The Old Post Office and area balustrade is a Grade II listed building in the Newcastle upon Tyne local planning authority area, England. First listed on 17 December 1971. Post office. 3 related planning applications.
The Old Post Office and area balustrade
- WRENN ID
- grim-thatch-woodpecker
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Newcastle upon Tyne
- Constituency
- Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West MP: Dame Chi Onwurah (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 17 December 1971
- Type
- Post office
- Address
- The Old Post Office and area balustrade, St Nicholas' Street, NE1 1RH
- OS grid reference
- NZ 249 639
- Coordinates
- 54.96972, -1.61216
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Old Post Office is a former post office building dating from 1871 to 1874, designed by James Williams. It is constructed of sandstone ashlar with a visible roof. The building is in a Classical style.
The building is four storeys high and comprises three bays. It features two superimposed Giant Orders – Roman Doric on the two lower floors and Corinthian above. A fluted band runs along the ground floor. A central porch is set back within a surround and contains a recessed double door with an overlight, flanked by narrow windows. A tripartite sash window sits above. Sashes are located in the outer bays, flanked by pilasters. The first-floor entablature has a triglyph and guttae frieze. The sash windows are set within architraves; those on the second floor have apron balustrades and bracketed pediments, with the central segmental one resting on Ionic pilasters. A patterned sill band is present on the third floor. Rusticated quoins and a top entablature featuring a central panel reading "POST OFFICE" in low relief are also visible. The building has a wide dentilled eaves cornice. One bay is set back on the right-hand side, and is of a plainer style. A stone area balustrade with chamfered moulded coping runs alongside the building.
Historically, post offices were targeted by suffragettes as part of a campaign of disruption. In October 1909, suffragettes Kitty Marion and Dorothy Pethick entered the post office with stones hidden in their hand muffs, smashed the windows, and ensured no one was hurt by glass, before being arrested and imprisoned.
The listing was amended in 2018 to mark the centenary commemorations of the 1918 Representation of the People Act.
Local climate
The Old Post Office and area balustrade receives an average of 790 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 57% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 94% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 27 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 70% of listed buildings. Of these, 16 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.
- No sale records on file
- Related listed building consents — 3 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
Matched applications, energy data and sale records are assembled automatically and may contain errors. Flag incorrect data.
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