Head Post Office, 42-44 Queen Anne Street, Dunfermline

Head Post Office, 42-44 Queen Anne Street, Dunfermline

This is a Scottish Renaissance post office designed by W W Robertson of Her Majesty's Office of Works, built in 1889-90 and extended to the north in 1902, also by Robertson. The building comprises a 2-storey, 5-bay rectangular-plan section oriented north-south along Pilmuir Street; a single-storey, 6-bay rectangular-plan section extending west onto Queen Anne Street; and a single-storey U-shaped stable block with courtyard, added to the north as part of the extensions.

The main 2-storey section features crowstepped gables and pedimented windows, with a distinctive angled bay at the corner of Pilmuir Street and Queen Anne Street. The building is constructed of coursed stugged snecked sandstone with polished sandstone ashlar dressings. The stable buildings are of brick with sandstone ashlar dressings. The 2-storey block has a base course and a pair of moulded band courses—one above the ground-floor windows and one at cill level—to the street elevations. The single-storey section has a base course and moulded band course across window lintels to its Queen Anne Street elevation, with a cornice to the parapet above.

The street elevations of the 2-storey block feature architraved windows with chamfered reveals, mostly with chamfered mullions and transoms, with the first-floor windows pedimented. The Queen Anne Street elevation of the single-storey section has aediculed windows with flattened flanking brackets to the pediment and bracketed projecting cills. The gables are coped.

On the Pilmuir Street elevation, the angled corner bay has a pair of flanking pilasters with stars and flowers to their capitals, set on pedestals and supporting a plain entablature surmounted by an open-topped pediment with an urn on a pediment dated 1889 at the centre. A 2-leaf boarded timber door with a border-glazed rectangular fanlight sits beneath. Above the door is a heraldic panel inscribed "Dieu et Mon Droit", with a balustraded parapet to the eaves. To the right are 4-light mullion and transom windows to each floor, linked by 3 flattened brackets to the cornice above. The upper window has a pilastered and panelled apron and a breaking-eaves pediment ornamented with strapwork and a moulded, Jacobean-style finial, with a balustraded parapet either side. Two slightly projecting bays surmounted by crowstepped gables with blind panels at the apex contain 4-light and 2-light transom windows to the ground floor, linked by 3 flattened brackets to the cornice above and with bracketed cills. Above are a pair of 2-light transom windows, each with cornices with flattened flanking brackets and segmental pediments scrolled at the centre. A slightly projecting bay to the outer right is surmounted by a crowstepped gable with an urn-like finial and a blind arrowslit at the apex, containing 6-light mullion and transom windows to each floor linked by 4 flattened brackets to the cornice above. The upper window has a pilastered and panelled apron and a double pediment; the lower pediment is scrolled with an open top and broken base with a sunflower panel at the centre, while the upper pediment is bracketed with floral decoration. An entrance to the former stable yard sits to the right. A coped coursed stugged snecked sandstone wall with a blocked entrance and window, both with pediments taken from an earlier school building formerly on the site, adjoins to the right. The entrance pediment is inscribed "SEP.DOCE.ET.CASTIGA.UT.VIVAT.PUER". Three carved panels, also from the school building, are positioned between the entrance and window; one bears the Burgh coat of arms, and the others are inscribed "FAVE.MIHI.MI.DEUS.1625" and "RECONDITUM.1816.D.WILSON.PREFECTO".

On the Queen Anne Street elevation, an entrance with a deep ashlar surround and outer architrave sits to the outer left of the single-storey section. An earlier to mid-20th-century 2-leaf panelled timber door set back within a small vestibule, with a rectangular fanlight to the vestibule, is located here. Five bays of aediculed windows extend to the right. A slightly projecting 2-storey bay to the right is topped by a crowstepped gable with an arrowslit at the apex and an urn finial. This bay contains 6-light mullion and transom windows to each floor, linked by 4 flattened brackets to the cornice above, with the upper window having a pilastered and panelled apron and a double pediment following the same ornamental scheme as described for the Pilmuir Street elevation. The angled bay is located to the right.

The west elevation has irregular fenestration to the right, including openings to 3 gable ends—that to the left being part of the extensions—within the single-storey section to the outer right. A blank coped wall occupies the left. The north elevation is a blank coped wall.

Within the stable yard, the north elevation of the 2-storey block faces south, with the U-shaped stable range adjoining to the right, which has irregular fenestration with entrances to the north, south and west.

The interior ground floor of the post office has been completely modernised. Mostly timber top-hung casements and 8-pane sash and case windows are fitted throughout. The roofs are of grey slate. Gablehead stacks with band courses and moulded cornices are located to the east and west of the 2-storey section and one to the west of the single-storey section; a shouldered wallhead stack is positioned to the north of the 2-storey section. The finials (cans) are missing from these stacks.