Curragh Camp Post Office

Detached twelve-bay two-storey red brick post office, built 1899-1900; dated 1900, on a corner site retaining original aspect comprising four-bay two-storey elevation to west, single-bay two-storey chamfered entrance bay to south-west and seven-bay two-storey elevation to south having single-bay two-storey lean-to lower end bay to east. Hipped roof on an L-shaped plan (lean-to to end bay) with slate behind red brick parapet wall. Clay ridge tiles. Red brick chimney stacks. Cast-iron rainwater goods. Red brick English bond walls. Red brick dressings including stringcourse to first floor, moulded cornice and parapet wall (curvilinear to end bay). Cut-granite dressings including scrolled date stone/plaque and coping. Elliptical-headed window openings to ground floor. Cut-granite sill course. Red brick archivolts with cut-granite keystones. Timber casement windows. Shallow segmental-headed window openings to first floor. Cut-granite sills. 6/1 timber sash windows. Segmental-headed door opening to entrance bay. Cut-granite doorcase with broken segmental pediment over. Timber panelled double door. Sited in Curragh Camp complex and road fronted on a corner site. Concrete footpath to front.

The Curragh Camp Post Office is an attractive red brick building that dominates a corner site to the centre of the Curragh Camp in the area that could be considered the civic/commercial centre of the complex. The post office is of considerable social and historic importance, having been the first purpose-built post office completed in Ireland, with the exception of the GPO in Dublin. The primary elevations of the building are much varied and juxtapose a regularity of displacement of openings with brick and stone detailing for visual effect - this standard proved successful to the point that the design was repeated in various modified guises in subsequent post offices. The building is well-maintained and retains most of its original features, materials and character, including fenestration and a slate roof.