Poetry in the Post Office

“Few have waxed lyrical about the workings of the  (British) Post Office  as its empire of posts and telecommunications have changed over many decades. Here is an illustrated light-hearted poetic journey across some of its services and locations.”  

Poetry in the Post Office is a compilation of poems that were written to emphasise topics in the My GPO Family series of books. Some new poems highlighting the alliteration and uniformity of Post Office work are also included. Poems herein encompass the era when the General Post Office (GPO) operated both the postal and telecommunication services in the UK. The Post Office Savings Bank (POSB) activities evolved into Premium Savings Bonds (ERNIE), and a new banking service National Girobank. Click on photo for index of poems.

London's GPO Heritage


As one-time provider of both Posts and Telecommunications, the General Post Office’s property empire across London was vast. The larger public service buildings of the Post Office often had communication-themed artwork to highlight their purpose.

Here is a pictorial journey (in colour) through some notable buildings and street furniture whose histories have featured in the My GPO Family book series. Includes: Dorothy Annan murals, London Wall remains, Faraday Building, Fleet Building and PO Tower. Out of Print.

The GPO and Bletchley Park [Extended edition Nov 2020.]

Tommy Flowers of the (GPO) General Post Office’s research group devised Colossus the world’s first programmable electronic computer which broke the German Lorenz codes.   Hundreds of GPO teleprinters at Bletchley Park, the Government’s Station X,  relayed vital messages across the UK via the Defence Teleprinter Network.  As a government department, it was not surprising, that the GPO created an engineering training centre at Bletchley Park after the codebreakers moved out.  


This photobook explores a selection of the many GPO connections with Bletchley Park, past and present, tracing the remnants of the buildings, staff training, and the rebuilds of the wartime machines.

Styling the Post Office [First edition Nov 2022.]

"As with any business, the style of the Post Office affected how its staff and customers perceived and interacted with it. This book takes a snapshot of how just some of the associated key brands evolved through its long history to what they are today."

At 244 glossy pages, my new book is a real fab tome, with hundreds of colour/black & white photos/illustrations and clear explanations.

London's Trunks, Tolls, and Telex

This book was to be written in A5 b&w format, but will now be released in the square series which gives a more flexible layout and allows colour photos. This will show the evolution of trunk switching in London. Expected late 2024.

"The gradual roll-out of Subscriber Trunk Dialling (STD) over 20 years (1959 to 1979) saw the most ambitious building plan across London as Trunk Units, and Sector Switching Centres (SSCs) needed vast new spaces in which to house the (mostly analogue) automatic switching equipment. This was a time-period when major switching centres still required a large operator presence for manually-connected calls too! Simultaneously, explosive growth of International Subscriber Dialling (ISD) also demanded innovative ways of handling increasing call traffic to interface with overseas networks.

None of this was simple, because new exchange buildings (generally) had to be close to the cable networks and originating/terminating traffic which they served. Even then, the crowded, densely-packed sites in London proved a challenge to the architects and town planners alike. Network, Routing, and Transmission plans of the 1930s had to be updated to serve a modern telephone service, fit for the hip, happening new-age world of the 1960s and beyond!"