Post Office, 49-51 James Street, Cookstown, Co Tyrone, BT80 8AE

This is an attached rendered two-storey post office building, built in 1962, designed by the Chief Architects' Department of the Northern Ireland Ministry of Finance. It is a reasonably well-preserved example of a modernist post office building in stripped-down modern style, which contrasts markedly with the surrounding Victorian buildings. However, it is not of the highest quality, and the insertion of inappropriate replacement windows has further compromised its architectural interest.

The building is rectangular in plan with a two-storey lean-to return to the rear Southwest. There is a further modern single-storey extension to the rear West dating from around 1970, a single-storey mono-pitched extension, and a single-storey garage to the rear West. The post office occupies the end of a mixed terrace.

The external walls to the front and side are painted render with a polished granite base. The rear elevation is faced with concrete brick, and the roof is covered with artificial slate. The front East elevation faces onto James Street and features a square-headed recessed entrance bay to the left with a door to the right and a polished granite-tiled wall with two wall-mounted letterboxes to the left. This entrance bay is surmounted by a projecting rectangular horizontal timber canopy with a flat leaded roof. A two-light replacement uPVC overlight sits above. To the right are five square-headed windows with replacement uPVC windows and aluminium bands to surrounds. The upper level has square-headed replacement uPVC windows set on painted concrete sills with aluminium bands to surrounds.

The gable-ended side South elevation has square-headed uPVC windows to ground and first floor. The rear West elevation has square-headed replacement uPVC windows to the upper floor. The rendered two-storey lean-to return to the rear Southwest features a large floor-to-ceiling-height glazed section to the left, and a large window to the stairwell with a ladder pattern to the timber frame, set on a rendered stall riser.

The single-storey return to the rear has a South elevation with an assortment of square-headed single and double timber doors and a series of top-opening timber casement windows set on concrete sills. The rear elevation has painted double doors, a central recessed bay with a projecting open glazed canopy, and two large elongated roof lights to the flat roof with glazing to the south and north sides. A tall brick chimney stack stands to the Northwest. The further single-storey mono-pitched extension to the rear has no openings.

The single-storey flat-roofed garage to the rear Southwest has a large painted roller-shutter door to the West and a large multiple-light window to the East. Gates immediately to the South of the garage lead to further outbuildings, including a small pitched-roof telephone exchange building to the rear of the site.

The building stands at the end of a mixed terrace on the western side of James Street at the southern edge of Cookstown's commercial centre. The surrounding terrace comprises mainly two and three-storey Victorian buildings ranging in date from the early to late nineteenth century. A large concrete parking area lies to the rear.

The site has been occupied by a post office since the later 1800s. The present building remained in operation as a post office until the early 2000s, when it became a sorting office.