Post Office

Former Post Office, now Sorting Office

This building on the corner of London Road and Queen's Road in East Grinstead was commissioned in 1895 and completed in 1896. It was probably designed by the architects department of the Office of Works under Sir Henry Tanner, and exemplifies the eclectic 19th-century Dutch manner characteristic of the department's output.

The building is constructed of red brick in Flemish bond with buff terracotta dressings, glazed brick plinths, and slate roofs. It rises three storeys over a basement and occupies its prominent corner site with the main elevation facing London Road and a secondary elevation onto Queen's Road.

The London Road elevation is composed of two identical three-storey bays with a two-storey entrance bay to the left. The entrance is marked by a pedimented moulded terracotta doorcase inscribed "POST OFFICE" on its frieze and bearing a coat of arms in the pediment. It frames a small-paned overlight in a deep moulded frame over a door of eight robustly moulded, raised and fielded panels. The three-storey bays break forward slightly and are articulated by chamfered red brick shafts rising from first-floor level. Each bay has a shaped gable parapet over the upper-floor windows, surmounted by terracotta finials. Ground-floor windows are set under round arches with alternating terracotta and red-brick voussoirs and moulded terracotta keystones, supporting the apron of the first-floor window above. Windows throughout have slender terracotta cills; those on the ground floor feature moulded timber mullion-and-transom frames with small panes, while upper-floor windows are small-paned horned timber sashes in brick openings with terracotta lintels and cills. First-floor windows are set over moulded terracotta panels, with moulded base and cornice continuing as a storey band. Similar but simpler moulded bands at upper-storey levels incorporate loops for cast-iron downspouts. The end gables are crowstepped, with an internal stack at the left gable and a shallow external stack on the Queen's Road elevation, expressed above first-floor level with moulded brick vertical shafts and a moulded red brick base. Below it lies a small, narrow doorway under a cambered brick arch with pronounced keystone, opening to a door of six flush panels set under a tall three-by-three pane overlight. Flanking small-paned sash windows under similar arches have moulded terracotta cills, with a similar first-floor window under a plain brick arch. Moulded storey bands and glazed brick plinth continue across this elevation. The ground-floor northern angle of the building is chamfered under a moulded stone coping.

Internally, the former counter hall has been subdivided at the front with suspended ceilings that may obscure an original moulded ceiling, though sections of moulded cornice survive, particularly on the southern wall. The rear wall, largely of glazed panels, has been altered. The doorway from the entrance hall to the former telegraph exchange retains the upper part of a deep moulded doorcase under a shallow overlight, while the rear doorcase from this room to the stairwell remains intact. Some sections of moulded cornice survive. A closed-string staircase rises from ground floor to upper floors, featuring moulded newels with ball and drop finials, stick balusters, and a moulded mahogany rail. The first floor is domestic in scale, similar to other smaller public buildings of the period such as police stations. First-floor doors at the front are of six plain panels in moulded architraves under glazed overlights, while other upper-floor doors are of four panels. A marble chimneypiece with intact cast-iron grate and basket remains in the first-floor room over the entrance. The upper floor retains cupboards with panelled doors and a large deep chimneystack. Splayed stairs to the basement have stone steps, cast-iron stick balusters, and a moulded rail.

The building originally served multiple functions. The main floor housed a counter hall and, at the rear, the sorting office. The telegraph office occupied a small ground-floor room on the north corner but moved early in the 20th century, presumably to the large room at the rear on the first floor. A side entrance on Queen's Road gave access to the rear of the former telegraph exchange and to stairs serving the upper floors, which housed offices and living accommodation on the top floor. The post office was constructed to replace an earlier post office in the centre of the old town, positioning it nearer the original railway station lying further north along London Road. A large sorting-office block was added to the rear around 1926, replacing existing rear wings; this addition was undertaken when works on the post office and telephone exchange are recorded. According to Ordnance Survey maps, this replaced an earlier rear wing. The telephone exchange moved to new premises in 1965, and counter service moved out during the late 20th century. The former counter hall originally featured dark, stained-wood counters behind metal grilles on the right-hand wall and a continuous shelf lining the left-hand wall, reminiscent of a modest banking hall, though these are no longer extant.