Head Post Office and Sorting Office is a Grade II listed building in the Darlington local planning authority area, England. Post office. 2 related planning applications.

Head Post Office and Sorting Office

WRENN ID
unlit-cellar-root
Grade
II
Local Planning Authority
Darlington
Constituency
Darlington MP: Lola McEvoy (Lab)
Country
England
Type
Post office
Address
Head Post Office and Sorting Office, 28-32, Northgate, DL1 1NR
OS grid reference
NZ 290 146
Coordinates
54.52654, -1.55328
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: sale history · EPC · related consents · flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

The Head Post Office and Sorting Office, located at Nos 28 to 32 on the east side of Northgate, is a building from the second quarter of the 19th century, designed in the Greek Revival style but featuring a somewhat playful balustraded parapet. It is two storeys tall and consists of three bays, constructed from ashlar stone. The ground floor has a decorative order of pilasters and an entablature, with "Post Office" incised into the frieze. The first floor features sash windows set in moulded architraves, complete with cornices and balustraded aprons. The ground floor windows are framed by plain roll mouldings and are recessed between the pilasters.

Additionally, there is a later building from around 1900 that exhibits Art Nouveau characteristics. This structure is primarily three storeys high and made of light red brick with stone dressings. It has a central gabled bay that is four windows wide, and to the right, a projecting tower bay topped with a shaped ashlar parapet above a round window with an irregular architrave. In the following three-bay section, the second-floor windows extend above the eaves of a high-pitched tiled roof. The first-floor windows are round-headed, while the ground floor windows are segmental and low, featuring alternating block surrounds and keystones that rise to a first-floor band. The building has a high ashlar plinth, a lunette in the central bay, and five windows to the left arranged in a convex curve, along with a shaped, raised central parapet. All windows have moulded architraves or alternating block jambs.

Local climate

Head Post Office and Sorting Office receives an average of 810 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 52% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 84% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 44 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 85% of listed buildings. Of these, 24 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

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  • Full EPC report — heating system, energy costs, size, glazing, construction etc.
  • Sale history — 1 transaction since 2022
  • Related listed building consents — 2 applications
  • Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
  • Flood risk assessment
  • Radon risk assessment
  • Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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