The Old Post Office is a Grade II listed building in the Rochdale local planning authority area, England. First listed on 12 February 1985. Former post office. 5 related planning applications.
The Old Post Office
- WRENN ID
- crooked-courtyard-spring
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Rochdale
- Constituency
- Rochdale MP: Paul Waugh (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 12 February 1985
- Type
- Former post office
- Address
- The Old Post Office, the Esplanade, OL16 1AE
- OS grid reference
- SD 895 133
- Coordinates
- 53.61652, -2.15926
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Old Post Office is a former post office designed in 1911 and opened in 1927 by C.P. Wilkinson. It is constructed of Portland stone with a Westmorland slate roof and has an L-shaped plan with a single-storey appendage at the rear that encloses a yard. The building is designed in a restrained Baroque style.
It features two storeys plus an attic, with a nine-bay facade where the central seven bays are more prominent. The ground floor is rusticated and includes a projecting plinth, semi-circular headed openings with coved surrounds, and large 'S' shaped scroll keystones. The first-floor sash windows are framed with architraves, and their sills and cornices are supported by console brackets. The building has rusticated quoins and a modillion eaves cornice that features egg and tongue moulding and carved lion heads. The steeply pitched roof is adorned with pedimented dormer windows. The side elevations are similarly treated but in a more subdued manner. Many of the internal fittings and finishes remain intact.
A similar building was planned to be constructed on the opposite side of the War Memorial, but this project was abandoned due to cost.
Local climate
The Old Post Office sits in a wetter-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 1,110 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 88% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 81% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 50 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 92% of listed buildings. Of these, 28 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 — 5 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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