Royal Mail, Strabane Delivery Office, 18 Castle Street, Strabane, Co. Tyrone, BT82 8AA

Royal Mail Strabane Delivery Office

This is a symmetrical five-bay two-storey brick and sandstone building built around 1930, facing east on the west side of Castle Street. It represents a fairly rare example of mid-twentieth-century Neo-Georgian civic architecture and remains one of the significant buildings in the centre of Strabane.

The building is rectangular in plan with a pair of grey-brick flat-roofed extensions added to the rear around 1970. The roof is hipped natural slate with black clay ridge tiles. The walling is generally painted rough-cast render with render quoins to the front elevation only.

The front elevation is the principal architectural feature. It is laid in red brick in Flemish bond with a painted stone plinth course and sandstone ashlar frieze and cornice stepped to the breakfront. The symmetrical design is dominated by a large pediment to the central three-bay breakfront, featuring sandstone ashlar raking cornice and red brick tympanum, with a brick parapet and steel covering. Square-headed window openings are formed in rubbed brick with flush sandstone keystones and sandstone sills. All timber sash windows are flush to the façade with exposed sash boxes: 6/6 to the first floor and 6/9 to the ground floor. A pair of Wyatt windows flanks the central door opening, and all windows are fitted with metal security grilles.

The central three-centred arched door opening is formed in gauged brick with a carved sandstone keystone bearing raised lettering reading 'GvR'. The recessed doorcase comprises a pair of timber Doric columns supporting a lintel cornice with plain frieze and a blind painted panel to the overlight. Double-leaf hardwood panelled doors open onto a pair of nosed stone steps to the street.

The two-bay two-storey south side elevation fronts onto a laneway with a brick eaves course supporting replacement plastic guttering. Walling and window opening details follow the front elevation, with timber sash windows (3/6 to the first floor left and casement to the right) and 6/6 to the ground floor. The rear west elevation is abutted by the two-storey extensions added around 1970. The north side elevation is abutted by a two-storey red brick commercial building.

The building is street-fronted within a terrace of buildings of various dates and heights on a pedestrian shopping street, with a pedestrian route running along the south side elevation. Its main interest lies in its front façade, as the interior has been significantly altered and extended.

Historical Context

The post office on Castle Street opened in 1929. It replaced a building known as the Corn Market, which had previously occupied the site. According to Valuation Revisions records, the site was leased from the Duke of Abercorn and occupied by Strabane Urban District Council before being revised in 1926 to H.M. Postmaster General, with the building recorded as a "site for proposed post office." By 1929 it was listed as "post office and yard" and valued at £51.

The post office was the third location for the service in Strabane. The first Post Office had opened in 1901 at the Bridge End corner at the top of Main Street. In 1926, it transferred to premises at the Farmers Home on Railway Road while new premises were being built. When the new Castle Street post office opened in 1929, the Sorting Office (which had previously been at Patrick Street, on the site of Scout's Hall) relocated to the new premises. The Sorting Office temporarily moved to Railway Road in 1962 during modernization. Following Government reorganisation of Counter Services in 1994, the post office moved to Main Street, and the building became a sorting office.

The building holds considerable social interest for the local community and with its dominant pediment, well-proportioned brick façade, and original flush sash windows, it forms an important architectural focal point of Castle Street.