LONDON GENERAL POST OFFICE (GPO NORTH)
The third of the General Post Office headquarters London buildings erected in the St Martin's-Le-Grand area of central London.
Architect: Henry Tanner Year: 1895 Archive sources British Post Office Museum & Archive: POST 30/698; 91/1809-1810, 2655; 118/ 291, 5798-5799 (photographs) English Heritage Viewfinder BL17690 Selected bibliographical references Builders' Journal 14 May 1895, p. 223; 9 Aug 1899, p. 1; 16 May 1900, p. 260 London Daily News 3 Mar 1894, p. 6; 5 Jun 1895, p. 6 (London) Standard 21 Nov 1890, p 3 Morning Post 25 Dec 1894, p. 7 History Foundation stone laid: 1890 Closed Current use: Office accommodation |
Building description
From: The Morning Post 25 December 1894, p. 7
For four years a huge pile has been slowly rising in St. Martin's-le-Grand at the Aldersgate-street side of the building which faces the old Post Office. There are now three General Post Offices in London, known departmentally as East, West, and North. The first was opened in 1829, the second in 1873, the third is approaching completion and will be occupied, partially at any rate, in three or four months' time. When the West Office was being built the late Mr. Cavendish Bentinck, who was the self-appointed artistic censor of the Office of Works, was sadly exercised over what he called its ugliness and want of style. "It is neither Grecian nor Gothic, neither Norman or Elizabethan, nor — nor — anything else," he once told the House of Commons, and Mr. Ayrton, who was First Commissioner in those days, replied in his caustic way: "What the Right Hon. gentleman says is quite true. The building is not Grecian nor Gothic, nor Norman, nor Elizabethan. It belongs to the Post Office style of architecture, and is an admirable example of its class." The House of Commons does not concern itself so much now with these things as of yore, though doubtless there will be grumblers, for critics on matters aesthetic are unanimous only in fault-finding. But the average man who sees "G.P.0. North," as he hurries along St. Martin's-le-Grand, will surely come to the conclusion that it is by no means an ill-looking building, and that it will compare favourably with any other Government establishment in London. The architect, Mr. Henry Tanner, of the Office of Works, had to follow in some degree the lines of the older structure to the south of it, but he has produced a far lighter and more graceful elevation. The front is broken with handsome arches, and brightened here and there with short columns of Peterhead granite, while the entrance to the courtyard — there is no direct approach from the street— is through some handsome wrought iron gates, the smaller ones on either side set in frames of Aberdeen granite. The site was awkward to start with. The irregular piece of land is bounded by St. Martin's-le-Grand on the east, St. Botolph's-churchyard on the north, King Edward-street on the west, and Angel street on the south. The eastern frontage is wider than the rest, and on the northern side the site curves inwards in a manner exasperating to an architect . But by narrowing the courtyard, which runs the whole length of the building from $t. Martin's-le-Grand to King Edward-street, Mr. Tanner has been enabled to get similar accommodation in the north and south wings. The business of an architect, we take it, is to adapt his means to the end to be attained; and, judged by this standard, Mr. Tanner has been conspicuously successful. An enthusiastic admirer of the ways of the British Post Office might see in these three buildings the text for a panegyric. There is first the old office, classically severe as to outline — gloomy and unbending - which would, to such an eye, symbolise the pedantic red-tapeism of the typical Government department. Then there is the more modern skyward-mounting structure on the other side of the way, with its unbroken line of oblong windows, and its pillared front so designed as not to be in too glaring a contrast to the older home opposite. This might represent the intermediate stage of development, when the Postmaster-General and his officials were awakening to the fact that their gigantic business is really a commercial undertaking, and should be run on business lines. Finally, there is this third building, with its attractive exterior, its ample light and air space, and its scientifically equipped apartments; and in all these our enthusiast will see an expression in brick and stone of the fact that the Post Office is fully abreast of the demands of a fin de siecle community. Mr. Arnold Morley might perhaps indulge in an allegory of this kind — that is, supposing any Cabinet Minister of to-day has time to think of anything except how most quickly to abolish the House of Lords — though he would be sure to provoke a retort from Mr. Henniker Ibaton and other critics of the Post Office, who regard it as being not in line with, but sadly behind the times. The ordinary man may, however, hope, when he knows that this new Governmental mansion is intended for the occupation of the Parliamentary head of the Department and of the all-powerful permanent chiefs, that with the added breathing room these gentlemen will enjoy may come a disposition to make the Post Office's various spheres of activity more popular. They may, for instance, under the influence of the new conditions, someday devise a scheme by which the public may be instructed how to utilise the express delivery without having first to master the intricacies of the "Post Office Guide" a publication which remains a monument of word-spinning and circumlocution. For "G.P.O. North" is to be devoted exclusively to the administrative as distinguished from the executive branch. Letters and parcels are confined to the old building, and have been for years. Telegraphs, telephones, engineering, and administration are crowded together in " G.P.O. West." It is astonishing how fast the work grows, in spite of the officialism which hitherto has acted as a brake upon the wheel of progress. The Western office was opened in 1873, and years ago it had stretched out its arms — they are footbridges across the road, to be precise — and had embraced another huge block on the other side of Roman Bath-street, its western boundary. Now it rents premises scattered up and down the City, the cost of which will be saved as soon as “G.P.O. North” is ready for use. The latter is connected by a handsome covered-in gangway across Angel-street, at the height of the second floor, with the older buildings. So far the Office of Works has done nothing on a bigger scale in the way of building by its own staff in London; and it took this into its hands not out of any desire to please the Progressive Party, but simply for the reason that the contractor, Mr. J. T. Chappell, of Pimlico, failed. The foundation-stone was laid by the late Mr. Raikes, on November 20, 1890, the jubilee year of the establishment of an uniform inland postal rate, and a little over two years later the builderr had to stop. The trustees would not carry on the job, so Mr. Leake, of the Office of Works, who had acted as clerk of the works from the start, was instructed to complete it, employing labour direct. Whether the result will be a saving of cost cannot yet be told — some £200,000 has been already spent, excluding the £320,000 paid for the site— but for solidity of construction it would be hard to beat this enormous pile. Even a non-technical observer must admire the masonry and brickwork and — looking, for example, from the top of a narrow subsidiary staircase down seven long flights — the accuracy of the line. Some 200 men— plumbers, carpenters, masons, bricklayers, plasterers, painters, smiths, fitters, and labourers — are now putting the finishing touches to the constructional work, and the the pay bill is about £400 a week. The electrical department of the Post Office is installing the lights with a staff of some two-score hands under Mr. Probert. There will be some 4,000 lamps here, and then the machinery in the Western office, which serves all three buildings, will have about 10,000 lights to work. Gas is banished as an illuminant, but is to be used for cooking, of which, apparently, there will be a great deal. The only work done by contract is the fitting of the heating apparatus.
The exterior of the building is of Portland stone from selected quarries, with a base of Cornish granite. The style is mixed enough to have perturbed the mind of Mr. Cavendish Bentinck were that gentleman now alive. If a name is to be given to it, Renaissance best describes its type; but, as we have said, it harmonises with the older structure while being a great improvement upon it. The courtyard is entered from St. Martin’s-le-Grand and King Edward-street. It runs the whole length of the offices, to which it gives light and air, and the walls are of glazed Stourbidge bricks. Bold arches surmount the entrances. The keystones looked bare when they were finished, so it was decided to ornament them. Accordingly the features of Mr. Raikes look east and those of Mr. Arnold Morley west — two Postmaster-Generals. Inside the courtyard the arches are surmounted with the faces of Mr. Plunket and Mr. Shaw-Lefevre — two First Commissioners. The carvings are not exactly triumphs of the sculptor's art, but they are fair likenesses – that of Mr. Arnold Morley being the best, perhaps, because his clear-cut physiognomy is easier of reproduction than that of the three other politicians. The Estimates made no Provision for the perpetuation of the lineaments of the occupants of the Treasury Bench so that it was not possible to employ artists of renown The portraits, too, were carved from photographs, and, all things considered, there is no cause for fault-finding with the result. So anxious was the architect to make the most of his space that two basements extend under die courtyard. They will be used for the storage of Post Office records. On either side of the yard a narrow area is cut so asto give light to the underground floor and permit of free current of air into the rooms. Beneath the areas the drains run and they are therefore easily got at. In excavating for the foundations a fine piece of old Roman wall, about 50 yards in length, was come across and this has been reverently preserved. The glazed bricks are arrested in their course here, and if one basement room is a little hit darker in consequence not even a 20th century clerk ought to grumble.
Entering by the St. Martin's-lane gate one sees a series of Irish granite columns, from which spring the arches supporting the roof of the short covered way. At the other end of the building the approach is hardly so imposing, but it is by this gate that the Postmaster - General will obtain access to the office, for his room is close by on the ground floor to the south. It is a cheerful apartment, with some fine mouldings on the roof and on the capitals of the pillars. All the mouldings, by the way — and some of them are so fine as to resemble marble — have been made on the spot by the Office of Works employees, under Mrr. Leake's direction. Beyond is a deputation-room, too small for the purpose to our thinking, especially when one remembers the size of some of the gatherings which occasionally seek to interview or remonstrate with the Parliamentary Chief of the General Post Office. Immediately above this are the rooms of the Permanent Secretary aud his immediate subordinates. In going through these bare chambers the dignities of the prospective occupants can be gathered from the fireplaces. Those to be occupied by persons of the first rank are marble with brass mounts round the opening, and, in the case of the Postmaster-General, there is an overmantel; a step lower down the departmental ladder the brass mounts disappear, and for the common herd a polished Hopeton wood and York stone suffices. Mr. Keir-Hardie ought to scent a grievance here. There is necessarily a great sameness about the rest of the offices, but they are all lofty, well lighted, well-warmed, well built, and will apparently be very comfortable. The four main staircases, one at either end of each block, are wide with handsome wrought iron balustrades, and on the two lower floors columns of polished Peterhead granite support the roofs. There are several other subsidiary flights, besides three passenger lifts. On the fifth floor are the the kitchens, vast roomy spaces, where will be installed cooking appliances sufficient for some 2,000 people. The extent to which women are employed in the Post Office, and the care which the Department takes to imbue the minds of the females with ideas of their independence of the other sex, have necessitated a double set of kitchens — male and female — communicating by lifts with their complementary dining-rooms downstairs.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the whole building is the roof. It is a first-rate promenade, almost at the height of the top of the adjacent Cathedral, the monotony of the level broken by chimneys and ventilating shafts — all in beautifully- glazed bricks— with huge water tanks at three of the corners. The balustrade over which one looks down into the courtyard — 200ft. below —is just of the right height to suit a would-be suicide, if tendencies of this kind could possibly be developed in such a model set of offices. There is a grand view of London from this roof with the Kentish and Surrey hills at one corner, the heights of Muswell-hill on the other; eastward, the long line of the Thames with the low-lying lands on either side; and almost next door the stately dome of St. Paul's towering high above, reducing even this magnificent specimen of 19th century commercial architecture into comparative insignificance. A better spot for an after-luncheon smoke on a fine day could not be wished for; but the clerks who are to have their habitation in the new building must not indulge in any fond anticipations. Big as the place is, the demands upon it are already so great that there is a talk of two rooms being placed on the western end of the roof, and promenading may soon be impossible. To sum up, "G.P.O. North" is a notable addition to the Government buildings of London. It provides all the essentials for working under cheerful, healthy conditions; and alike in its design and its structure reflects credit on the two officials of the Office of Works — Mr. Tanner and Mr. Leake— who have been responsible in their several departments for its erection.
For four years a huge pile has been slowly rising in St. Martin's-le-Grand at the Aldersgate-street side of the building which faces the old Post Office. There are now three General Post Offices in London, known departmentally as East, West, and North. The first was opened in 1829, the second in 1873, the third is approaching completion and will be occupied, partially at any rate, in three or four months' time. When the West Office was being built the late Mr. Cavendish Bentinck, who was the self-appointed artistic censor of the Office of Works, was sadly exercised over what he called its ugliness and want of style. "It is neither Grecian nor Gothic, neither Norman or Elizabethan, nor — nor — anything else," he once told the House of Commons, and Mr. Ayrton, who was First Commissioner in those days, replied in his caustic way: "What the Right Hon. gentleman says is quite true. The building is not Grecian nor Gothic, nor Norman, nor Elizabethan. It belongs to the Post Office style of architecture, and is an admirable example of its class." The House of Commons does not concern itself so much now with these things as of yore, though doubtless there will be grumblers, for critics on matters aesthetic are unanimous only in fault-finding. But the average man who sees "G.P.0. North," as he hurries along St. Martin's-le-Grand, will surely come to the conclusion that it is by no means an ill-looking building, and that it will compare favourably with any other Government establishment in London. The architect, Mr. Henry Tanner, of the Office of Works, had to follow in some degree the lines of the older structure to the south of it, but he has produced a far lighter and more graceful elevation. The front is broken with handsome arches, and brightened here and there with short columns of Peterhead granite, while the entrance to the courtyard — there is no direct approach from the street— is through some handsome wrought iron gates, the smaller ones on either side set in frames of Aberdeen granite. The site was awkward to start with. The irregular piece of land is bounded by St. Martin's-le-Grand on the east, St. Botolph's-churchyard on the north, King Edward-street on the west, and Angel street on the south. The eastern frontage is wider than the rest, and on the northern side the site curves inwards in a manner exasperating to an architect . But by narrowing the courtyard, which runs the whole length of the building from $t. Martin's-le-Grand to King Edward-street, Mr. Tanner has been enabled to get similar accommodation in the north and south wings. The business of an architect, we take it, is to adapt his means to the end to be attained; and, judged by this standard, Mr. Tanner has been conspicuously successful. An enthusiastic admirer of the ways of the British Post Office might see in these three buildings the text for a panegyric. There is first the old office, classically severe as to outline — gloomy and unbending - which would, to such an eye, symbolise the pedantic red-tapeism of the typical Government department. Then there is the more modern skyward-mounting structure on the other side of the way, with its unbroken line of oblong windows, and its pillared front so designed as not to be in too glaring a contrast to the older home opposite. This might represent the intermediate stage of development, when the Postmaster-General and his officials were awakening to the fact that their gigantic business is really a commercial undertaking, and should be run on business lines. Finally, there is this third building, with its attractive exterior, its ample light and air space, and its scientifically equipped apartments; and in all these our enthusiast will see an expression in brick and stone of the fact that the Post Office is fully abreast of the demands of a fin de siecle community. Mr. Arnold Morley might perhaps indulge in an allegory of this kind — that is, supposing any Cabinet Minister of to-day has time to think of anything except how most quickly to abolish the House of Lords — though he would be sure to provoke a retort from Mr. Henniker Ibaton and other critics of the Post Office, who regard it as being not in line with, but sadly behind the times. The ordinary man may, however, hope, when he knows that this new Governmental mansion is intended for the occupation of the Parliamentary head of the Department and of the all-powerful permanent chiefs, that with the added breathing room these gentlemen will enjoy may come a disposition to make the Post Office's various spheres of activity more popular. They may, for instance, under the influence of the new conditions, someday devise a scheme by which the public may be instructed how to utilise the express delivery without having first to master the intricacies of the "Post Office Guide" a publication which remains a monument of word-spinning and circumlocution. For "G.P.O. North" is to be devoted exclusively to the administrative as distinguished from the executive branch. Letters and parcels are confined to the old building, and have been for years. Telegraphs, telephones, engineering, and administration are crowded together in " G.P.O. West." It is astonishing how fast the work grows, in spite of the officialism which hitherto has acted as a brake upon the wheel of progress. The Western office was opened in 1873, and years ago it had stretched out its arms — they are footbridges across the road, to be precise — and had embraced another huge block on the other side of Roman Bath-street, its western boundary. Now it rents premises scattered up and down the City, the cost of which will be saved as soon as “G.P.O. North” is ready for use. The latter is connected by a handsome covered-in gangway across Angel-street, at the height of the second floor, with the older buildings. So far the Office of Works has done nothing on a bigger scale in the way of building by its own staff in London; and it took this into its hands not out of any desire to please the Progressive Party, but simply for the reason that the contractor, Mr. J. T. Chappell, of Pimlico, failed. The foundation-stone was laid by the late Mr. Raikes, on November 20, 1890, the jubilee year of the establishment of an uniform inland postal rate, and a little over two years later the builderr had to stop. The trustees would not carry on the job, so Mr. Leake, of the Office of Works, who had acted as clerk of the works from the start, was instructed to complete it, employing labour direct. Whether the result will be a saving of cost cannot yet be told — some £200,000 has been already spent, excluding the £320,000 paid for the site— but for solidity of construction it would be hard to beat this enormous pile. Even a non-technical observer must admire the masonry and brickwork and — looking, for example, from the top of a narrow subsidiary staircase down seven long flights — the accuracy of the line. Some 200 men— plumbers, carpenters, masons, bricklayers, plasterers, painters, smiths, fitters, and labourers — are now putting the finishing touches to the constructional work, and the the pay bill is about £400 a week. The electrical department of the Post Office is installing the lights with a staff of some two-score hands under Mr. Probert. There will be some 4,000 lamps here, and then the machinery in the Western office, which serves all three buildings, will have about 10,000 lights to work. Gas is banished as an illuminant, but is to be used for cooking, of which, apparently, there will be a great deal. The only work done by contract is the fitting of the heating apparatus.
The exterior of the building is of Portland stone from selected quarries, with a base of Cornish granite. The style is mixed enough to have perturbed the mind of Mr. Cavendish Bentinck were that gentleman now alive. If a name is to be given to it, Renaissance best describes its type; but, as we have said, it harmonises with the older structure while being a great improvement upon it. The courtyard is entered from St. Martin’s-le-Grand and King Edward-street. It runs the whole length of the offices, to which it gives light and air, and the walls are of glazed Stourbidge bricks. Bold arches surmount the entrances. The keystones looked bare when they were finished, so it was decided to ornament them. Accordingly the features of Mr. Raikes look east and those of Mr. Arnold Morley west — two Postmaster-Generals. Inside the courtyard the arches are surmounted with the faces of Mr. Plunket and Mr. Shaw-Lefevre — two First Commissioners. The carvings are not exactly triumphs of the sculptor's art, but they are fair likenesses – that of Mr. Arnold Morley being the best, perhaps, because his clear-cut physiognomy is easier of reproduction than that of the three other politicians. The Estimates made no Provision for the perpetuation of the lineaments of the occupants of the Treasury Bench so that it was not possible to employ artists of renown The portraits, too, were carved from photographs, and, all things considered, there is no cause for fault-finding with the result. So anxious was the architect to make the most of his space that two basements extend under die courtyard. They will be used for the storage of Post Office records. On either side of the yard a narrow area is cut so asto give light to the underground floor and permit of free current of air into the rooms. Beneath the areas the drains run and they are therefore easily got at. In excavating for the foundations a fine piece of old Roman wall, about 50 yards in length, was come across and this has been reverently preserved. The glazed bricks are arrested in their course here, and if one basement room is a little hit darker in consequence not even a 20th century clerk ought to grumble.
Entering by the St. Martin's-lane gate one sees a series of Irish granite columns, from which spring the arches supporting the roof of the short covered way. At the other end of the building the approach is hardly so imposing, but it is by this gate that the Postmaster - General will obtain access to the office, for his room is close by on the ground floor to the south. It is a cheerful apartment, with some fine mouldings on the roof and on the capitals of the pillars. All the mouldings, by the way — and some of them are so fine as to resemble marble — have been made on the spot by the Office of Works employees, under Mrr. Leake's direction. Beyond is a deputation-room, too small for the purpose to our thinking, especially when one remembers the size of some of the gatherings which occasionally seek to interview or remonstrate with the Parliamentary Chief of the General Post Office. Immediately above this are the rooms of the Permanent Secretary aud his immediate subordinates. In going through these bare chambers the dignities of the prospective occupants can be gathered from the fireplaces. Those to be occupied by persons of the first rank are marble with brass mounts round the opening, and, in the case of the Postmaster-General, there is an overmantel; a step lower down the departmental ladder the brass mounts disappear, and for the common herd a polished Hopeton wood and York stone suffices. Mr. Keir-Hardie ought to scent a grievance here. There is necessarily a great sameness about the rest of the offices, but they are all lofty, well lighted, well-warmed, well built, and will apparently be very comfortable. The four main staircases, one at either end of each block, are wide with handsome wrought iron balustrades, and on the two lower floors columns of polished Peterhead granite support the roofs. There are several other subsidiary flights, besides three passenger lifts. On the fifth floor are the the kitchens, vast roomy spaces, where will be installed cooking appliances sufficient for some 2,000 people. The extent to which women are employed in the Post Office, and the care which the Department takes to imbue the minds of the females with ideas of their independence of the other sex, have necessitated a double set of kitchens — male and female — communicating by lifts with their complementary dining-rooms downstairs.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the whole building is the roof. It is a first-rate promenade, almost at the height of the top of the adjacent Cathedral, the monotony of the level broken by chimneys and ventilating shafts — all in beautifully- glazed bricks— with huge water tanks at three of the corners. The balustrade over which one looks down into the courtyard — 200ft. below —is just of the right height to suit a would-be suicide, if tendencies of this kind could possibly be developed in such a model set of offices. There is a grand view of London from this roof with the Kentish and Surrey hills at one corner, the heights of Muswell-hill on the other; eastward, the long line of the Thames with the low-lying lands on either side; and almost next door the stately dome of St. Paul's towering high above, reducing even this magnificent specimen of 19th century commercial architecture into comparative insignificance. A better spot for an after-luncheon smoke on a fine day could not be wished for; but the clerks who are to have their habitation in the new building must not indulge in any fond anticipations. Big as the place is, the demands upon it are already so great that there is a talk of two rooms being placed on the western end of the roof, and promenading may soon be impossible. To sum up, "G.P.O. North" is a notable addition to the Government buildings of London. It provides all the essentials for working under cheerful, healthy conditions; and alike in its design and its structure reflects credit on the two officials of the Office of Works — Mr. Tanner and Mr. Leake— who have been responsible in their several departments for its erection.