Post Office, 3 Custom House Street, Londonderry, Co. Londonderry, BT48 6AA

Post Office, 3 Custom House Street, Londonderry (1876)

This classical-style post office building was constructed in 1876 alongside the neighbouring former Customs House to its east, with which it shares group value as part of a prominent civic composition. The two buildings were built together as part of a wider development also known as 'Government Buildings', which originally housed the Inland Revenue Office and Income Tax Office as well. The architect is not known, though the building makes use of locally quarried Barony Glen Sandstone throughout. The total construction cost of the Post Office and Custom House combined was estimated at £10,000.

The building is two storeys in height and follows an L-shaped plan. It is constructed of rock-faced 'block-and-sneck' Barony Sandstone with cement strap pointing, cut-stone dressings to all openings, and stepped corner ashlar quoin stones to each end of each elevation, all set on a moulded stone plinth. The hipped natural slate roof, which has a lead rolled ridge, is treated as a single composition together with the adjoining Custom House. Large stone chimney stacks with stone cornices rise from mid-ridge of the south elevation and to the east elevation, each with four clay pots. Cast-iron guttering and rainwater goods serve the principal sandstone building throughout.

The principal elevation faces south onto Custom House Street and is asymmetric in layout, combining semicircular arched-headed window bays with segmental arched-headed grouped window bays. Ground-floor windows have large semicircular arched heads with deep chamfered reveals and an angle-roll to the arched head, a slightly projecting stone string-course between bays, ashlar cut-stone dressings, and splayed stone sills. The windows on the floor above are segmental-arch headed, set within deep reveals with ashlar cut-stone dressings and an angle-roll to the arched head. Large carved stone modillions support a deep projecting stone cornice at eaves level. The south elevation is stepped where it merges with the adjoining Custom House.

The main entrance faces east onto Harbour Square via a short flight of concrete steps and a ramp approached from Custom House Street, set behind a high sandstone wall with a coping stone. The entrance doorway has a large semicircular arched head with ashlar cut-stone dressings, chamfered reveals to either side, and an angle-roll to the chamfered arched head. The modern automatic metal door has glazed panes top and bottom and is set within a plain timber architrave surround; above it is a plain glazed transom light, and above that a plain glazed fanlight within the arched opening. A segmental arched-headed bay directly above the entrance contains a 1/1 timber sliding sash window.

All upper-floor windows throughout the building are 1/1 timber sliding sashes; ground-floor windows are timber casements of the bottom-hinged type. The west elevation faces onto a rear access yard overlooking the Northern Counties building and carries four windows to each floor of the same design and materials as the south elevation, including identical plinth, facade, and eaves-level finishes.

The north elevation is abutted by two later extensions. To the west end, a yellow brick three-storey extension with a hipped slate roof merges with the main hipped roof; its windows are square-headed uPVC casements, ground-floor windows have metal grilles, and uPVC rainwater goods are used throughout. To the east end of the north elevation, an L-shaped red brick three-storey extension abuts the building, with gable-ends to both east and west sides; this extension has brick piers between segmental arched-headed openings on unpainted concrete sills, exposed rafter tails to a timber soffit and fascia board at eaves level, and an unpainted concrete plinth, with uPVC rainwater goods. This red brick extension steps down to a single-storey extension on the north side, which has a hipped glazed rooflight over. The west end of the main block also has a central projecting hipped roof with rendered sides, above what was the main banking hall.

The building occupies a prominent corner site overlooking Harbour Square and Queens Quay to the east, set within a group of three blocks with street frontage that creates a characterised architectural composition. It overlooks the River Foyle to the north, with the classical-Italianate Harbour Office immediately to its east, the Guildhall bounding the group to the east, and the former Customs House adjoining to the west.

Historically, before this building was erected, Londonderry's chief post office was located at Castle Street. The city's first post office had been established within the city walls following the passing of the Post Office Act at Westminster in 1784. Tenders for the erection of the Post Office and Custom House were invited as early as 1874, and the buildings were completed by 1876, sited along Ship Quay in close proximity to the quayside and docking ships. The buildings were first recorded on the Annual Revisions Town Plan of Londonderry (circa 1873–1910), on which a proposed plan of the Post Office and Custom House depicted the buildings along their current layout. On completion, the rateable value of the Post Office section was set at £175, rising slightly to £180 in 1884 when a parcel depot was incorporated on the site. By around 1900, when the building became the Postmaster General Office, the value had increased to £250. Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57), the value of the Postmaster General Office was recorded at £440; under the Second Revaluation (1956–72), the previously separate values of the Post Office and Custom House were combined at £1,768.

In 1970, the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society described the Post Office and adjoining Custom House as 'stone-faced, with dressed stone round-headed windows and door openings, deep reveals giving strong sturdy form.' Both buildings were subsequently listed in 1979. The building underwent extensive renovation in 1985, which included cleaning and repointing of the stonework, reslating of the roof in natural slate, replacement of the original windows, and installation of new cast-iron rainwater goods.

Despite the loss of the original plan form and much of the historic interior detailing, the building maintains a strong civic presence and reflects the prosperity and confidence of the era in which it was conceived. Although the adjoining Custom House has since changed use and now operates as a restaurant, the post office building continued to be used as a post office at the time of the most recent survey. A double Elizabeth II post box of a later date is located in front of the principal facade, and although not of the same period, adds to the building's interest as a historic post office.