Buildings of Interest

Description

Post office. Dated 1884 over doorway; slightly altered externally

Architect: Sir Henry Tanner (1849-1935)

Opened:              19 October 1885

Closed                 Wednesday 5 June 2019

[Wigan Observer and District Advertiser 21 October 1885, page 5]

The new Post Office buildings, in Wallgate, … were formally opened Monday morning for the transaction of the postal and telegraph business of the town and district. The mails for the day were despatched to different parts from the old Post Office in Rowbottom-square, and the incoming mails were taken to the new Post Office after midnight Sunday, consequently the letters were there sorted in the morning and afterwards sent out with the letter carriers for the morning delivery. The building is commodious and convenient, and the change will no doubt be greatly appreciated by both Post Office officials and the public. By an entrance from Wallgate, people are admitted to large room, a counter running from end to end. Here money order, postal, parcel, stamp and telegraphic business is transacted.  Beyond there is a spacious and airy sorting room, lighted by a skylight and capitally fitted up with every requirement.  Further on still there are messengers’ waiting rooms, places for storing parcels, etc. and a useful yard with the usual conveniences. Telegrams are handed to the clerk at the counter in the general front office and are transmitted by means of a pneumatic tube to the instrument room upstairs, which is also very well arranged and excellently adapted for the purpose. In an adjoining room messengers are stationed, and as each telegram is received it is handed to one of these through communicating window and sent to its destination. There are likewise rooms for the clerks, attendants, caretakers, and ample storage cellaring, and last, but not an office for the Postmaster on the ground floor. The building is from designs by the architect to the General Post Office, and the work has been carried out Mr. Roberts, of St. Helens.

Reference        Manchester Evening News 19 October 1885, page 3
Reference        Wigan Observer and District Observer 2 Aug 1884, page 5
Reference        Wigan Observer and District Observer 21 October 1885, page 5

Source: Manchester Victorian Architects

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2021 - Purchased by a local businessman with intention of restoring the property and repurposing. 

See some 2021 images before restoration. Link