Documents

There are no additional online documents for this record.

Summary

Description

W T Oldrieve for Board of Works, 1908-10. Post Office built in Scots Renaissance style, picturesque composition incorporating Post Office (Counters) with entrance to Commercial Street, and Royal Mail Letters Sorting Office with vehicle access to harbour at rear. Complex, roughly L-plan; long main 2-storey range to Commercial Street, 3-storey at rear, with 2-storey wing at right angles, stair tower in re-entrant angle. Harled walls with droved ashlar margins and detailing of dormerheads, crowsteps and deep, recessed eaves course. Sash and case windows, small-paned, some bipartite with stone mullions, side and rear windows barred at ground floor. Slightly swept, bracketted eaves, roofed with blue-grey slates, harled and corniced stacks, metal rhones, rainwater-heads with star detailing.

S (COMMERCIAL STREET) ELEVATION: near-symmetrical with advanced crowstepped outer gables flanking 4-bay centre block, which has 3 tall windows with moulded architraves at ground and 4 curvilinear pedimented dormerheads breaking eaves at 1st floor. Single storey advanced, flat-roofed ashlar shopfront overlays part of centre range and right gable - bolection moulded doorway to outer right with Royal Armorial panel over, 4 tall windows, wall-mounted posting box and stamp machine. Telephone kiosk in angle (see separate listing). Advanced gable to left has moulded doorway and window in corniced ashlar panel at ground, with ashlar balustrade extending across frontage to right. Bipartite stair window above.

N (HARBOUR) ELEVATION: asymmetrical; L-plan, main 3-storey range with 2-storey wing advanced at right angles to left, and pyramidal roofed, 2-storey stair tower in angle with bipartite at each floor. Flat-roofed vehicle loading bay adjoining main range at ground, extending across the 1st of 3 regular bays with tall bipartites to each floor, breaking eaves in pedimented dormerheads. Range terminating in taller, 2-bay tower-like crowstepped gable broken by balustraded parapet, with 2 round-headed windows at 2nd floor. Adjoining lower wing projecting to harbour; 3-bay, one crowstepped gable.

E ELEVATION: irregular fenestration; bipartites at ground and 1st floor, 2nd floor window with moulded panel over set in gablehead breaking eaves. Tall, corbelled wallhead stack.

YARD WALL: harled dwarf wall with ashlar cope and drum piers.

Statement of Special Interest

The post office was built over Sinclair's Beach and the site of a house, pier and loberry. In 1887, Andrew Smith won in a dispute with Lerwick Harbour Trust over the ownership of Sinclair's Beach. Smith held that Udal (Norse) Law whereby the beach and foreshore is the property of the landowner prevailed over Scots Law which states that the foreshore is crown property. It was the scene of the arrest of 40 employees on 1st November 1914 (for an unexplained reason) who were marched to the county jail between 2 lines of marines with fixed bayonets, it is assumed, due to thoughts they had been tampering with official war mail associated with the naval base at Swarback Minn. An early 20th century photograph shows the yard wall and drum piers to be considerably higher originally. The design and siting of this building is used to far more effect than the strikingly similar one in Oban. The scale and massing of the elements respond very well to the different aesthetic and practical demands of Commercial Street and the harbour, and as such affirms this building as a fine piece of civic design.

References

Bibliography

About Listed Buildings

Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for designating sites and places at the national level. These designations are Scheduled monuments, Listed buildings, Inventory of gardens and designed landscapes and Inventory of historic battlefields.

We make recommendations to the Scottish Government about historic marine protected areas, and the Scottish Ministers decide whether to designate.

Listing is the process that identifies, designates and provides statutory protection for buildings of special architectural or historic interest as set out in the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997.

We list buildings which are found to be of special architectural or historic interest using the selection guidance published in Designation Policy and Selection Guidance (2019)

Listed building records provide an indication of the special architectural or historic interest of the listed building which has been identified by its statutory address. The description and additional information provided are supplementary and have no legal weight.

These records are not definitive historical accounts or a complete description of the building(s). If part of a building is not described it does not mean it is not listed. The format of the listed building record has changed over time. Earlier records may be brief and some information will not have been recorded.

The legal part of the listing is the address/name of site which is known as the statutory address. Other than the name or address of a listed building, further details are provided for information purposes only. Historic Environment Scotland does not accept any liability for any loss or damage suffered as a consequence of inaccuracies in the information provided. Addresses and building names may have changed since the date of listing. Even if a number or name is missing from a listing address it will still be listed. Listing covers both the exterior and the interior and any object or structure fixed to the building. Listing also applies to buildings or structures not physically attached but which are part of the curtilage (or land) of the listed building as long as they were erected before 1 July 1948.

While Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for designating listed buildings, the planning authority is responsible for determining what is covered by the listing, including what is listed through curtilage. However, for listed buildings designated or for listings amended from 1 October 2015, legal exclusions to the listing may apply.

If part of a building is not listed, it will say that it is excluded in the statutory address and in the statement of special interest in the listed building record. The statement will use the word 'excluding' and quote the relevant section of the 1997 Act. Some earlier listed building records may use the word 'excluding', but if the Act is not quoted, the record has not been revised to reflect subsequent legislation.

Listed building consent is required for changes to a listed building which affect its character as a building of special architectural or historic interest. The relevant planning authority is the point of contact for applications for listed building consent.

Find out more about listing and our other designations at www.historicenvironment.scot/advice-and-support. You can contact us on 0131 668 8914 or at designations@hes.scot.