General Post Office

This is a late 19th-century post office, dated 1884, designed by H Tanner. It was altered in the late 20th century. The building is constructed of orange brick in Flemish bond, with a sandstone ashlar plinth. The frontispiece, dressings, copings, and some decorative elements are of ashlar. The roof is slate, with terracotta cresting, brick panelled stacks, and an ogee-capped cupola with finials.

The main building is a two-story, five-bay range, with two bays gabled. There are projecting crosswings to the right and left; the right crosswing is two stories high and the left crosswing is three stories high. A single three-story bay is at the left end. The plinth incorporates blocked square-headed basement openings. A central one-story frontispiece is framed by diagonally set buttresses with corbelled-out heads beneath a fascia inscribed "POST OFFICE" in relief. The original entrance, now blocked, is in a segment-headed moulded surround ornamented with Tudor flower bosses. The windows on the second floor rise into gables. Original rainwater goods include blind Gothick-arcaded hoppers on stone brackets. The ground floor of the right crosswing is treated as a screen of ashlar with a stepped-up hoodmould. A doorway has panelled double doors in a moulded surround with a 4-centred head and foliate spandrels, beneath a carved ribbon bearing the inscription "AD ERECTED 1884" and a band of blind trefoiled panels. On either side of this doorway are tall two-light windows. The first-floor window above is of three lights beneath a stopped hoodmould and segmental relieving arch. The left crosswing has ground-floor windows of two and three cinquefoiled lights grouped beneath a common hoodmould. The first floor has a three-light oriel with a moulded sill and cornice, set between tall one-light windows. The second floor has a five-light window beneath a stopped hood. The end left bay has panelled folding doors in a square-headed, hollow-chamfered doorway with a 4-centred arch on two orders of jamb shafts with moulded capitals and blind traceried spandrels. The first and second-floor windows in this bay are of two lights, the first being taller. The windows are mullioned, some transomed, generally with one pane sashes, in ashlar square-headed quoined surrounds with sloped sills. There is a full-width moulded string and band beneath the first-floor windows. A moulded eaves coping continues across the left crosswing and end bay as a second-floor string course. The interior was not inspected.