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The modern Mailbox is home to some of the city’s most exclusive shops and restaurants. But underneath is a sight which Brummies never see – and which shows how this was once the hub of all mail deliveries in Birmingham.
Ever wondered what’s beneath one of Birmingham’s most iconic landmarks, the Mailbox?
This modern structure houses some of Brum’s poshest shops and eateries.
But there’s a hidden world beneath its surface that most locals never get to see – a testament to its past as the epicentre of all mail deliveries in the city.
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Underneath, much of the original fabric of the 1970s letter and parcel sorting office remains intact. Take a look at the video above to discover the incredible sights tucked away beneath this prominent edifice.
Until the late 1960s, the Royal Mail parcel and letter sorting offices were situated in two buildings on Victoria Square, linked by a bridge over Hill Street, where they had been for nearly 80 years.
In 1970, a new, purpose-built, sorting office was erected on the site of an old railway goods yard, next to the canal wharfs of the Birmingham and Worcester canal.
Not only was it the largest building in Birmingham at the time, but it was also the country’s biggest mechanised letters and parcels sorting office.
The House of Commons approved a bill allowing an underground link to be created between the new sorting office and New Street station.
A 400m long tunnel was built under Severn Street, extending the existing underground tunnels at the station that already connected to the Victorian sorting office on Victoria Square.
Upon completion, small electric lorries known as ‘brutes’ were able to haul cages full of postbags straight off the trains, along the secure passageway, directly into the impregnable structure of the sorting office.
From there a network of lifts, chutes and conveyor belts distributed the post throughout the building.
It’s whispered that because the link was so secure, jewellers across the city would post their diamonds to themselves on a Friday evening, as it was cheaper than storing them in a vault over the weekend.
The tunnel does not appear on any maps, but it still exists; a gently curving cavern beneath the streets, containing nothing but the haunting sound of trains and platform announcements echoing in the distance.
The tunnel has remained beneath The Mailbox, a reminder of the building’s former use, but now redundant except for the occasional party, exhibition and even wedding.
Some of the other remaining post tunnels, which sit below the platforms of New Street Station, are to be reopened as staff tunnels, allowing fast access from one side of the new station to the other.
The Royal Mail sorting office was moved to Aston in 1998, no longer dependant on the rail network. In 1999 the sorting office was bought by the ambitious developers Birmingham Mailbox Limited, who had the radical vision of turning the industrial building into a mixed-use destination.
The design for the building, crafted by Associated Architects, included a daring move of slicing a street right through the centre of the structure.
This audacious urban design decision subsequently revolutionised the west-side of the city centre, forging a new link to Brindleyplace. This was made possible via the canal wharf at the back of the building, which had been concealed and was unexpectedly unearthed during the design process.
After an extensive redevelopment, the building reopened its doors in 2001. At that point, it was touted as the largest mixed-use conversion in the UK.
A decade later, in 2011, the building changed hands when it was sold to Brockton Capital in a joint venture with Milligan.
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