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1341103445
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3…

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References

Chart showing the number of references in each month of the diary’s entries.

1660

1661

  • Jul

1664