Sunderland Old Post Office

Sunderland

Last Updated:

17 Nov 2025

Sunderland

This is a

Post Office

54.906928, -1.378492

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1207149

Founded in

1903

Current status is

Extant

Designer (if known):

Henry Tanner

Grade II listed

See, Sunderland doesn't get the attention it deserves for its gorgeous architecture. I hope I've shown with the last few posts that it stands on its own two feet as a powerhouse of 19th and early 20th century treasures. Though in scaffolding, it also provides one of the best examples of Post Offices in the region.

Now the Post Office is one of those traditional municipal industries which underwent a huge transformation through the mid 19th century. In the early 1800s costs were high, deliveries were irregular and the system mainly served the government and the elite. The advent of the railways as well as reforms on uniform pricing structures meant the whole system was democratised and available to the masses.

Big industrial cities like Sunderland had huge amounts of concentrated wealth thanks to shipping and coal. As such the post office was hugely important, especially with the growth of telecommunications which the Post Office controlled through to the 50s. As such often their buildings were incredibly grand and opulent.

Sunderland's is one such example, constructed in 1903. It was constructed in the renaissance style composed of stone from quarries at Chollerford in Northumberland. It features its typical post office on the ground floor, and above a telegraph department, telephone room and the office for the inland revenue. Stores featured in the basement, while a large sorting room also featued on the ground floor.

It was designed by Henry Tanner, a very well known Post Office architect constructing almost every single one from this period. Examples in our region which still survive include that at North Shields, West Hartlepool, the extensions to Newcastle's and I guess I can count that at York. As far as I am aware, the building is now apartments having closed some decades ago.

Listing Description (if available)

General post office, now local delivery office, and railings. 1903. By Sir Henry Tanner. Sandstone ashlar with red granite door architraves to main block; graduated Lakeland slate roof with ashlar chimneys and copper ridge; cast-iron railings. EXTERIOR: main block at right 3 storeys, 1:2:3x1:3:1 windows; left sorting office one storey, 3:3:3:3 windows. Main block has panelled door at right of right 3-bay gabled section, in architrave under bracketed cornice; mullioned and transomed windows to left and in bracketed first floor oriels in outer bays flanking arched recess with low relief POST OFFICE, sill strings continuing from plinths of pilasters. These 3 bays are linked by bracketed cornice breaking forward over Tuscan pilasters defining bays and surmounted by corniced blocking course with small pedimented arches above windows. Second floor has 3 pairs of windows under bracketed cornice; shaped gable has side consoles and raised top panel framing attached Corinthian columns of arched window surround with high pediment. Left one-bay gabled bay section in similar style has a 3-light window in first floor oriel, and simpler gable with 3 small lights and high pediment. 2-bay section set back between the gabled bays has arcaded ground floor with panelled door at left and window in recess at right, and 2-light windows above, the right first floor bay blank.Steeply-pitched roofs run back from gables and have chimneys above eaves, and high domed ridge lantern. Right return to public garden has simpler centre and pilastered outer sections with Tuscan below and Corinthian order on first floor, and top floor has lunettes between big consoles on dentilled first-floor cornice. One-storey block behind main office has keyed architraves to round-arched windows in left part, with outer bays breaking forward under pediments, and 3 gabled set back sections each with 3 windows,the central under lunettes in pedimented pilastered centres, all with sill string. Railings punctuated by patterned panels link projecting sections on West Sunniside and continue around right return. Rear to Norfolk Street is mostly a mirror image of the West Sunniside front. (Corfe T: The Buildings of Sunderland 1814-1914.: Newcastle upon Tyne: 1983-: 30).

Both these Ordnance Surveys present Sunniside as a strip of gardens from the 1890s to the 1950s. As you can see from the first survey completed in 1955, it is labelled HEAD POST OFFICE announcing its principal role in being the logistics mothership in Sunderland. The telephone exchange first stood here though moved to St Thomas Street by this stage as seen on the map, retaining the space likely for the hustle and bustle of still very manual parcel movements and telecommunications organisation. It was yet to be built in the 1890s, though ironically part of its service, the Inland Revenue, stood exactly where the Telephone House would later be.

The 1859 Ordnance Survey gives us a detailed insight into mid 19th century Sunderland. Sunniside appears to be a gorgeous oasis only yards away from the more dense and more squalid shipbuilding district, with gardens and terraces which remain today. Frederick Lodge was an aristocratic mansion built for Sunderland's mayors though later, aptly, used by Inland Revenue mentioned above. Sunderland's library was also nearby, showing this was an important administrative precinct for the town.

Sunderland's Post Office in October 2025.

A photo of the Post Office taken shortly after construction. The gardens are just out of shot. Unknown original source.

A shot from what could be a moving film with its central cupola adorning the roofline of the building. Taken in the 1900s or 1910s, unknown original source.