Survey Data
Reg No
50130140
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Social
Original Use
Post office
Date
1930 - 1940
Coordinates
316397, 237653
Date Recorded
20/06/2018
Date Updated
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Description
Detached nine-bay single-storey postal sorting office, built c. 1935, forming part of wider post office complex. Copper-sheeted north-light roof with bituminous felt-covered projection to south, having concealed gutters and cast-iron hoppers and downpipes. Red brick walling with cement-rendered plinth, frieze, cornice and concrete piloti, having rendered walls to east, west and north. Square-headed brick window openings with concrete sills containing six-over-six pane timber sliding sash windows. Square-headed doorway, set in three-bay recessed porch, having chamfered concrete architrave and timber-sheeted double-leaf door, accessed by three flights of concrete and granite steps with red brick plinth walls and steel handrails, with access ramp and fronted by slope of rock-faced granite blocks. Wider complex surrounding yard to north entered through steel gates.
Appraisal
A characterful postal sorting office building, remaining in its original use. It retains many of its original features, such as timber sash windows and north-light roof. Its public front presents a formal elevation to the street, contrasting with the more industrial curved sorting office roof behind, and its long cornice and recessed porch give it the feel of a colonial veranda. It is complemented by the post office exchange building on the opposite side of the courtyard, and also the neighbouring former Garda station, reflecting the development of Griffith Road as a suburb in the 1930s.