Inside the haunting Royal Mail sorting office that’s been left empty for years

Above Newport’s railway station there is an enormous office block that has seen better days.

Paint is peeling from the panels of dozens of broken windows all over the tired concrete facade, and graffiti litters the walls of the ground floor.

Inside, there are signs of the once bustling hive of activity that once was the Royal Mail sorting office on Mill Street, but its long vacancy has left it with a haunting, dilapidated atmosphere.

Equipment left over from its days as a mail sorting hub can still be found around the building, alongside signs and warnings placed by the people who spent their working lives there.

Work is soon scheduled to start to transform the decaying disused building into much-needed quality office space.

WalesOnline took one last look inside the property before the last signs of its past disappear.

The sorting office on Mill Street was used by Royal Mail for decades before it was sold to IAC Ltd in 2001.

In 2010, IAC relocated the majority of its operations and for a time used a single floor for their printed circuit board assembly business, but the building has been completely empty for a number of years.

A crane used to bring deliveries up to the sorting office floor can still be found in the property today.

An observation platform is in place above the sorting room, used to guard against potential theft.

Some of the huge vaults on the upper floors of the sorting office are still in place.

The thick walls used to protect valuables can be seen but the heavy steel doors have been removed for scrap.

Signs giving guidance to office workers are pinned to the windows and pillars on each of the office’s floors.

A sign marking the location of the “bandit alarm” is still painted on a few of the pillars.

The Western Mail visited the Newport sorting office on several occasions in 1971.

The newspaper were reporting on the increasing mechanisation of the postal service to ease the burden of labour costs.

They took pictures of a new sorting machine that had been installed as well as a group of coding machines.

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Newport City Council granted planning permission to Garrison Barclay Estates in August 2018.

The developer plans to transform the building into 50,000 sq ft of Grade A office space in the city centre.

Garrison Barclay Estates director Andrew McCarthy said the internal demolition has now taken place and scaffolding contractors are on site with the windows due to be removed in the next two weeks. The project is scheduled for completion early in 2020.

Mr McCarthy said they have been contacted by a number of businesses interested in a potential tenancy at the offices including legal firms, architectural practices, insurance brokers and a London based cyber security company.

“There is a shortage of good quality office space within Newport City Centre, the city would benefit from seeing businesses who are currently located at out of town business parks, relocated back into the city centre,” he said.

“A number of occupiers are considering Newport as it offers an affordable solution against its neighbouring cities, Cardiff and Bristol where headline rents for Grade A space is £25 per sq ft and £35 per sq ft respectively, compared to £16.00 per sq ft in Newport.”

He added: “The building is located next to Newport Train Station which is desirable for any employer.

“Employees health and wellbeing is becoming increasingly more important to employers in order to attract the best workforce, the building offers a very spacious environment with high ceilings, a lot of natural light with a very quirky design making it a much more interesting place to work.”