Post Office And Railings

SUNDERLAND

NZ3957SE WEST SUNNISIDE 920-1/18/241 (East side) Post Office and railings

II

General post office, now local delivery office, and railings. 1903. By Sir Henry Tanner. Sandstone ashlar with red granite door architraves to main block; graduated Lakeland slate roof with ashlar chimneys and copper ridge; cast-iron railings. EXTERIOR: main block at right 3 storeys, 1:2:3x1:3:1 windows; left sorting office one storey, 3:3:3:3 windows. Main block has panelled door at right of right 3-bay gabled section, in architrave under bracketed cornice; mullioned and transomed windows to left and in bracketed first floor oriels in outer bays flanking arched recess with low relief POST OFFICE, sill strings continuing from plinths of pilasters. These 3 bays are linked by bracketed cornice breaking forward over Tuscan pilasters defining bays and surmounted by corniced blocking course with small pedimented arches above windows. Second floor has 3 pairs of windows under bracketed cornice; shaped gable has side consoles and raised top panel framing attached Corinthian columns of arched window surround with high pediment. Left one-bay gabled bay section in similar style has a 3-light window in first floor oriel, and simpler gable with 3 small lights and high pediment. 2-bay section set back between the gabled bays has arcaded ground floor with panelled door at left and window in recess at right, and 2-light windows above, the right first floor bay blank.Steeply-pitched roofs run back from gables and have chimneys above eaves, and high domed ridge lantern. Right return to public garden has simpler centre and pilastered outer sections with Tuscan below and Corinthian order on first floor, and top floor has lunettes between big consoles on dentilled first-floor cornice. One-storey block behind main office has keyed architraves to round-arched windows in left part, with outer bays breaking forward under pediments, and 3 gabled set back sections each with 3 windows,the central under lunettes in pedimented pilastered centres, all with sill string. Railings punctuated by patterned panels link projecting sections on West Sunniside and continue around right return. Rear to Norfolk Street is mostly a mirror image of the West Sunniside front. (Corfe T: The Buildings of Sunderland 1814-1914.: Newcastle upon Tyne: 1983-: 30).

Listing NGR: NZ3995457076