Regular Meetings at 15 Abchurch Lane
Meetings are held at our London premises usually twice per month from September to June.
The Meeting Programme for the 2024-2025 Session
The full meeting programme for the 2024-2025 session, including a programme of online presentations, can be found here.
The King William Street Pedestrian Priority Project
Impact on Access to Abchurch Lane
A major project will be undertaken during the summer and autumn of 2024 and the first quarter and second half of 2025 covering King William Street, Lombard Street, Cannon Street and many of the lanes that connect them including Abchurch Lane.
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This will mean that there will be road closures due to roadworks. Access during these times will be for pedestrians only, with very limited access to vehicles.
Here are the key dates that will affect deliveries and access to the RPSL’s premises. Please note there are more roadworks going on across the ward that may restrict access coming into the area if travelling by car, and all the buses in the area may be on diversions.
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Closure of Abchurch Lane:
18 June 2024 to 2 July 2024
21 February 2025 to 7 March 2025
Closure of Lombard Street (also the King William Street dates shown below will affect access to Lombard Street)
2 September 2024 to 13 October 2024
Closure of Cannon Street eastbound (including access to Abchurch Lane)
28 February 2025 to 2 March 2025
Closure of King William Street:
28 February 2025 to 2 March 2025
7 March 2025 to 9 March 2025
14 March 2025 to 16 March 2025
19 September 2025 to 28 September 2025
3 October 2025 to 5 October 2025
26 October 2025 to 28 October 2025
Further information about the King William Street project is available from the Corporation of London, Candlewick ward website: https://www.candlewickward.org/
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President's Newsletter
Mike Roberts
Last month Mike Roberts sent out his Christmas message to all our members full of positives on the importance of our volunteers, how much he was looking forward to being back with us and giving us his Presidential display and perhaps even a President’s dinner.
Tragically, as most of you will know, Mike suffered a major heart attack and passed away on Christmas Day. Our thoughts are very much focused on his widow Alison and children Jenny and Peter at this difficult time.
Council member Gwynne Harries is a close friend of the family and is liaising with them about the funeral arrangements. He says:
"It was undoubtedly an enormous shock for us all, when we learnt of Mike’s sudden passing when it felt that he was on track for a full recovery. Mike was a chap who had such a wide circle of friends and acquaintances, not only through philately but also from his professional career. I have received emails and messages from across the world offering their condolence for me to pass on to Alison and the family. It is clear that many, many such friends would like to mark Mike’s passing by attending his funeral in person. However, Alison and the family have requested that friends wishing to attend be limited in number. So, she has asked me to contact particular friends who she knows that Mike would have liked to be part of the day and hopes that other friends will understand her request and are able to show their respects by joining the online link to the event.
The Celebration of Life will be shown live at Abchurch Lane at 10.30 a.m on Monday 27 January 2025. The online link will also be available to all members worldwide on the RPSL website nearer the time and will be available for 28 days thereafter. If anyone has questions or hears from anyone who is requesting details, could you please refer them back to me on my email (harriesg@rpsl.org.uk), so I can speak with them on Alison’s behalf."
In the meantime, we will continue to deliver the philatelic programme that Mike devised for the last six months of his Presidency. We are very hopeful that this will include his Presidential Display on 22 May 2025, which he seems to have virtually finished and for which his family have expressed the wish that the material that he spent the last months of his life working on should be enjoyed by us all.
We are most grateful to the family for this and we look forward to hosting them and our members for a Tribute to Mike J Y Roberts, a most eminent philatelist.
Council
Council held an extraordinary meeting last week to consider what action needed to be taken, and I am both honoured and humbled to have been asked to step up six months earlier than intended. I was formally installed as President at the meeting to celebrate the 75th Anniversary of the Channel Islands Specialist Society, held at Abchurch Lane on 9th January. Vice-President Simon Martin-Redman becomes the Senior Vice-President with immediate effect and a second Vice-President will be elected at the AGM in June in the usual way. I, and Council, are most grateful to Immediate Past-President Peter Cockburn for agreeing to continue to act in that role for a further two years.
The postponed President’s dinner that was tentatively re-scheduled for May 2025 has been cancelled and all those who purchased tickets should have received a full refund.
Programme
All other planned events will continue as normal. The next physical meeting at Abchurch Lane will be on 23rd January, a 5pm presentation about the Postal History of Madeira by Luis Frazao. On 4th February at 3pm we will have a Zoom presentation on the subject of Mail from the Holy Land (Ottoman and Foreign Post Offices) to Uncommon Destinations 1874-1918 by Ed Kroft. Then the first physical meeting in February will be by Members of the South West Region, which will take place on 6th February at 1pm.
Regional Meetings
Regional meetings are an excellent way for Members to meet one another and for 2025 we are pleased that we are able to offer some financial support to the meeting in conjunction with David Feldman SA, the international auctioneers based in Geneva.
The Membership & Representatives Committee, under John Stimson, is holding meetings with regional representatives to explain just how this will work, but in addition to the financial support Council will also be represented by attending the meetings and I will try to attend as many as I can. I will also endeavour to publicise the meetings in this newsletter and members from adjacent regions, or further afield are most welcome to attend, just contact the organiser.
The Wales and Herefordshire Region are holding a meeting in Cardiff on 15th February. More details about the Regional meetings can be found here.
With best wishes
Simon.
Simon Richards FRPSL
President
The Royal Philatelic Society London
14th January 2025
Collections Events
From time to time informal talks and seminars take place, showing the diversity of philately and how it can provide unexpected insights into social, cultural and local history. Click here for information about these events.
Meeting Videos
5pm meetings that have been videoed may be viewed on YouTube, accessible through links on the All Meetings with Documents page.
The full list of meetings can be viewed here.
Meeting Handouts
Our archives hold over 700 handouts provided by displayers at meetings since 1918. These range from single sheets of paper listing the items on display to extensive publications including complex images that can be regarded as significant contributions to the literature. Explanatory notes were at first provided only occasionally but have become normal practice since the 1980s. Many contain material of value to researchers and their production quality has steadily improved. These have been scanned and converted to searchable PDF documents. Click here for a list of the handouts available to view online.
Standing Displays and Regional Meetings
Information about the standing displays and regional meetings, in the United Kingdom and around the world, can be viewed by clicking the menu to the left.