Description

The following building shall be added:

SD 33 NW BLACKPOOL ABINGDON STREET

44-0/2/10000 26 to 30 General Post Office (front range only)

II

Post Office. 1910, designed by architects of the Office of Works, 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, 4:7:4 windows, a symmetrical composition in which the main range has 1:5:1 bays (the outer bays breaking forwards slightly) and the side ranges are slightly set back; with a plinth of 3 courses of punch-dressed rock-faced blocks, channelled rustication 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 5-bay centre, an egg-and-dart frieze, prominent modillioned cornice, and a balustraded parapet to the main range terminating in upstands over its outer bays. The outer bays of the main range have large round-headed doorways, each with a prominent segmental canopy home by a pair of Atlantes on tall pedestals, a moulded head with a scrolled keyblock, and double wooden doors with oval panels; its 5-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 simple wreaths and swags, but that in the centre including the Royal Arms). On the upper floors the 5-bay centre has Ionic caps to the pilasters enriched with lion-masks gripping festoons; 12-pane sashed windows at 1st floor in raised architraves with segmental open pediments, and 9-pane sashes at 2nd floor with simpler architraves; its outer bays have similar sashed windows, those at 1st floor with triple keystones and those at 2nd 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 4-window side ranges differ at ground floor, where that to the left has 12-pane sashes and that to the right has 9-pane sashes over segmental-arched posting boxes (variously altered), but all these windows have triple keystones; otherwise, both have 12-pane sashes at 1st floor framed by panelled pilasters, and two colonnaded 3-light sashed windows at 2nd floor with set-in Tuscan colonnettes. The 3-window left return wall is in similar style including a colonnaded window at 2nd 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 mosaic floor under modem covering. Forms group with set of 8 K6 telephone kiosks immediately in front (q.v.).

Listing NGR: SD3086336333

External Links

• Wikidata Q26519503

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Recommended Books

• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Hampshire: South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gloucestershire 1: The Cotswolds: Cotswolds Pt. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  ENGLAND GUIDE TO POST WAR LISTED: A Guide to Post-war Listed Buildings
• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)