Purpose Built Post Offices: A Rapid Assessment and Suggestions for Future Work
Author(s): Jonathan Clarke
A desk-based assessment looking at the building type, prompted by the threat of closure of a significant number of post offices during 2007-2008. The first part of the report assesses what is known about the building type, including qualitative and quantitative categorizations and distributions, and provides a brief overview of the historical development of the Royal Mail and the Post Office, and the evolution of purpose-built post offices from the mid-19th century. The second part of the report examines the nature of the threat to post offices and the sources of information for enriching understandings of the building type. It concludes by briefly considering possible research strategies and options in which architectural investigation in the field is underpinned by sound documentary research and understanding. A series of appendices set out in detail factual material referred to in the report, including specific archive collections, chronologies and lists.
- Report Number:
- 29/2008
- Series:
- Research Department Reports
- Pages:
- 119
