Hull Post Office (1843)

HULL POST OFFICE (1843)

9 Whitefriargate

Architect: William Foale
Year: 1843 (enlarged 1847)
Listed building status: Grade II
Selected bibliographical references
Hall, Ivan and Elisabeth. A New Picture of Georgian Hull. York : Sessions for Hull Civic Society, 1979.
Hull Advertiser 29 Jul 1842, p.3; 3 Mar 1843, p. 6; 19 May 1843, p. 5; 30 June 1843, p. 5
Hull Packet 30 Jun 1843, p. 2
Lincolnshire Chronicle and General Advertiser 18 Mar 1842, p. 3
History
Opened: 24 Jun 1843
Closed: 1877
Current use: Vacant (Feb 2014)

Following the move of the post office, this building became the office to the Hull Conservancy Board

Building description
From: Hull Packet 30 Jun 1843, p. 2

On Saturday, the business of the post-office was transferred to the new building in Whitefriargate; and we are happy to say that the advantages afforded by the change were fully and satisfactorily evinced on the very first trial. Everything possible has been done to facilitate the transaction of business; indeed, so far has this been carried, that one would be tempted to smile at some of the minutiae, were the subject not of the highest importance. In the delivery of letters to parties having private boxes a saving of at least one-half of the time employed at the old post-office has been effected, by a larger number of windows for their delivery, and, on occasions of emergency, the whole sash can be thrown up, thus affording a still further degree of accommodation. A variety of contrivances have been introduced to facilitate the sorting of letters and papers for the various mails,-contrivances which Mr. Mosey, the postmaster, has with much care and industry procured from the best-conducted offices in the kingdom, with none of which will the Hull establishment have any reason for the future to fear a comparison. The building is admirably arranged; the large office in the centre for general business communicating with all the minor departments; the postmaster's room being in such a position as to overlook the windows for the private and general delivery, the centre office, &c. The rooms are very lofty, well ventilated, lighted with gas, and heated with stoves improved from Arnott's patent. The mail gigs will be enabled to drive up to that part of the office, from and at which they will receive and leave their bags, and, as one instance of the attention to economy in time, a burner is placed, expressly for sealing them up, in a convenient situation. The money order office is a large and handsome room well adapted to the purpose for which it is intended; and, in fine, whilst there seems on the one hand to have been no improper or lavish expenditure, still everything is neat and of good quality. The inconveniences of the old office, which had become perfectly unbearable, and the scene of confusion which invariably attended the morning delivery, and which was an intolerable nuisance to the respectable merchants, &c., who were frequently present -these, we are happy to say, no longer exist; and the town of Hull has, at length, a post office fitting its position as one of the great emporiums of British trade and commerce.