LONDON MOUNT PLEASANT POST OFFICE
32 Rosebery Avenue, EC1
Architect: Albert Myers Year: 1937 Archive sources British Postal Museum & Archive: POST 91/2852, 2870 and numerous other files Selected bibliographical references Architect & Building News 1 Apr 1938, p. 15 Survey of London. Vol 47: Northern Clerkenwell and Pentonville. 2008, p. 22-51 History Opened: 18 Jun 1937 The building illustrated is, of course only a small part of the Mount Pleasant Mail Centre. The Post Office has maintained a presence in Clerkenwell since August 1887, when it first occupied parts of the former Coldbath Fields Prison (the last inmates left in 1885). The site was formally transferred to the Post Office under the Post Office Sites Act of 1889, and work began on the construction of a new Parcels Office to the designs of Henry Tanner. The building was completed in 1900, by which time it was also intended to process provincial letters, an activity transferred from St Martins-le-Grand in the June of that year. If the newspaper reports are to be believed the transfer was chaotic and the Post Office was severely criticised. The Parcel Office building was later demolished, and replaced in phases between 1925 and 1934 to the designs of Albert Myers. The British Postal Museum & Archive has copious records regarding the Mount Pleasant site, and there are number of documents in the National Archives, including plans and contract documentation. The London Metropolitan Archives has in its collection a series of photographs of Mount Pleasant taken in 1943. |