Post Office

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Two storey five bay orange brick purpose built post office building with steeply pitched glazed Roman tiled roof behind parapet and stepped Dutch gables.

Building faces north west onto Main Street.Brick façade in Flemish bond. First floor windows equally spaced and square with metal mullions. Portland like stone surround incorporating cill. Flagpole on cill of central window. Black marble trimmed openings at each end of ground floor with regular angled cuts as decoration. Opening to south west an entrance door up two black marble steps with plain rectangular fanlight over double raised and fielded hardwood doors. Simple black rail to either side. Opening to north east, square metal window with black slab below and projecting cill 300mm above road. Above each opening is an elliptical oculus with Portland stone trim. These align with the heads of the other ground floor windows, which are tall to the main office space. They all have metal mullions and Portland stone surrounds, those flanking the central window drop slightly lower and have a recessed abstracted classical balustrade. A white render is applied under the windows stepping up at the central bay. There is a black render plinth course below.

The north east gable which is very visible on the north west approach to Main Street reveals the building to be very narrow and quite tall. The stepped gables incorporating a hidden chimney at the head have a Portland stone trim. A string course of similar stone aligns with the top of the front parapet. A semi-circular metal window with similar stone trim is located at its centre point. Below, a tall window spans first and second floors. A Portland stone rectangular column supports a carving with crown and ’EIIR’ with ‘1952’ below.

To the rear a single storey flat roof extension sits out, flush with the north east facade. A slightly taller return aligns with the south west wall abutting next door. Five equally spaced square windows light the first floor of the main building. There is no parapet and the eaves meet the top of the windows.

Historical information

Opened July 1952. Architect: T F O Rippingham (who was Chief Architect Ministry of Works N Ireland) and used as a Post Office until 1994 when counter operations were closed. A single storey rear extension was added in 1994 as part of a reorganisation of the sorting office. A nearby former cinema was demolished to increase vehicular access to the rear at the same time.

Builder was JV Loughrey of Limavady.

References:

Historic Buildings files
W D Girvan, Building of North Derry - UAHS p.13.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance
V. Authorship

Evaluation

An unusual and architecturally fine building of the second half of the 20th. C. It works well in the townscape context of Limavady Main Street, carefully considered in its own stripped classical terms.