Post office and sorting office, 34 and 36 Fore Street

This is a purpose-built post office and sorting office constructed in 1939, designed in a neo-Georgian style and attributed to HE Seccombe, architect for the Office of Works.

The principal elevation features a polished granite plinth, with ashlar stonework to the ground floor and a rendered finish above. Timber windows are present to the front range, while the sorting office incorporates metal-framed windows. Two windows to the rear have been replaced with uPVC. The roof is covered in Delabole slate tiles, with cast-iron rainwater goods.

The building is arranged on a roughly T-shaped plan. The two-storey front range originally housed a public office (now subdivided) on the ground floor, with meeting rooms above. A single-storey sorting office sits to the rear, along with associated offices.

The ground floor of the front elevation is divided into three wide bays. These bays are articulated by wide stone Doric pilasters set on polished granite bases. The entablature originally featured ‘POST OFFICE’ in metal lettering, and neatly cut ashlar voussoirs are positioned over the openings. A date stone above incorporates the Royal Cypher of King George VI and the date ‘1939’. The left-hand bay preserves a four-panel door to the former telephone room and a six-panel door to the entrance lobby, featuring surrounding glazing. The central bay is dominated by a large bow window with reeded mullions, with two later post boxes inserted. The right-hand bay contains a covered driveway with kerbstones and a pair of iron gates. The rendered first floor is arranged with five bays and eight-over-eight sash windows, each with moulded stone cills. A concave timber eaves cornice carries the moulded guttering, and square profile cast-iron downpipes are recessed into the wall. The pitched roof is framed by high parapet walls.

The rear sorting office is a single-storey structure with a flat roof, a central glass roof lantern along its axis, and a tall stack to one side. Its north elevation features four large metal-framed windows, and there’s a central rear entrance beneath a canopy, flanked by windows.

Inside the former public office, which is now subdivided, a coffered ceiling remains from the original design, and original quarry tiles may lie beneath the current flooring. The dogleg cast concrete staircase has reeded details on the treads and a rounded mahogany handrail raised above a concrete balustrade. Further noteworthy interior features include window architraves, a metal door to the half landing with associated door furniture, a cornice and dado rail to the first-floor meeting room, first-floor door architraves (one retaining its glazed over light and four-panel door), and many original radiators. The sorting office retains a parquet floor and the roof lantern's original fenestration and window furniture.