INTRODUCTION
This resource is primarily concerned with documenting the purpose-built urban British post office building. Facilities provided for post office services in rural areas are excluded as these are for the most part adaptations of existing premises. Included, however, are conversions into post offices from buildings in urban areas originally erected for other purposes, and also commercial premises that have been altered for post office use where it is considered that there has been a significant design input. Although this resource focusses primarily on that the part of the postal service experienced by the public, the architecture of the purpose-built sorting office (currently known as delivery offices) deserves consideration, and examples of such buildings are included. Excluded are those large delivery offices sited on locations as industrial estates, as they are of little architectural interest. Telephone exchange buildings, unless they incorporate a post or sorting office, are not included, nor are, at present, any buildings located in Northern Ireland.
The purpose-built British post office building has by and large been neglected by architectural historians. This neglect has been compounded by historians of the Post Office who have concentrated on chronicling its administrative functions, making only passing reference to its premises. Yet it is these very buildings, representing the public face of the Post Office, which have played an immeasurable role in the lives of our communities.
In the last few years, however, some attention has been paid to the history of the post office building. The reason for this is the steady decline in the number of Crown post offices (from 1572 in 1982 to 373 in 2013) and concern about the fate of redundant buildings. Since 2007, a Network Change Programme has been implemented, accelerating the closure of over 2,500 post offices, both urban and rural, with the services being offered in a number of alternative retail outlets such as stationers (the principal beneficiary being W.H. Smith), and supermarkets. In many cases, although the post office has closed, the Royal Mail has retained the building for delivery office functions.
It was the closure of over 70 urban post offices under the Network Change Programme that was the catalyst for some serious study of these buildings, instigated initially by English Heritage. In 2008 Jonathan Clarke's Purpose-built post offices: a rapid assessment and suggestions for future work indicated a measure of concern with regard to the proper documentation and fate of these buildings. Following on from this study English Heritage commissioned Alan Baxter & Associates to conduct a documentary survey of extant urban post office buildings. The resulting report Post offices of England 1840-1910 was completed in August 2010. In the meantime the British Postal Museum and Archive published in November 2010 Julian Osley's introductory survey Design for service: post office architecture: this is the first book to be written devoted solely to post office buildings. Another recent contribution has been Robert Hradsky's study of the Victorian and Edwardian post office building The Stamp of official architecture: English post offices published in Brandwood, G. ed. Living, leisure and law : eight building types in England 1800-1914 (Spire Books, 2010). As a further contribution this website offers an illustrated survey of the British post office building together with the names of the architects, as well as archive sources, selected bibliographical references, links to additional images, and details of the current use of those buildings no longer in post office use.
Historically the Post Office was not responsible for the design and construction of its own buildings. Until the arrangements for procurement changed in the 1980s it was the architects working within the Office of Works (1851-1940), the Ministry of Works and Buildings (1940-1942), the Ministry of Works and Planning (1942-1943), the Ministry of Works (1943-1962), the Ministry of Public Building and Works (1962-1970), and the Property Services Agency (1972-1993) who carried out this work. Because these architects were civil servants often very little is known about them - their buildings were occasionally published in the architectural press, although some of the attributions were credited to the chief architect of the ministerial department rather than to individuals. However thanks to surviving archive documentation, we have some idea who these architects were.
The output of architects like William Thomas Oldrieve (who worked extensively in both England and Scotland) and David Dyke (in the inter-war years) was prolific, while important contributions were made by Henry Tanner, Walter Pott, John Rutherford and Charles Wilkinson in the years leading up to World War I, and later by Archibald Bulloch, Henry Seccombe, Albert Myers, Frederick Llewellyn and Thomas Winterburn. As government employees, these architects also prepared designs for building types other than post offices, among them telephone exchanges, telephone repeater stations and labour exchanges.
The purpose-built British post office building has by and large been neglected by architectural historians. This neglect has been compounded by historians of the Post Office who have concentrated on chronicling its administrative functions, making only passing reference to its premises. Yet it is these very buildings, representing the public face of the Post Office, which have played an immeasurable role in the lives of our communities.
In the last few years, however, some attention has been paid to the history of the post office building. The reason for this is the steady decline in the number of Crown post offices (from 1572 in 1982 to 373 in 2013) and concern about the fate of redundant buildings. Since 2007, a Network Change Programme has been implemented, accelerating the closure of over 2,500 post offices, both urban and rural, with the services being offered in a number of alternative retail outlets such as stationers (the principal beneficiary being W.H. Smith), and supermarkets. In many cases, although the post office has closed, the Royal Mail has retained the building for delivery office functions.
It was the closure of over 70 urban post offices under the Network Change Programme that was the catalyst for some serious study of these buildings, instigated initially by English Heritage. In 2008 Jonathan Clarke's Purpose-built post offices: a rapid assessment and suggestions for future work indicated a measure of concern with regard to the proper documentation and fate of these buildings. Following on from this study English Heritage commissioned Alan Baxter & Associates to conduct a documentary survey of extant urban post office buildings. The resulting report Post offices of England 1840-1910 was completed in August 2010. In the meantime the British Postal Museum and Archive published in November 2010 Julian Osley's introductory survey Design for service: post office architecture: this is the first book to be written devoted solely to post office buildings. Another recent contribution has been Robert Hradsky's study of the Victorian and Edwardian post office building The Stamp of official architecture: English post offices published in Brandwood, G. ed. Living, leisure and law : eight building types in England 1800-1914 (Spire Books, 2010). As a further contribution this website offers an illustrated survey of the British post office building together with the names of the architects, as well as archive sources, selected bibliographical references, links to additional images, and details of the current use of those buildings no longer in post office use.
Historically the Post Office was not responsible for the design and construction of its own buildings. Until the arrangements for procurement changed in the 1980s it was the architects working within the Office of Works (1851-1940), the Ministry of Works and Buildings (1940-1942), the Ministry of Works and Planning (1942-1943), the Ministry of Works (1943-1962), the Ministry of Public Building and Works (1962-1970), and the Property Services Agency (1972-1993) who carried out this work. Because these architects were civil servants often very little is known about them - their buildings were occasionally published in the architectural press, although some of the attributions were credited to the chief architect of the ministerial department rather than to individuals. However thanks to surviving archive documentation, we have some idea who these architects were.
The output of architects like William Thomas Oldrieve (who worked extensively in both England and Scotland) and David Dyke (in the inter-war years) was prolific, while important contributions were made by Henry Tanner, Walter Pott, John Rutherford and Charles Wilkinson in the years leading up to World War I, and later by Archibald Bulloch, Henry Seccombe, Albert Myers, Frederick Llewellyn and Thomas Winterburn. As government employees, these architects also prepared designs for building types other than post offices, among them telephone exchanges, telephone repeater stations and labour exchanges.
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Last updated: 1 September 2016
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