Former Gpo Sorting Office

The former General Post Office sorting office, built between 1898 and 1900 by Henry Tanner, is located on Whitby Street in Hartlepool. This building is designed in the Northern Renaissance style and is constructed of red brick with buff terracotta and granite details. It features a graduated Lakeland slate roof with two stacks.

The building has two storeys and an attic, with five bays that are divided and framed by pilasters. The ground floor pilasters are made of brick with terracotta bands, while those above are quasi-Ionic in terracotta. A roll-moulded plinth supports a central panelled double door, which is set within a granite architrave flanked by rusticated terracotta Ionic engaged columns. Above the door is a triple overlight with Jacobean detailing, situated under a console bracketed serpentine pediment that displays a crown and foliage in the tympanum.

Flanking the entrance are round-arched windows that feature pilasters, architraves, patterned spandrels, and keystones. The outer bays contain three grouped windows in Art Nouveau architraves. The ground floor is adorned with an entablature and a blocking course, while the first-floor windows are set in rusticated architraves with friezes and egg-and-dart cornices. These windows are tripartite, with central keys and pediments in the outer bays.

The building is topped with a modillion cornice and a balustraded parapet that fronts three pedimented dormers in the central bays. The outer bays have solid parapets with vase end finials and Diocletian windows set within quasi-Corinthian entablatures under scrolled segmental pediments. The returns of the building are styled similarly, featuring elaborate panelled and carved chimneys. There is also a one-storey section at the rear that serves as a sorting office.