Bangor Post Office, 143 Main Street, Bangor, Co Down, BT20 4AA

Bangor Post Office is a two-storey Neo-Georgian building erected in 1936 to designs by T F O Rippingham for the Northern Ireland Ministry of Finance. It occupies a prominent corner position at the top of Main Street in Bangor town centre, where four roads converge.

The building is rectangular on plan with one and two-storey returns to the rear. The roof is pantile with deep overhanging eaves carried on steel brackets, fitted with plastic rainwater goods. The walls are Flemish-bonded red brick with an ashlar plinth and sandstone cornice, featuring a continuous sill to the first floor.

The principal elevation faces north-west and is symmetrically composed with three windows flanking a central doorway on each side, with slightly recessed and lower wings to both sides. The wings contain a single opening to the first floor and a semi-circular window above a continuous high-level sill course to the ground floor. The entrance is approached by four stone steps and comprises a three-panelled double-leaf timber door set in a fluted ashlar surround with twisted rope-moulded detail. Above this is a decorative console-bracketed pediment with moulded cornice and shallow dentillation, all surmounted by a fanlight set into an arched brick niche. Letter boxes are positioned under the windows to the left and right of the entrance; notably, the box to the left is a rare Edward VIII post box. The first-floor windows are steel casements with multi-paned glazing and splayed soldier courses to the lintels, whilst the ground-floor windows are set in arched niches.

The north-east elevation is abutted by an adjoining building. The south-west elevation is abutted by an additional bay and comprises a ramped pedimented entrance to the ground floor with a single window to the first floor. The rear south-east elevation contains three windows to the first floor and a single opening, with a two-storey extension abutted to the right and a single-storey flat-roof extension beyond. To the left of the main block is a double-height flat-roof return with a glass cupola over a single-storey section, with two window openings to the exposed section.

The Edward VIII letter box is historically significant. Only six such boxes were manufactured during Edward VIII's short reign, which lasted from 20 January 1936 to 11 December 1936. This Post Office is one of only two in the UK to retain an Edward VIII letter box, as many were altered following the abdication. Of approximately 100,000 letter boxes in the UK, only 57 with Edward VIII's Royal Cipher have been identified.

The building was first shown on the fifth edition Ordnance Survey map of 1939. During the early hours of 7 March 1993, a large bomb detonated approximately 30 metres from the front elevation, damaging the front windows, doors, and roof slope. Renovation was carried out under the direction of James Clark & Partners Surveyors and Engineers of Belfast, with the front windows replaced by Joseph McManus Limited, the original manufacturers and installers.

The Post Office remains in active use. It is bounded to the east by a tall brick wall with sliding steel security gates.