The Old Post Office and area balustrade

This list entry was subject to a Minor Enhancement on 05/06/2018

NZ 2463 NE 23/489

NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE ST. NICHOLAS' STREET (west side) The Old Post Office and area balustrade

(Formerly listed as General Post Office and area balustrade)

17.12.71

G.V. II Former post office. 1871-74 by James Williams. Sandstone ashlar; roof not visible. Classical style.

Four storeys, three bays. Two superimposed Giant Orders: Roman Doric on two lower floors and Corinthian above. Fluted ground-floor band. Central porch in antis contains recessed double door and overlight, flanked by narrow windows; tripartite sash window above. Sashes in outer bays flanked by pilasters. First floor entablature has triglyph and guttae frieze. Sash windows in architraves, those on second floor with apron balustrades and bracketed pediments, the central segmental on Ionic pilasters. Third floor patterned sill band. Rusticated quoins and top entablature with central panel: POST OFFICE in low relief. Wide dentilled eaves cornice. One bay set back at right in plainer style. Stone area balustrade with chamfered moulded coping.

Historical Note: Post offices were a frequent target for suffragettes as part of their militant campaign of disruption. The Women’s Social and Political Union was formed by Emmeline Pankhurst in 1903, and pursued a vigorous policy of direct action against the Liberal government as part of its campaign for votes for women. In October 1909, Chancellor David Lloyd George and Education Secretary Walter Runciman held a series of meetings in Newcastle. Great efforts were made to keep suffragettes out of halls with tickets and barriers, but this moved the protests onto the streets. After a series of violent events during which one woman cut through barricades with a hatchet, Kitty Marion and Dorothy Pethick with stones hidden in their hand muffs, entered the post office to check nobody would be hurt by flying glass, before returning back outside and smashing the windows of the Post Office. Twelve suffragettes were arrested and sent to prison.

This list entry was amended in 2018 as part of the centenary commemorations of the 1918 Representation of the People Act.

Listing NGR: NZ2492863968