BIRMINGHAM POST OFFICE (1890)
Victoria Square
Photograph © Julian Osley
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Architect: Henry Tanner Year: 1890 (enlarged c. 1910) Listed building status: Grade II Archive sources British Postal Museum & Archive: POST 91/1436-1451 Selected bibliographical references Birmingham Daily Gazette 19 Mar 1889, p. 5 (foundation stone ceremony) Birmingham Daily Post 22 Aug 1890, p. 4; 23 Dec 1890, p. 4 Building News 17 Feb 1888, p. 272; 8 Jun 1888, p. 802 + illustration; 31 Aug 1888, p. 270 + illustration; 21 Sep 1888 (illustration); 27 Aug 1909, p. 327 (enlargement) History Foundation stone laid: 18 Mar 1889 Opened: 23 Dec 1890 Saved from demolition in 1973. Closed Current use: Part of a newly developed office complex |
Building description
From: Birmingham Daily Post 22 Aug 1890, p. 4
The new Birmingham Post Office has now advanced to such a stage that it is possible for the public to form a very good idea of what the completed building will be like. The shell is already finished, and, with the exception of the roof of that portion fronting the Council House, the whole is roofed in. The hoardings, which will shortly be taken down, will disclose a building which, if it does not call forth ecstatic admiration, will be infinitely superior to the edifices with which Government departments have been in the habit of disfiguring the streets of provincial towns, as, for instance, the old office and the county courts. We shall, at least, have a building with some pretensions to decorative effect. Whatever criticisms may, however, be passed on the external architecture, the internal arrangements promise to be unexceptionable. With a view to making these as convenient as possible for the staff, Mr. Walliker (the postmaster), Mr. Lewis (the postal superintendent), and Mr. Derrington (the superintendent of the telegraph department in Cannon Street), visited the offices in London and at Liverpool, Manchester, and Glasgow, and many of the internal details have been modelled on the information then obtained. It is hoped that the letter-sorting and the parcels post departments will be available for the Christmas work, and that the whole building will be open early in the new year. A large staff of workmen are engaged on the work. Mr. Vickers, of Nottingham, is the builder. His contract was upwards of £50,000, but it is estimated that the total cost of the building and fittings, exclusive of the land, will be between £65,000 and £70,000. The structure will accommodate a staff of about 900 persons, the postal, money order, and telegraphs being all brought under the same roof. The two first-named departments will be in the front of the building towards New Street, and the letter-boxes will be underneath the front windows - thus removing what has been one of the greatest grievances, so far as the public is concerned, connected with the old office. The front hall will be about 80ft. by 60ft., and 21ft. from floor to ceiling; and the public will have the centre of the floor at their disposal. A counter with its back to New Street will be for the sale of stamps, and a sor of horseshoe counter will run round the other three sides, and will give facilities for the transaction of telegraph, registered letter, and other business. The statue of Sir Rowland Hill will be placed in the middle of the floor. On the floor, above the postmaster's office and offices for the chief clerk, the accountant clerk and his staff will be situated. On the wing running along Hill Street the rooms in the sub-basement will be used for telegraph stores and for accommodating the containers for working the pneumatic tubes with which the building is fitted. The parcels post office will be the room above. This, as is the case with all the other rooms in the administrative department, is lined with white glazed bricks, which is favourable both to the light and cleanliness of the places. In this office there will be four rams for working the hydraulic lifts, by which the baskets containing the parcels for despatch by rail will be lowered to a subway running from the post office to New Street station. This arrangement will greatly facilitate the work of the officials, for at present both parcels and letters have to be sent to the station in horse vehicles. The public entrance to the parcels post department will also be in Hill Street. The letter-sorting room extends the whole length of the building, and is about 207ft. long by 45ft. wide, and will be lighted by an unbroken range of lofty windows overlooking Hill Street. The sorting-room is from two to three feet below the level of the public hall, and underneath the latter a tramway will run between the sorting- room and the letter-box in New Street, whereby the baskets in which the letters are received will be from time to time brought in for clearance. The telegraph instrument room will be on the top storey. Its dimensions are the same as the sorting-room below, but, in addition to the windows overlooking Hill Street the roof is almost entirely of glass. Telegrams for despatch will be received at the front office in New Street, and will be sent up a pneumatic tube to the instrument room, and those for town delivery will be sent down by similar means. In the instrument room there will be a complex pneumatic tube arrangement. Telegrams for despatch wil be distributed amongst the clerks by these tubes, and those received will be collected in the the same way at a table at the top end of the room. The top storey on the Pinfold Street wing will be utilised for the storage of batteries, and below there will be offices for receiving night telegrams, a telegraph delivery room (25ft. by 30ft.), rooms for telegraph inspectors, linesmen, mail-cart men, and the telegraph engineer, and mechanics' offices. Ample provision has been made for the convenience of the staff. There are numerous cooking and mess rooms, and servants will be provided to do the cooking for the clerks and others both night and day. The building throughout will be lighted with electricity. At the rear of the office the foundations are now being dug out for laying down the necessary plant for working the pneumatic tubes, the hydraulic lifts,,and driving the electric-lighting machinery. The exhaust steam from the four large boilers will be utilised to heat the various rooms. When the new Post Office is open the present office will be disposed of, as also will the existing telegraph office in Cannon Street.
The new Birmingham Post Office has now advanced to such a stage that it is possible for the public to form a very good idea of what the completed building will be like. The shell is already finished, and, with the exception of the roof of that portion fronting the Council House, the whole is roofed in. The hoardings, which will shortly be taken down, will disclose a building which, if it does not call forth ecstatic admiration, will be infinitely superior to the edifices with which Government departments have been in the habit of disfiguring the streets of provincial towns, as, for instance, the old office and the county courts. We shall, at least, have a building with some pretensions to decorative effect. Whatever criticisms may, however, be passed on the external architecture, the internal arrangements promise to be unexceptionable. With a view to making these as convenient as possible for the staff, Mr. Walliker (the postmaster), Mr. Lewis (the postal superintendent), and Mr. Derrington (the superintendent of the telegraph department in Cannon Street), visited the offices in London and at Liverpool, Manchester, and Glasgow, and many of the internal details have been modelled on the information then obtained. It is hoped that the letter-sorting and the parcels post departments will be available for the Christmas work, and that the whole building will be open early in the new year. A large staff of workmen are engaged on the work. Mr. Vickers, of Nottingham, is the builder. His contract was upwards of £50,000, but it is estimated that the total cost of the building and fittings, exclusive of the land, will be between £65,000 and £70,000. The structure will accommodate a staff of about 900 persons, the postal, money order, and telegraphs being all brought under the same roof. The two first-named departments will be in the front of the building towards New Street, and the letter-boxes will be underneath the front windows - thus removing what has been one of the greatest grievances, so far as the public is concerned, connected with the old office. The front hall will be about 80ft. by 60ft., and 21ft. from floor to ceiling; and the public will have the centre of the floor at their disposal. A counter with its back to New Street will be for the sale of stamps, and a sor of horseshoe counter will run round the other three sides, and will give facilities for the transaction of telegraph, registered letter, and other business. The statue of Sir Rowland Hill will be placed in the middle of the floor. On the floor, above the postmaster's office and offices for the chief clerk, the accountant clerk and his staff will be situated. On the wing running along Hill Street the rooms in the sub-basement will be used for telegraph stores and for accommodating the containers for working the pneumatic tubes with which the building is fitted. The parcels post office will be the room above. This, as is the case with all the other rooms in the administrative department, is lined with white glazed bricks, which is favourable both to the light and cleanliness of the places. In this office there will be four rams for working the hydraulic lifts, by which the baskets containing the parcels for despatch by rail will be lowered to a subway running from the post office to New Street station. This arrangement will greatly facilitate the work of the officials, for at present both parcels and letters have to be sent to the station in horse vehicles. The public entrance to the parcels post department will also be in Hill Street. The letter-sorting room extends the whole length of the building, and is about 207ft. long by 45ft. wide, and will be lighted by an unbroken range of lofty windows overlooking Hill Street. The sorting-room is from two to three feet below the level of the public hall, and underneath the latter a tramway will run between the sorting- room and the letter-box in New Street, whereby the baskets in which the letters are received will be from time to time brought in for clearance. The telegraph instrument room will be on the top storey. Its dimensions are the same as the sorting-room below, but, in addition to the windows overlooking Hill Street the roof is almost entirely of glass. Telegrams for despatch will be received at the front office in New Street, and will be sent up a pneumatic tube to the instrument room, and those for town delivery will be sent down by similar means. In the instrument room there will be a complex pneumatic tube arrangement. Telegrams for despatch wil be distributed amongst the clerks by these tubes, and those received will be collected in the the same way at a table at the top end of the room. The top storey on the Pinfold Street wing will be utilised for the storage of batteries, and below there will be offices for receiving night telegrams, a telegraph delivery room (25ft. by 30ft.), rooms for telegraph inspectors, linesmen, mail-cart men, and the telegraph engineer, and mechanics' offices. Ample provision has been made for the convenience of the staff. There are numerous cooking and mess rooms, and servants will be provided to do the cooking for the clerks and others both night and day. The building throughout will be lighted with electricity. At the rear of the office the foundations are now being dug out for laying down the necessary plant for working the pneumatic tubes, the hydraulic lifts,,and driving the electric-lighting machinery. The exhaust steam from the four large boilers will be utilised to heat the various rooms. When the new Post Office is open the present office will be disposed of, as also will the existing telegraph office in Cannon Street.
