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 2023-2024 Session
The full meeting programme for the 2023-2024 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/
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.
Society Medals 2024
The recipients of the Society's medals for 2024, ratified by Council, are as follows:
The Tapling Medal for the best article or supplement published in THE LONDON PHILATELIST:
Ulf J. Lindahl FRPSL for his article Restoration of the Ethiopian Posts: 1941-1952
The Tilleard Medal for the best 1pm display given to the Society:
Peter Chadwick FRPSL for his display Great Britain Postal History Prior to 1840
The Lee Medal for the best 5pm presentation:
Howard Hughes FRPSL for his presentation The Maltese Cross
The Lee Medal for the best online Zoom presentation:
Steven Harrison FRPSL for his presentation The Philatelic Congress of Great Britain
The London Medal for exceptional service to the Society:
Paul Leonard FRPSL for work within the Expert Committee
Eric Hutton FRPSL for work as a volunteer
Alex Haimann FRPSL for the production of the “Clash of Empires” exhibition.
Congratulations to all the medal winners. More information about the medals can be seen here.
The Stuart Rossiter Memorial Lecture
The Stuart Rossiter Memorial Lecture will be at 5pm on Wednesday 15 May 2024, at the Royal Philatelic Society London.
The speaker will be Simon Martin-Redman FRPSL. The title of his lecture is
"Postal History – Which is more interesting, the postal aspect or the history aspect?"
Under the revised FIP Postal History Guidelines (May 2022) a Postal History exhibit should "generally emphasise rates, routes, regulations, markings, usages, and other postal aspects, services, functions, and activities related to the history of the development of Postal Services".
Who wrote the letter, why the letter was written and the contents of the letter are of much more interest, probably, to the majority of collectors. It is suggested that the "romance" of the cover is more compelling than just the rates and routes, etc. This lecture will try, by showing examples, to justify this hypothesis.
Entry is by ticket; please book by emailing Rex Dixon at rexdixon@btinternet.com.
The event is free and light refreshments will be served afterwards.
Fake stamps being sold by rogue firms in Britain
Chris Harman RDP, Hon FRPSL, Past President of the Royal Philatelic Society London and Chairman of the Expert Committee, met with Matthew Allwright, BBC Watchdog presenter, and helped confirm that some stamps sold by a Post Office were fake, and that a stamp that Royal Mail had identified as being a fake was actually genuine.
This was as part of a BBC Watchdog programme on the subject of how there has been a rise in complaints that stamps bought from legitimate stores are being deemed to be counterfeit, and anyone receiving a letter with a fake stamp is charged £5 by Royal Mail.
You can watch the key parts of the programme on YouTube here.
President’s Newsletter
This month's newsletter is a first for me. Together with the two Vice Presidents we are representing the Royal at one of the leading US Philatelic events, Westpex in San Francisco.
Alongside myself and the two Vice-Presidents is Behruz Nassre FRPSL, one of the Royal's representatives in California and the chairman of the organising committee.
This has been a great show, very well organised with very high quality exhibits, no less than four exhibits achieved marks of 97 points and a record number of large gold medals were awarded. Dealers were present from all over the USA as well as some of our well known names, both dealers and auction houses from Europe.
The venue has plenty of space and in the exhibition hall, good lighting. This was a first for all of us and something we would like to repeat. We managed to recruit several new members and have sold several books after our presentations.
You will receive an important new publication with the next edition of The London Philatelist which has been put together by our distinguished Fellow and representative James Peter Gough RDP FRPSL to whom we owe a vote of thanks. It is entitled "Queen Elizabeth II Worldwide Recess Printed Issues of Her Majesty" and has been sponsored by the Global Philatelic Network.
The Royal has taken a Booth at Virtual Stampex. Taking place this week, this is an online philatelic event where you can live chat with dealers and auction houses, view displays, watch Talks, join roundtable discussions, learn more about specialist societies, take part in a Philatelic Mastermind Quiz, and more! And do pop by Booth S4 to join the RPSL chatroom! The event is live from the 2nd to the 4th May and you can sign up and login at http://stampex.vfairs.com.
Meetings in May
May commences on Thursday 2nd by Graham Winters giving a display during the day and a presentation at 5pm "A Good Walk Spoiled - Golf".
This is followed on Tuesday 7 May at 3pm by a Zoom presentation by Jon Aitchison entitled "Europhilex - One Year To Go". You can register for that at https://europhilex.eventbrite.co.uk
Later in the month, on Thursday 16th we will have a display and 5pm presentation by Pat Grimwood-Taylor on "Iceland".
The Devonshire Bowl One Frame Competition
The Royal will again be running the Devonshire Bowl One Frame Competition this year, on Thursday 4 July. The details and application form can be found on here. If you have any questions please contact the Administration office on 020 7486 1044 or by email secretary@rpsl.org.uk.
With best wishes to you all
Mike.
Mike J Y Roberts FRPSL
President
The Royal Philatelic Society London
29th April 2024
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.