Post Office

This is a post office, with a main building dating to circa 1925, incorporating parts of an earlier building from circa 1895, and an annexe built in 1849. The main building's front is of Portland stone, with red brick and terracotta to the gable ends, and a tile roof. It is two storeys high, with a five-window front. The ground floor appears as a wide arcade, with archivolts over round-arched openings linked by a springing band, and fielded panels in the spaces between. There are flat-arched entrances in the outer bays, featuring a bolection-moulded architrave and glazed tympanum. The windows between have metal glazing that echoes the round arches. A moulded storey band incorporates a panel lettered 'POST OFFICE'. The first-floor windows have a sill band, architrave and cornice on consoles. A cornice and balustraded parapet tops the building. The south gable shows a cornice, a now-blocked lunette, and shaped gable flanks with corniced stacks, all in red brick with buff terracotta dressings. The north gable features an external stack and one corniced stack, also in the same materials.

Inside, the vestibules are panelled. The main hall has square, chamfered columns now clad in wood, with dentil details to the ceiling framing. Broad wooden doorcases, with pulvinated friezes and segmental pediments, run from the vestibules. The doorcases behind the counter have panelled pilasters and cornices.

The annexe to the south is of stucco, with a roof hidden by a parapet. It is two storeys high, with a seven-window front. The second and sixth bays from the main building are recessed, creating the impression of a centrepiece and wings. The ground floor is decorated with banded rustication. The round-arched ground-floor openings are set back under a round arch of plain stucco, with a springing band. There’s a broad entrance to the first bay and a narrow entrance to the seventh. A sill band runs along the front. First-floor windows are flat-arched with architraves and pediments on consoles, except for the tripartite window in the second bay, which has a cornice on consoles and a pediment over the central window. The building is finished with an entablature and a raised, panelled blocking course over the centrepiece.