Post office and sorting office, 34 and 36 Fore Street

Summary

Purpose-built post office and sorting office, built in 1939, and designed in a neo-Georgian style. Attributed to the Office of Works architect HE Seccombe.

Reasons for Designation

The purpose-built post office and delivery office at 34 and 36 Fore Street in Cullompton is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as a post office design attributed to the accomplished Office of Works architect, HE Seccombe;
*     as a successful design that demonstrates the Office of Works approach of combining their neo-Georgian house style with a freedom of architectural expression to contextualise the building within its locality;
* as a well-balanced composition with clear architectural quality in its use of materials and careful attention to architectural detailing;
* for the continued legibility of the building’s form and function in its external massing, and its internal layout;
* for the overall degree of survival of both external and internal detailing, and the retention of many of its original fixtures and fittings.

Historic interest:

* as an example of an inter-war, purpose-built post office and sorting office that expresses the Office of Works response to both the growing requirements of a post office building in the 1920s and 1930s, and the creation of an architectural house style.

History

The post office as a facility for the receipt and dispatch of letters was, until the mid-C19, housed in existing buildings as an ancillary function. In 1858, the official provision of the post office was taken over by the Government’s Office of Works and it was from this period that public architects came to the forefront in their design.

The post office plan of a public office with a sorting office attached to the rear remained fundamentally unchanged from the mid-C19 onwards but as the Post Office acquired additional responsibilities, particularly those associated with the telegraph (from 1870) and the telephone service (from the 1880s) additional facilities were required including facilities for women clerks (who formed about a quarter of the workforce), facilities for telegram boys, a telephone instrument room, and sometimes a telephone exchange. There was also usually a rear yard to allow vehicular and bike access to the sorting office. By the early C20, given the increasing role and importance of the post office service, there was a general view that there was a need for an architectural identity deserving of the department. To this end, from 1908 the Post Office began to make its own architectural appointments, and the appointment of RJ Allison as the Chief Architect of the Office of Works in 1920 led to the adoption of the neo-Georgian style for post office buildings, a style that was successful for being both modern and reassuringly traditional.

The appointed architects tended to work in particular geographic locations and the design of the post office and sorting office at Cullompton has been credibly attributed to the Office of Works architect HE Seccombe (1879-1955) who was responsible for the design of numerous post offices built in the south-west of England during the 1930s. The Cullompton example is designed in the neo-Georgian idiom and demonstrates both the degree of standardisation afforded by the style, in terms of features like doors and windows, but also its ability to be adapted to reference vernacular building traditions. The new post office building opened in December 1939 and was at the time reported in a local newspaper as ‘palatial and, one would think, appropriate to the last degree . . . [t]he counters, etc, in the spacious public office are of mahogany, with floors of artistic quarry tiles, and a handsome entrance lobby with a telephone on the left. The building is heated by the latest type of radiators. At the rear is a sorting office – the last thing in comfort and convenience.’ To the rear of the site was a garage which also housed the telephone exchange.

The building now functions as a Royal Mail sorting and delivery office, with the post office function being housed in nearby existing commercial premises.

Details

Purpose-built post office and sorting office, built in 1939, and designed in a neo-Georgian style. Attributed to the Office of Works architect HE Seccombe.

MATERIALS: the principal elevation has a polished granite plinth with ashlar stonework to the ground floor and a rendered finish to the first floor. The windows to the front range are of timber. There are metal-framed windows to the sorting office; the two windows either side of the rear entrance have been replaced with uPVC. The roof is covered in Delabole slate tiles. Cast-iron rainwater goods.

PLAN: the building has a roughly T-shaped plan. The two-storey range to the front housed the former public office (now subdivided) to the ground floor and meeting rooms above. The single-storey sorting office is to the rear with associated offices.

EXTERIOR: the ground floor is arranged as three wide bays articulated by wide stone Doric pilasters on polished granite bases. The entablature above originally incorporated ‘POST OFFICE’ in metal lettering to the frieze and features neatly cut ashlar voussoirs over the openings. The central date stone above includes the Royal Cypher of King George VI, and the date ‘1939’. The left-hand bay retains a four-panel door to the former telephone room and a six-panel door to the entrance lobby, with surrounding glazing. The central bay is dominated by a large bow window with reeded mullions; the two post boxes are later insertions. To the right-hand bay is the covered driveway, with kerbstones and a pair of iron gates. The rendered first floor is arranged as five bays with eight-over-eight sash windows with moulded stone cills. The concave timber eaves cornice carries the moulded guttering and to either side of the façade square profile cast-iron downpipes are recessed into the wall. The pitched roof is framed by high parapet walls.

The four-bay single-storey sorting office to the rear has a flat roof with a central glass roof lantern along its axis and a tall stack to the side. There are four large metal-framed windows to its north elevation, and a central rear entrance beneath a canopy, flanked by windows.

INTERIOR: the former public office (now subdivided) retains its coffered ceiling to its original extent. The original quarry tiles may survive beneath modern flooring. The dogleg cast concrete staircase has reeded detail to the treads and a rounded mahogany handrail raised above the concrete balustrade. Other features of note include window architrave, the metal door to the half landing with associated door furniture, the cornice and dado rail to the first-floor meeting room, the first-floor door architraves, with one retaining its glazed over light and four-panel door, and many of its original radiators. To the sorting office is a parquet floor, and the roof lantern retains its original fenestration with associated window furniture.

Sources

Websites
Cullompton Post Office, accessed 29 June 2022 from http://britishpostofficearchitects.weebly.com/cullompton.html

Other
Devon and Exeter Gazette, 'Cullompton's New Post Office' (15 December 1939), p.12.
Mid Devon District Council, 'Cullompton Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Plan', (2022)

End of official list entry

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