Poste Restante | Post Office®

How Poste Restante works

Poste Restante is a service designed for travellers who don’t have a permanent address in the location where they wish to receive mail. So they can collect their mail free of charge at any participating Post Office Branch in the UK

Choose your branch

Choose a Post Office branch to collect your mail from. This can be almost anywhere in the UK and in most larger towns abroad

Receiving mail from the UK

Any mail posted in the UK is kept for you in your chosen Post Office branch for up to 18 days

Receiving mail from overseas

Anything posted from overseas is kept for 21 days

1. Go into a branch
2. Share the address
3. Pick up your post

1. Go into a branch
2. Share the address
3. Pick up your post

Go into a branch

If you're resident in the UK or already travelling in the UK, just pop into the branch you'd like your post sent to (please note that the service may not be available everywhere)

For people who are travelling to the UK but have not yet arrived, you can find out if a branch offers the service by using our online contact form

You can also write to us at:
FREEPOST,
POST OFFICE,
CUSTOMER CARE

Please allow 5 working days for a response

You can also find the address details for local Post Office branches with our branch finder

Share the address

Let your friends, family and business contacts know the Post Office address you’ll be picking up your mail from. This is how it should be written:

Your name
POST RESTANTE
Post Office name
Full address of the Post Office
Postcode of the Post Office
Country (if applicable)

Your Poste Restante address will be active straight away

Don’t forget to ask them to include a return address on the back of the envelope

Pick up your post

Just go to your designated Post Office branch to pick up your post

If you’re visiting the UK from abroad, bring your passport as a form of identification

If you live in the UK, you'll also need to show proof of your address as well as your passport

Choose a Post Office branch to collect your mail from. This can be almost anywhere in the UK and in most larger towns abroad. Check if there’s Post Restante where you’re going

Any mail posted in the UK is kept for you in your chosen Post Office for up to 18 days. Anything posted from overseas is kept for 21 days

Other sections:
1. Go into a branch
2. Share the address
3. Pick up your post

Further notes on Poste Restante

The Poste Restante service is operated at the discretion of the Royal Mail/Post Office Limited

The service cannot be used for more than 3 months within the same UK town

An item will not normally be kept for more than: 18 days for an item posted in the UK and delivered to a UK Post Office; 21 days for an item posted overseas and delivered to a UK post office
Any mail uncollected after these timescales shall be treated as undeliverable and sent to National Returns Centre at Belfast
The service will be withdrawn if we believe it’s being abused (eg the recipient has a permanent address in the area)

If we suspect the Poste Restante service is being abused, we’ll withdraw the service immediately without notice. After this, we’ll return any items we receive to the sender