General Post Office — Henry Street

Partially attached nine-bay two-storey with attic storey gable-fronted red brick and limestone former General Post Office, built between 1902-03, with a partially attached two-bay two-storey gabled brick building to north. Eight-bay two-storey section to rear attached to a four-bay single-storey section, both fronting onto Post Office Lane. Pitched natural slate roof with terracotta ridge tiles, hipped to rear, and a red brick chimneystack to either end with limestone profiled coping and cast-iron rainwater goods. Parapet wall to front elevation has a carved limestone coping, being shaped to the central recessed bay. Both gables are surmounted by a carved limestone date stone with a split scrolled pediment and containing the date '1903'. Red brick walls laid in English garden wall bond and original pointing with a limestone platband to both gables and a chamfered limestone plinth course. Below the platband to each gable is a brick round-arched window opening with a carved keystone and a multiple-pane timber casement window with a transom and three mullions. These windows sit on a heavy carved limestone cornice, which spans the entire façade, stepped to the recessed central bay. Square-headed window opening to the central bay with a carved limestone architrave surround and blocking detail surmounted by a pediment and a plain apron below the continuous moulded sill course. Square-headed brick window openings to remainder with limestone keystone, on a carved limestone sill course and six-over-one timber sash windows with horns. Shaped limestone aprons to first floor only. To the recessed bay is a square-headed door opening with an elaborate carved limestone doorcase comprising of a large lintel supported by a pair of squat Tuscan columns with blocking detail, standing on a pair of raised plinth blocks corresponding to the ground floor sill course. Above the lintel is a large canopy supported by a pair of scrolled console brackets with foliate garlands and a shaped pediment above, containing a decoratively carved plaque with the letters 'ER'. Below the canopy is a six-pane overlight while below is a double-leaf timber glazed and panelled door opening onto a large nosed limestone step. The two-bay section has a segmental pediment block to its gable with a brick oculus opening with moulded brick surround and four limestone keystones. A carved limestone cornice below forms the head of a pair of square-headed window openings with one-over-one timber sash windows on a single carved limestone sill with a pair of shaped limestone aprons. A brick square-headed door opening below set into the plinth course has a timber-panelled and glazed door with a limestone step. Plainer square-headed window openings to the side elevation with one-over-one timber sash windows. Between the two buildings is a square-headed concrete arch with sheet metal gate. To the rear, the eight and four bay sections have painted rendered walls with segmental-headed window openings and limestone sills, and bipartite multiple-pane timber casement windows with three overlights each.