Australian Cycling Forums - Bicycles Network Australia

This is really a heads-up about using Poste Restante or rather not using it in the United Kingdom. It seems that unless you visit in person the Post Office(s) where you want to send a parcel BEFORE you send it,the local Post Office will return the parcel!

The instructions on using Poste Restante in the United Kingdom are given here. The critical instruction is found under the heading "How Poste Restante works":

Step 1: Apply in person at the Post Office® branch you’d like your post sent to ...

Good reason to not bother touring in the United Kingdom.

I found about this from a post at CycleChat where a cyclist had his kick box parcel returned as he had not applied in person!

Seriously makes you wonder sometimes. The Post Office is on Twitter at @PostOffice

Andrew

It must be something to do with terrorism. Maybe you should write to them and complain.

I found that registering requirement quite curious and had a quick look around to see how many other Post Offices had the same deal. I didn't spend a lot of time looking but I couldn't find any other.
Any other mention of Poste Restante was only about how to go about addressing to take advantage of the facility, including from our own Australia Post.
I don't have an account but I believe that you, Aushiker, do have an account with CTC. Perhaps you could post a message in their forum,Does anyone know … ? and ask how do British cyclists deal with the issue?
Just trying to scratch an itch here but if you have the time...?

Edit.
Just found this on the CTC forum, touring and Expedition,

http://forum.ctc.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=66472

Looks like a repeat of the CycleChat post.

I remember walking into a medium sized Post Office in a medium sized city in the UK and enquiring about Poste Restante. I could not get them to understand what the concept was let alone how I could use it. Good luck to anyone trying it out there.