Port Lockroy; Antarctica

Port Lockroy is a natural harbor on the north-western shore of Wiencke Island in the Palmer Archipelago in front of the Antarctic Peninsula. The Antarctic base includes the most southerly operational post office in the world. Port Lockroy, Base ‘A’, is a British historic base situated on Goudier Island off the Antarctic Peninsula. It was established in 1944 and operated as a British Research station until it closed in 1962. The abandoned base was designated a Historic Site and Monument under the Antarctic Treaty and in 1996 restored as a ‘living’ museum. Base A now welcomes visitors to the site every Austral summer, in order to promote the work of the UKAHT on the Peninsula and in the UK and to give visitors a taste of base life from the early days of British occupation. It is visited each Austral summer by approximately 18,000 ship-borne visitors, amounting to one to two ship visits per day. Staff are employed to assist the Base Leader to most effectively run the post office, merchandise, museum and maintenance operation at Port Lockroy, Antarctica during the Austral summer.

Base A which stands on Goudier Island (64º49’S, 63º30’W) in the east of the harbour was the first permanent British base to be established on the Antarctic Peninsula (and so given the first letter of the alphabet). It was built in February 1944 as part of a wartime mission code-named Operation Tabarin. After the Second World War it continued as a science base operated by the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey (FIDS) the predecessor to the British Antarctic Survey (BAS). It became the first of many British science bases around Antarctica. Base A continued to contribute to science until 1962 when it closed permanently when research began to move to larger and more modern bases.

Source: http://www.ukaht.org/discover/port-lockroy/port-lockroy-a-brief-history/