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 2025-2026 Session
The full meeting programme for the 2025-2026 session, including a programme of online presentations, can be found here.
Fellowship of The Royal Philatelic Society London
Nominations for the award of Fellowship of the Royal Philatelic Society London are invited from all members. The nominations must be received by Tuesday, 30 September 2025, for consideration by the Fellowship Committee on 9 October 2025. Recommendations will then go forward to Council for approval.
The criteria considered by the Fellowship Committee include:
- Service to the Society through volunteering or presentation of a display or paper.
- Noteworthy contributions to philately in general.
- Publication of an article in The London Philatelist or other philatelic journal, or publication of philatelic books.
Nominations must be on a nomination form. The nomination form can be downloaded from the Fellowship page of the website:
https://www.rpsl.org.uk/Members-Staff-Volunteers/Fellowship.
It may also be obtained from the administration office at Abchurch Lane or by telephoning the General Manager. Please give as much relevant information as possible and return completed forms to the General Manager by 30 September at the latest.
Steven Harrison FRPSL Honorary Secretary (honsec@rpsl.org.uk)
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.
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. Click here for details.
President's Newsletter
GASS
I have just returned from the Great American Stamp Show in Schaumburg, Illinois where I was privileged to have been invited to be one of the four Team leaders on the Jury. Jan Hofmeyer’s exhibit on Philatelic Invention in the United States 1861-1881 won the "Champion of Champions"; this highly innovative exhibit also won the Jury's favour at Europhilex in May this year. The whole idea of a "World Series" culminating in a "Champion of Champions" is also used by American sports, but I wonder if we ought to consider a similar concept for Europe where at one event each year the best exhibit at each country's national exhibition qualifies for a 'European Championship' – it certainly seems to have worked well there. If any of our European members want to feedback on this I'd be delighted.
The Royal shared a stand with the US Classics Society and Carol Bommarito and her team attracted five new applications for membership. Alex Haimann organised a dinner for Royal members and there was a chance to "Meet the President" on the Friday. Two Past Presidents and two members of Council were present and it was good for all of us to meet so many members in person.
VJ Day
At Abchurch Lane we have a standing display running for the whole of August through to mid-October to mark the 80th Anniversary of VJ. The display has been provided by members of the Borneo Philatelic Society and the Malaya Study Group and offers some fascinating, and at times harrowing, stories from that period of our history. Do try and come and see it. Please contact the administration office at RPSL before visiting.
President’s Dinner
Ticket sales for the President’s Dinner are going steadily, but there is still time to book. The dinner will take place on Wednesday 22 October 2025 at Stationer’s Hall by St Paul’s. This is the opening day of Stampex, which will take place at the Business Design Centre, and the day before a 1:00 display by Ian Greig FRPSL. Tickets are available from the website's online shop (click here) and from the administration office, priced at £160 each.
2025/26 Programme
The new season starts a little earlier than usual on 4 September, but it will start in the traditional way when we have a fine offering from His Majesty the King’s collection. The material will be from the Leeward Islands, Dominica and the Cayman Islands, which I am very much looking forward to seeing.
We will also be trying out an experiment and for those displays accompanied by a presentation, that presentation will be at 16.00; to avoid possible confusion Votes of Thanks will also take place at 16.00. This way, there will be considerably more time to view the material after the presentation or Vote of Thanks.
Our hope is that this will enable members to make social arrangements on the day and make it perfectly possible to have dinner after the meeting and still catch a reasonable train home. An advantage, we feel, as the days start to shorten and we hope this attracts more of you to attend a meeting day.
We can be sure of a lively day socially when 27 of our German members will be entertaining us on 18 September. All 54 frames will be filled and there is a very wide selection of topics – material from Columbia, Japan, Australia, Pakistan are all featured in addition to a number of European displays and an intriguing display on "Extracts from the Ferrary Collection" - so you will have to attend to find out what that entails!
Autumn events at Abchurch Lane
The final week of September promises to be busy with such events. We are delighted to be hosting the Stuart Rossiter Trust Seminar on the theme of “What is Postal History?”. Attendance is free, but you are advised to register (srtcorr@gmail.com) to assist the planning.
The Seminar is on 24 September and on the following two days there will be the autumn ABPS competitions. 54 frames of exhibits have been entered, largely traditional and postal history - a fine opportunity to see some new British exhibits. The date has been chosen to meet the entry deadlines for the Boston 2026 show, which closes on 30 September.
International Meetings
Full details of these and our regional meetings can be found on the website and in The London Philatelist. Earlier this month I attended the South East regional meeting at Wellshurst Golf Club in Sussex. Next month I will be in Malmö for the Nordia show and I look forward to seeing many of you there. At Philakorea the Royal will be represented by our Editor, Tony Bard, who will also be acting as the UK Commissioner.
A regional meeting is planned for India in December, which I hope to attend, and I expect to be at all three FIP shows in the first half of 2026 – Dubai, Boston and Macao.
With best wishes,
Simon.
Simon Richards FRPSL
President
The Royal Philatelic Society London
21 August 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.