Sydney's magnificent General Post Office (1874), but now it's something else

Sydney’s General Post Office/GPO building replaced an earlier pos­tal building on the same site since 1830. This second building was designed by colonial archit­ect James Barn­et. The northern façade was the finest example of the Victorian Italian Renaissance Style in NSW that stretched along Martin Place! Note that Martin Place became Sydney’s civic heart, home to the Reserve Bank, other banks and business corp­orations.

Queen Victoria was placed above the main entrance,
Martin Place

The keystone block for the main arch in George St was cut from the Pyrmont peninsula quarry and delivered in 1868 on a wagon and 26 Clydesdale horses. When the foundation stone arrived, the Prince of Wales, who was in Sydney on a royal visit, laid the stone. Suitably Queen Victoria was placed above the main Martin Place entrance.

At the 1874 opening, the GPO was described by the Post Master Gener­al as the finest building in the southern hemisphere. It dominated the street­scape and skyline, and represented the wealth Australia was enjoying in the post-Gold Rush economic boom. It rem­ained its most well known landmark until the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House emerged in the C20th.

In Aug 1879 Barnet submitted plans for the extension of the post office to Pitt St. Tenders were called and in 1880 laying of the foundations began. The Post Office Cafe, south of the GPO along George St, was resumed in 1883 to house the Railway Parcel and Ticket Office. The clock tower was not com­p­leted until Sept 1891 when it became Sydney's tallest structure (73 ms) and remained so for decades. The Post Master Gen­eral later opened the tower's small viewing plat­form above Martin Place and the spiral stairs up to 60 ms.

GPO Tower, 73 metres high

Among the allegorical carvings on the 1887 George St facade was the coat of arms, a turning point in the colony's stat­us. Carved before the 1888 Centennial cel­ebrations, it showed the badge of NSW on a shield with a crown as a crest, and emu and kangaroo supporters. By the time of its completion in 1891, the building was hail­ed as a turning point for the Colony of NSW. What was the build­ing's signific­ance as a force in the vital struggle for Australian Federation.

The GPO consisted of a basement, ground floor, mezzanine and three floors. A decision to add a fifth storey, beginning with a mansard roof at the Pitt St end of the building was made in 1897. This was completed in 1899 and an alternative entrance for mail carts was built from Chisolm Place under Martin Place to the basement.

The ground floor was dom­inated by an open arcade which ran around the street facades and which was covered with vault­ing. This arcade was supp­orted on pol­ished grey monolith columns on mass­ive bases and surmounted by carved capitals. The building already featured bas-reliefs of Commerce, the Arts Science and Literature, and a giant statue of Brit­annia on a lion.

Later, Government Architect James Barnet and Ital­ian sculptor Sig­nor Sani created a series of sculptures above the Pitt St arch­ways depicting current working people: fish­monger, sail­or, postman, barmaid, printer & architect. These intricate sculpt­ures were immediately cont­roversial, their naturalistic ref­erences to real people seen as unseemly for architectural carving. Opposition to the new relief sculptures was so angry that ques­t­ions were asked in Parliament.

The Pitt St carvings have since been hailed as a successful art project, its significance lying in the shaping of Sydney's urban grid and the Martin Place precinct. The stonework figures repres­ented Australians and their civic pride.

The former courtyard was converted
into a steel frame and glass roof atrium.

The 1927 renovation was a seven storey Beaux Arts Classical style rendered, brick clad, steel framed structure.

The Postal Hall now represents a signif­ic­ant part of the her­itage of the GPO building and has been not­ed in all Herit­age Man­age­ment Plans developed for the building as having her­it­age sig­nif­icance; that it shouldn’t be changed in any way. Ha! The 1927 building that housed the main postal hall enclosed by the Victorian era building was demolished, its Postal Hall reconstructed and a long span steel frame and glass roof structure added as an atrium.

The reworking of the interior retained most of the building's highly sig­nificant wrought iron arched structure. Large spaces in the upper levels were subdivided into hotel rooms. The 1942 building grew in the Moderne style, concrete en­cased, steel frame building clad in granite and terra cotta tiles. And that year the campanile clock tower at the centre of the build­ing was removed by the Government and placed in stor­age in case of a bombing attack on Sydney. The clock was re­claimed from stor­age in 1964, but the viewing platform was never re-opened to the public.

front of GPO today 

The Australia Postal Corp­oration Act 1989 states: Australia Post shall, as far as practicable, perform its functions in a manner consistent with sound commercial practice. So the sale of the site to Singaporean property developer Far East was in breach of the Act and did not even adhere to good commerc­ial practice. It was conducted in secret, excluded Aus­tral­ian buyers, disregarded Heritage Report recommendations and was sold for a hopeless price.

Thus the GPO was privatised and leased out by the Federal Govt in 1996 as part of its asset sales. It was re­furbished in 1997-99, providing shops, restaurants, the 5-star Fullerton Hotel and the foyer of two adjoining tower blocks. And it was completed in Sept 1999, just before the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. Some C19th elements were preserved. Note the original Dock Master's office has been preserved as Prime Restaurant, the mail sorting room is now Crystal Bar, the horse stable became the Coach Bar and the horse-and-cart unloading area is now the Subterranean Bar.

Intermezzo Italian Restaurant
surrounded by Italianate colonnades.

Conclusion
With endless extensions and renovations, the GPO building funct­ioned as NSW postal system until 1996. Now Aus­tralia Post maintains a presence only in the form of a Post Shop at the corner of Martin Place and George St; the rest is for the leisure industry.