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The recently developed Post Office in Bury St Edmunds dates back to Victorian times, but the postal service in England started during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I when post roads were created and post boys delivering letters – something they would do for hundreds of years.
As most of the population were then illiterate, these letters would have been sent by educated people who could also afford the postal charge. During the English Civil War Oliver Cromwell created the position of Postmaster General that was only abolished in 1969. In 1660 during the reign of Charles II the postal service became known as The Royal Mail, a name still with us today.
The postal system changed forever when, in 1840, teacher and inventor Roland Hill came up with the idea of a self-adhesive stamp. With much opposition at first, the stamp (un-perforated to begin with) soon became popular. Known as the Penny Black, it had a bust of the 21-year-old Queen Victoria on. The rest, as we say, is history.
In Bury St Edmunds today we still have two Victorian post boxes – one in the shape of a lozenge is outside St Mary’s Church, in Crown Street, the other set in a wall adjacent to the Deanery in the Great Churchyard. Another VR wall box in Cannon Street was lost just a few years ago.
A bookseller by the name of John Deck had a post office in the early 19th century adjacent to the Norman Tower but it moved to Churchgate Street when it was decided to demolish buildings either side of the Norman tower in 1845 to carry out urgent repairs to it.
The main post office in Bury was, in 1861, at number 10 Buttermarket (Specsavers 2016) until it moved to 24 Abbeygate Street, on corner of Lower Baxter Street (Abbeygate Lighting 2016). It remained here until 1881 when it moved to larger premises further up Abbeygate Street to no 52 (Cotes Brasserie 2016), this building would later become Gurneys Bank and then Barclays Bank. During much of this time a William Dawson was working for the P.O. but, in 1895, it was decided to move to new premises on Cornhill in 1895 because the post carts blocked the street, so William decided to retire as Post Master after 32 years’ total service.
The site chosen for the new office was that of the Bell Hotel, which was to to be demolished. Its adjacent thoroughfare, Bell Arcade, would become known as Market Thoroughfare (known by many as the arc’s ‘missing link’).
The Post Office architect, Mr H Tanner, and Clerk of Works, Mr J Gladden, were both from H.M. Office of Works, while Colchester builders Everett & Co were the chosen contractors.
Sadly, the iconic Cornhill Post Office closed in 2016, despite much disapproval. The service is now provided at the adjacent WH Smith shop (premises which were once a branch of Boots the chemists).
In 2018, following its purchase of the redundant P.O. innovative development plans to improve the link were announced by St Edmundsbury Borough Council. Although not listed, the P.O. is in a conservation area so some protection was afforded, especially for the magnificent royal coat of arms on the pediment and the striking Victorian façade.
Donald Insall Associates, Chartered Architects and Historic Building Consultants, had the unenviable job to design the long-awaited arc link. Barnes Construction, notable builders from Ipswich, were able to shore up the façade and utilise one of the existing post office front tracery windows to return the corner. This allowed the widening of the adjacent thoroughfare at the same time. With striking new apartments at the rear in St Andrew’s Street South, it is altogether a really well thought-out scheme bringing the old into the new!
— Martyn Taylor is a local historian, author and Bury Tour Guide. His latest book, Going Underground: Bury St Edmunds, is widely available.
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