Home / Coverage areas / EC2P
A Name Changed So Staff Would Show Up
Locksmith EC2P: The Prison That Became A Post Office
EC2P doesn't describe a neighbourhood at all. It's a PO Box postcode pointing to Royal Mail's own Mount Pleasant site, built where a notorious Victorian prison once stood. Phone 020 8534 4949 and reach someone genuinely familiar with this unusual address.
- Round-The-Clock Response
- A Large Operational Site
- Commercial Locksmith Work
- EC2P Coverage
EC2P resolves to Royal Mail's own Mount Pleasant site. Open in Google Maps
Why EC2P Is Different
A postcode built on a name nobody wanted to say
Most pages on this site describe a stretch of streets, but EC2P isn't built that way at all. As a non-geographic PO Box postcode, the addresses registered under it point back to one place: Royal Mail's own Mount Pleasant site, a sorting operation covering roughly twelve acres on ground with a genuinely dark history of its own.
Before the Post Office arrived, this was Coldbath Fields Prison, opened in 1794 and closed in the 1880s. It was notorious even by Victorian standards. Inmates were kept under the so-called silent system, forced into total quiet to encourage reflection on their crimes, and set to work on treadmills grinding grain and pumping water. The population grew from a few hundred at opening to well over a thousand by the time it shut its doors for good.
When the Post Office took over the site in the 1880s, its own staff balked at working somewhere so closely tied to the old prison's reputation. The name Coldbath Fields was dropped entirely, and Mount Pleasant, borrowed from a neighbouring street, became official in 1888. Within a few decades, the site had grown into one of the largest sorting offices in Europe.
A Railway That Never Carried A Single Passenger
What made the site genuinely remarkable came later, underground. From 1927, a dedicated driverless railway ran for six and a half miles beneath the City, carrying nothing but mail between major sorting offices. The station built here was the largest on the entire line and housed its main workshop. The railway kept running for the better part of a century before finally closing in 2003, and a short stretch reopened in 2017 as a public heritage attraction, letting visitors ride a line that was never built with people in mind at all.
So this postcode points not to a high street but to a single large site that's spent nearly a century and a half under Post Office control, built over a prison nobody wanted remembered by name. We're not equipped to comment on sorting logistics, only on the doors. Whatever's behind them here, they deserve the same care as anywhere else.
Three ways in, quickly: deal with a shut door, arrange a fix for a quieter moment, or phone us no matter the time.
What This Site Calls Us For
The needs of a genuinely operational site
Operational Floors & Depots
Because of the sheer volume this site processes, internal doors multiply across its working floors. Each area gets its own security assessment, rather than one blanket approach covering everything. Book ahead
Staff & Visitor Entrances
Separate access points serve staff, visitors and the small heritage attraction based here, since each group needs something different. We plan installation work around exactly who passes through.
Book aheadSecure Storage Areas
Since some areas of a working mail site need tighter access control than standard office space allows, Repairs here are handled with that extra security firmly in mind. Book ahead
Facilities & Maintenance Requests
Hardware across a site this size wears down fast under constant daily use. Catching a fault early stops minor wear turning into a bigger repair.
Book aheadSnapped Keys On Site
Normal daily wear on heavily used doors here is enough to snap a key outright. This page sets out the careful way we get one clear.
Call nowOut-Of-Hours Callouts
Conventional office hours don't really apply to a working mail site, even deep into the night. Our response holds steady whatever time this address keeps. Call now
Worth stating plainly: making duplicate keys and configuring card or intercom access both fall outside our work. A site this size has its own people for that.
Locked Out At EC2P
A working site, not a passing-trade street
Most postcodes we cover have some casual footfall to lean on. This one doesn't, and getting through the door runs entirely through the site's own procedures.
Precisely because of that, a quick and professional response matters more here, not less, with so little passing help nearby.
The setting doesn't change our method. We try every gentle technique before a drill is ever considered.
Whether a key has snapped or genuinely gone missing changes what we do next. Broken keys and lost keys each get their own treatment, explained on separate pages.
The Area Around It
What surrounds this site
A proper neighbourhood, just south of this site.
The wider EC1 overview, west of this site.
Bordering this site to the south-west.
Golden Lane and St Luke's, further east.
Shoreditch, south-east of here.
North, beyond this site's own borough line.
What We Do
What we cover at this site
What A Place Is Called, And What It Was
One plot of ground, two very different names
A prison and a postal depot have little in common on the surface, yet both needed the same basic things from a building: thick walls, controlled access, and doors that genuinely held when asked to. One left behind a name nobody wanted. Quietly, the other built one of the busiest places in the country underneath it.
The site's prison history and later rename are laid out fully by the Postal Museum's own account. The underground line itself, from construction through to closure, is traced by Wikipedia's entry on the London Post Office Railway.
What a building used to be matters less to us than what its doors need right now. We assess a lock by its own condition, not by the site's past.
Can't quite pin down your own lock's problem? Tell us what's happening and we'll level with you.
The Process
Booking a locksmith EC2P callout
- Start with a messageTell us roughly where on site the problem is.
- We settle accessSign-off, where a site this size needs it, happens before we travel.
- A proper lookWe examine the door directly before naming any price.
- Verified before we goBoth lock and door get tested working, not assumed.
Access & Entry
Getting to you at a single large site
Since this postcode has no streets of its own, access runs through the site itself, not any typical neighbourhood route. Farringdon station is within easy reach.
A facility operating at this scale sets its own rules for entry and security. We check those rules first rather than assume open access.
What counts as busy or quiet here follows the site's own internal schedule, not the wider street pattern around it. We plan our visits accordingly.
Why People Call Us
What this address relies on us for
- We don't flinch at unusual addresses. A non-geographic postcode still gets our full attention, just as a busy street would.
- We try gentle first, always. Force only enters the picture once everything softer has failed.
- At ease with operational security. Sign-off procedures and controlled access don't slow us down.
- We say so when repair stops making sense. A mechanism that's had it doesn't get patched anyway.
- No pretending about scope. Spare keys and access-system setup aren't ours to take on.
- We match this site's own rhythm. It keeps odd hours, and happily, so do we.
Nearby
Areas around this site
Common Questions
A Name Nobody Wanted To Work Under
Is EC2P genuinely different from an ordinary postcode?
Yes. It's a non-geographic PO Box code rather than one tied to a set of streets.
What stood here before it belonged to the Post Office?
Coldbath Fields Prison, a notoriously harsh Victorian jail that closed in the 1880s.
Why did the site end up with a different name entirely?
Post Office staff objected to working somewhere so strongly associated with the old prison, so it was renamed Mount Pleasant in 1888.
A Railway Built Only For Letters
Did a genuine underground railway run beneath this site?
Yes, a driverless line built specifically to carry mail between London's main sorting offices.
Was the station here anything unusual?
It was the largest of the line's original stations and housed its main workshop.
Is any of it still accessible today?
A short stretch reopened in 2017 as a public visitor attraction after the full line closed in 2003.
Arranging A Visit Here
What does EC2P actually point to?
Royal Mail's Mount Pleasant site specifically, not a conventional street lined with shops and offices.
Will you take on a site this size?
Yes. For a facility operating at this scale, access typically gets arranged through its own management first.
Can you still reach a lockout here outside normal hours?
Certainly — our line answers no matter what hours this particular site keeps.
Is weekend cover available for an address like this?
Yes, our availability doesn't drop on weekends, here or anywhere else in our coverage.
Do you handle anything beyond the main site itself?
No. Our scope stays limited to the physical premises here, separate from Royal Mail's broader network.
What if the site has its own security procedures?
An address like this almost certainly does. Share the requirements and we'll operate within them.
A prison's name was dropped so staff would show up. Your lock just needs to work.
For whatever's behind a door here, let us know and the right engineer will be on their way.