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Summary

Description

HM Office of Works (Probably W W Richardson), dated 1894. 2-storey, 7-bay Free Renaissance Post Office with prominent octagonal corner towers. Single-storey sorting offices to rear. Polished buff sandstone ashlar to front and returns, brick to sides and rear. Base course, moulded sill courses, cornice at first floor level, corbelled frieze with carved panels and eaves cornice, blocking course. Banded ashlar to ground floor. Continuous vertical bands at window surrounds. Square-headed ground floor windows, round-arched to upper floor with raised architraves and projecting keystones.

FRONT (SW) ELEVATION: symmetrical. Projecting central pedimented porch with ionic surrounds and banded archway. Pedimented central armorial panel with Doric pilasters rising above eaves. Octagonal slated roofs to corner towers.

4-pane fixed light and casement windows with palmette details and to front elevation. Timber sash and case windows to rear. Purple slate roof, ashlar skews. Vertically-banded and corniced gable-head stacks. Cast iron rainwater goods with decorative hoppers.

INTERIOR: largely modernised internally. Internal layout largely intact. Timber-lined sorting office with wrought-iron truss roof.

Statement of Special Interest

The Post Office in Channel Street is one of the premier buildings in Galashiels. Its very prominent position near the junction of Channel Street and High Street gives the building an important position in the streetscape, which is emphasised by distinctive details such as the flanking octagonal towers. The richness of the detail, in common with a number of Post Offices built around this period, communicates the economic growth of Galashiels through the late 19th century. The entrance elevation is heavily moulded with notable details such as the central armorial panel.

W W Richardson was the principal architect for Scotland for the Office of Works from 1877-1904. He was responsible for the design of a large number of Post Offices in Scotland. Several, such as Dunfermline GPO (1889-90) and, particularly, Dundee GPO (1896) are close in date to Galashiels and bear similarities in style and detail.

The single-storey sorting office to the rear appears to be of the same date as the front block. The building is known to have been extended in 1915, but this presumably refers to further single-storey additions.

References

Bibliography

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