Radway Post Office

The Radway Post Office, built in 1938, was designed by H E Seccombe ARIBA and constructed by F Pinney and Sons. It comprises a post office with a sorting room and garage. The building is of red brick in Flemish bond, with cream limestone dressings, a polished granite plinth, and slate roofs.

The main block is a compact neo-Georgian design, with two small pavilions to the right and boundary walls flanking a yard entrance, incorporating built-in telephone kiosks. A detached double garage stands to the rear. The front of the building is two storeys high, with five bays. The central three bays feature arched openings supported by freestanding Doric columns, creating a set-back section containing a pair of glazed doors beneath a fanlight. Multi-pane casements with radial bars fill the arched heads, all set under tile-on-edge arches. The remaining bays on either side have 15-pane sashes. At the first floor, five 12-pane sashes are set within stone architraves, the center three aligned with the arches below. The returns display two 15-pane sashes above two 12-pane sashes, while a doorway is visible on the right return. Sashes are set within splayed brick arches and have stone sills. The two low pavilions feature a stone string course at the level of the main column capitals, with two blank panels above this but below a wood-moulded cornice. Stone capping continues the string course along the walls flanking a pair of plank gates, and piers are capped with large granite spheres on square bases. The main block has a stone moulded cornice and decorative hopper heads to the downpipes. The roofs are hipped, with a large square stack to the back right.

The sorting office stands at a slight angle and is linked to the main block by a single-storey unit. It has a coped gable, with a large arched multi-pane casement flanked by 12-pane rectangular casements. A short return link to the main block features a 7-pane casement above a letter box. The main roof incorporates a long raised clerestory skylight with 6-pane pivot-hung sashes and a hipped gablet roof. A large opening gives access to the yard, which is also flanked by the garage block, containing two wide openings and a 15-pane sash set under a hipped end towards the road, behind the pavilion.

The interior of the public concourse features off-white and green terrazzo tiles laid diagonally. It includes a continuous dado frieze, incorporating a moulded counter front with fielded panels, and three-panel fielded doors within moulded architraves. An inset lobby contains a series of multi-pane doors, all in polished hardwood, as is the joinery behind the public counter. Ceiling lighting fittings, likely not original, are unobtrusive fluorescent trays set to tiling between transverse beams, illuminating the five-bay space. The building is considered a worthy example of design and finish in public buildings of the period, showcasing a more scholarly neo-Georgian style than often achieved later.