General Post Office - Blackpool
Posted by: 
silverquill
N 53° 49.116 W 003° 03.116
30U E 496581 N 5963340
Dating from 1910 this historic post office building in the center of Blackpool is a Grade 2 listed building as are the red telephone kiosks lined in front of the building.
Waymark Code: WMM208
Location: North West England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 07/05/2014
Views: 2
POST OFFICE
ABINGDON STREET
Grade 2 --Listed 02.12.1991
Designed by architects of the Office of Works in 1910 and built by R.Neill & Son of Manchester; slightly altered. Portland stone with a hipped roof of green slate. Rectangular plan parallel to street. Renaissance style. Three storeys over cellars, with 4:7:4 windows, a symmetrical composition in which the main range has 1;5;1 bays (outer bays breaking forwards slightly) and the side ranges slightly set back, with a plinth of three courses of punch-dressed rock- faced blocks, channelled rustification and a plain frieze to the ground floor, similar channelling to the outer bays of the main range and at the corners of the side ranges, giant pilasters to the upper floors of the five-bay centre, an egg-and-dart frieze, prominent modillioned cornice, and balustraded parapet to the main range terminating in up stands over its outer bays.
The outer bays of the main range have large round-headed doorways, each with a prominent segmental canopy borne by a pair of Atlantes on tall pedestals, a moulded head with scrolled keyblock, and double wooden doors with oval panels; its five-bay centre has round-headed windows with run-out voussoirs, triple keystones and tripartite sashed glazing with panelled-pilaster mullions and original stained glass (mostly wreaths and swags but that in the centre including the Royal Arms ). On the upper floors the five-bay centre has Ionic caps to the pilasters enriched with lion-masks gripping festoons; twelve pane sashed windows at first floor in raised architraves with segmental open pediments, and nine-pane sashes at second floor with simpler architraves; its outer bays have similar sashed windows, those at first floor with triple keystones and those at second floor in architraves with aprons, and the upstands above have bulbous cartouches with carved shields (Royal Arms to the left, surmounted by a crown, and Blackpool Borough to the right, surmounted by a miniature windmill).
The four-window side ranges differ at ground floor, where to the left has twelve-pane sashes and that to the right has nine-pane sashes over segmental- arched posting boxes (variously altered), but all these windows have
triple keystones; otherwise, both have twelve-pane sashes at first floor framed by panelled pilasters, and two colonnaded three-light sashed windows at second floor with set-in Tuscan colonnettes. The three-window left return wall is in similar style including a colonnaded window at second floor.
Interior: internal porches with carved wooden architraves to the doors, those to the hall with segmental pediments containing moulded plaster cartouches (lettered "G VI R"); large main hall with central pillars which have moulded plaster festoons and coffered ceiling with egg-and-dart cornices; believed to have marble floor under modern covering. Forms group with set of eight K6 telephone kiosks immediately in front of the building.
From: Listed Buildings in Blackpool
BLACKPOOL CIVIC TRUST
HERITAGE TRAIL
The General
Post Office
(Grade II Listed)
The office, with its elegant renaissance style Portland stone
frontage, was built by R. Neill and Son of Manchester and
opened for business on 8th November 1910.
Built on the site of the former Union Baptist Chapel which had
been demolished in 1903.
It became the resorts 28th listed building in 1991 after
strenuous efforts by the Blackpool Civic Trust.
The Post Office provides a fine background to the eight K6
type telephone boxes designed in 1935 by Sir Giles Gilbert
Scott. The are also listed.
The two main entrances to the office have lintels
supported on either side by sculptures of
four Atlanteans.
Kindly donated by
Royal Mail