Welcome to The Royal Philatelic Society London's Virtual Booth
The Society's Collections
The RPSL collections comprise:
- The John Sacher Library
- The Spear Museum of Philatelic History
- The Philatelic Collections.
Our purpose-designed library is open to the public, and RPSL Members can borrow books, either in person or by post.
Research
Appointments can be booked to access rare and archival material in our research room, or our staff can deal with requests via email or telephone.
For further information contact research@rpsl.org.uk
Museum Exhibitions
We have a permanent display on the ground floor, and we run a series of temporary exhibitions. Visitors are warmly welcome to visit the museum and follow a self-guided tour, or private tours (individuals or groups) are available at £5 per person.
Preservation and Conservation
We help preserve and conserve philatelic history and resources, including through:
- Working with philatelic societies to digitise their journals.
- Being a founding partner of the Global Philatelic Library, working with institutions worldwide to improve access to philatelic literature.
- Recently undertaking a grant-funded project to restore and conserve the historic Perkins Bacon & Company's delivery books.
Events
We run a variety of public events, both on the premises and online, to promote philately as a hobby, and as a subject for academic research. Information about recent online events is available here.
Future events
- International Philatelic Libraries’ Symposium February 2022
- Clash of Empires - an exhibition on the Zulu war August 2022
- Online seminars - the next one will be on 30th March 2021: Exhibition Ephemera presented by Chris King RDP Hon FRPSL.
This is free and open to everyone, both RPSL members and non-members. You can book your place for this by clicking here.

Click this link to see a talk on conserving the Perkins Bacon & Company's delivery books.
To keep up to date with events follow us on Facebook @royalphilsoclondon and Twitter @The_RPSL
All this is made possible by a dedicated and enthusiastic team of volunteers who support our professional staff.
To read more about our collections' holdings, you can click to expand the sections below to see the details.