Old Post Office

Cadw's description

Location

On the south side of the junction of High Street and Bell Street.

History

A Post Office is said to have been established in Talgarth in 1858, but the present building was probably built in the late C19 as part of a block of 3 shops, with dwellings above. Continued in use as a post office until the late 1970s. It was in use as a museum at the time of inspection in December 2019.

Exterior

The Old Post Office is part of a three-storey block (i.e. 1-3 Bell Street), of red brick with yellow-brick sill bands and blue-brick impost bands, under a hipped slate roof with brick stacks. The angle of the building at the road junction is canted, and provides the visual focus for the shop entrance. This is recessed, flanked by 2-light plate glass shop windows facing each street, all framed by Tuscan pilasters and consoles supporting the cornice. The fascia is replaced. Facing Bell Street is a residential entrance in a panelled recess with doorcase similar to the shop-front detail. There is a panelled door, under a plain overlight, but its lower panels have been replaced by plain boarding. Windows are 2-pane sashes under shallow triangular heads, except for a 2-storey oriel window above the shop entrance, which has double sash windows in each storey, all lately renewed.

Interior

Inside the original shop fittings survive intact. They include 2 shop counters, behind which is a virtually complete set of shelves, and drawers, built around a simple fireplace. They are of varying sizes, and some of the shelves and turned supports. A half-lit door with coloured glass margin lights opens to the hallway of the residence, while a plainer panel door opens to a store room at the back.

Reason for designation

Listed as a well-preserved example of a corner commercial building of a type characteristic in towns in the late nineteenth-century, with the special interest of its rare surviving original shop fittings.