Post Office, Hall To Rear And Attached Lantern And Bracket

MALDON

TL8507SW HIGH STREET 574-1/7/79 (North side) 21/01/94 Nos.43 AND 45 Post Office, hall to rear and attached lantern & bracket

GV II

Literary and Mechanical Institute incorporating Corn Hall, now post office. 1860. Yellow stock brick with dressings of stone and white brick; hipped slate roof. EXTERIOR: 3 storeys; symmetrical 3-bay range with centre breaking forward with pedimental gable over. Cornice of stone corbels with pattern of raised crosses in brick between each console. The central projecting bay has, on its 2nd floor, 4 linked windows with continuous stone sill. Moulded string between storeys with bowtell. 1st floor has 3 linked semicircular-arched openings, the centre a blank recess and either side a sash window with central vertical bar in upper sash; the recessed niche is inscribed: 'PUBLIC HALL' and has semicircular insert of coloured marble. Below this is a stone plaque inscribed: 'ERECTED AD MDCCCLX'. These arches are supported on short attached columns with capitals of Ruskinian Gothick/Byzantine type, and a frieze of similar ornament penetrates the central niche. The ground floor has a pair of wide door openings under semicircular arches with central attached columns. Doors have cast-iron decorative fanlights, one opening now infilled in matching brick slightly recessed. Lantern on cast-iron bracket over centre. Side bays have, on the 2nd floor, 2 semicircular-arched plain sash windows. The 1st floors have larger linked, semicircular-arched windows with central vertical glazing bar in upper pane, and central attached column as elsewhere. Stone cornice above ground floors with a wide window with segmental head and keystone. The window openings have C20 timber windows, probably replicas of originals. Chamfered tall stone plinth and stacks with related detail on flank walls. On the rear elevation is a large hall structure (former Post Office sorting office) aligned north/south with a lower slate-roofed link block to main building. This is of yellow stock brick and has half-hipped slate roof but with curious extended gablets of white weatherboarding. Each flank of hall has 5 large segmental-arched windows within segmental-arched recesses, each of 8 large panes. On the rear (south elevation) is a C20 loading bay with lean-to roof. INTERIOR: arched trusses and iron tie rods.

Listing NGR: TL8500607059