King Edwards Buildings Post Office

NEWGATE STREET EC1 (North side) TQ3181 SE Nos 106-113 (consec) 8/181 (King Edward Buildings Post Office) II* 6.8.74

Postal Sorting Office. 1907-11 by Sir Henry Tanner of Office of Works, principal assistant (Sir) Richard Allison. Front in free classical style, of Portland stone with polished grey-granite base and area-balustrade. 3 storeys plus basement. Arched openings to ground storey with order of attached Doric columns. 5 windows wide, ends set forward as wings with high pediments broken into by arched second-floor windows. Behind this front is a small block 2 bays deep attached at north-east corner to the main sorting office, 325 x 185 feet, of three main storeys above ground, with loading platforms and glazed bays at west and east end, and bridges on north side and on east side connecting the sorting office with post office facing King Edward Street (q.v.). The whole of the structure of the buildiings is built in reinforced concrete, using the Hennebique system as licensed to L. G. Mouchel and Partners. The main sorting offices have regularly spaced columns at approximately 35-foot centres in either direction, connected by shallow reinforced concrete arches running north-south and bearing subsidiary joists running east-west. The external walls of the sorting office other than those facing Newgate Street are non-load-bearing and are faced in roughcast. Original windows survive on the east and part of the north fronts of the sorting office, but have been replaced on the south and west side, where the walls have been rendered and planted. The building is important in the development of reinforced concrete architecture in Britain. See also King Edward Street (west side) with which this building forms a group.

Listing NGR: TQ3189381388