Town guide · fourteen landmarks
Four quarters, one square, ninety-one lamps. Tap any marker to read what happens there, when it opens, and the detail worth looking for — the same places your child's letter travels through on its way out of the Post Room.
Drawn to no scale whatsoever · north is up · the lake is deeper than it looks · swipe the map sideways
Lantern Square
The middle of everything. Cobbles, lamp posts, a tree that is never taken down, and the sound of at least three different bells disagreeing about the time.
The Works
South of the square, where the noise lives: the Workshop Floor, the Paint Halls and the Post Room's loading doors.
Snowline
The high ground to the north. Stables, weather instruments and the launch apron. Colder, quieter, and where the aurora looks best.
The Outer Drifts
Everything past the last lamp post: the Lost Mitten Cabin, the frozen lake and the road that goes home.
Fourteen entries, in walking order from the square outwards.
No. 1 · Lantern Square
Where Candlewick Row meets Bell Lane
The heart of the village and the address every letter is postmarked from.
Ninety-one lamps stand around the square and each one is lit by hand, in the same order, every afternoon. The last lamp — the crooked one by the fountain — is always lit by whoever did the kindest thing that day. Nobody announces it. Everybody notices.
Hours
Never closes · lamps lit from 2pm
No. 2 · The Works
1 Candlewick Row
Where your child's letter is sealed, stamped and sent.
Three storeys of pigeonholes, one per country, and a sorting table so long that elves at either end write notes to each other rather than shout. The wax is warmed on a stove that has not gone out since 1868.
Hours
Open 24 hours from 1 November
No. 3 · Lantern Square
Top of the stairs, Old House, Lantern Square
One desk, one lamp, one very good pen.
The room is smaller than everybody expects. There is a chair by the fire for whoever needs to sit in it, a window that faces the square, and a drawer of letters that were never posted but were kept anyway.
Hours
Quiet hours 4am–7am · knock twice
No. 4 · Lantern Square
2 Bell Lane
The ledgers, the stamps and the certificate that ends up on your fridge.
The Hall keeps two books. The famous one gets all the attention. The second is called the Book of Second Chances, is twice as thick, and is the one the archivists are actually proud of.
Hours
Mon–Sat, 9am until the ledgers are level
No. 5 · The Works
Long Shed, The Works
Saws, lathes, glue, glitter, and a radio nobody is allowed to retune.
Toys are built here in batches of one. That is the whole trick: no two are identical, because no two children are. The floor manager keeps a jar of parts that did not work out and calls it the Museum of Nearly.
Hours
First shift 5am · last shift ends 23 December
No. 6 · The Works
Behind the Long Shed
Colour mixing, gold leaf, and the smell that means Christmas is close.
There are four hundred registered shades of red here and a long-running argument about whether three of them are the same. The Halls also mix the ink used for every letter Santa signs.
Hours
Open while the varnish dries
No. 7 · Lantern Square
Bell Lane, above the square
Nine bells, one of them cracked and beloved.
The cracked bell is called Patience and is rung once a year, at the exact moment the sleigh leaves the apron. Ringers practise Shchedryk all December because it is the only piece that uses every bell.
Hours
Rings at dusk · full peal on Christmas Eve
No. 8 · Snowline
Snowline Road
Nine stalls, deep straw, and an enormous amount of opinion.
Every reindeer has a name plate and a hook for its harness, plus a chalkboard where the stable hands note the day's mood. 'Skittish. Do not mention the vet.' is a common entry.
Hours
Feeding 6am and 6pm · visitors welcome after feeding
No. 9 · Snowline
End of Snowline Road
A flat sheet of swept ice where the sleigh is loaded and takes off.
The apron is swept by hand for eleven hours before departure, because the loaders insist a broom notices things a machine does not. Launch is called by lantern signal, not by radio.
Hours
Closed except 24 December, 5pm onwards
No. 10 · Snowline
Aurora Hill, Snowline
Brass instruments, a very good barometer and the aurora log.
Two forecasts are issued daily: one for the sleigh route, and one for the village, which is mostly the word 'snow' written in different handwriting. The aurora log has been kept unbroken since 1901.
Hours
Staffed continuously · aurora watch nightly
No. 11 · Lantern Square
5 Candlewick Row
Six tables, one enormous copper pot, no menu.
You are given what the pot is making. Arguments about marshmallows are settled by the house rule: two, always, and a third if it has been a hard day. The window seat is unofficially reserved for anyone waiting on news.
Hours
Opens when the lamps are lit · last pot at midnight
No. 12 · The Outer Drifts
Last building on Drift Road
The lost property office for everything the wind takes.
Mittens, scarves, one telescope, and four thousand letters that came loose from their envelopes. Everything is kept for seven years. The cabin is never locked, because the whole point is that things find their way back.
Hours
Unlocked · light left on
No. 13 · The Outer Drifts
Follow Drift Road past the pines
Black ice, swept in a spiral, lit by lanterns on poles.
The sweepers clear a spiral rather than an oval, so skaters end up in the middle together instead of racing each other in circles. It is considered the village's finest piece of design.
Hours
Skating from first hard freeze
No. 14 · The Outer Drifts
South gate, out of the village
The way in, the way out, and the last lamp post.
Every letter leaves this way, in a canvas sack, on a sled, past a lamp post that is left burning all year. The keepers call it the going-home light. Nobody has ever been able to say who tends it.
Hours
Always open
Want the departments behind the doors? Go inside the North Pole, or play the village music while you read.