Survey Data
Reg No
20806042
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Social, Technical
Original Use
Post office
In Use As
Post office
Date
1950 - 1955
Coordinates
153549, 122621
Date Recorded
14/08/2006
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached multiple-bay single-storey post office, built 1954, comprising public office, and having sorting office at right angles to south end, with lower roof. lower stone clad bay to end. Multiple-bay two-storey extension to rear. Flat roof, with skylights to public office. Painted smooth rendered walls, having mullioned glazed front to public office with curvilinear cantilevered concrete canopy, and rubble stone cladding to street elevation of sorting office, with iron lettering in Gaelic script. Square-headed entrance door opening with recessed timber panelled door and overlight. Post office plaque to interior with bronze harp.
Appraisal
This mid-twentieth-century building is typical of the burgeoning Modern Movement in Ireland and showcases the use of materials characteristic of this period, such as reinforced concrete and plate glass. The style of the building is similar to, and may have been influenced by Busáras in Dublin, as both use the cantilevered curvilinear canopy feature. The building provides an interesting contrast to the mainly eighteenth and nineteenth-century streetscape. This is a good example of a State-owned utility of the 1950s and 1960s and reflects the changing attitude to progressive economic development of this period.