North Adelaide Post Office

Externally, North Adelaide Institute and Post Office's intactness is high with regard to the original form, material and detail, despite rear and side additions constructed in 1975. These works had a minimal impact on the principal form and fabric of the original building when viewed from Tynte Street. They resulted in the concealment of one ground floor bay on the east side elevation and conversion of one ground floor window opening to a doorway. The original rendered dressings have been overpainted and the usual component of signage, handrails and external services have been added, but the fabric is otherwise intact. The integrity of the original fabric of the rear north elevation has been compromised at ground floor level by the additions and alterations, which have resulted in the complete demolition of walls to integrate the floor area.^[1]

Internally, the post office's intactness is relatively good throughout both levels of the building, particularly in relation to plan form, despite alterations to the ground floor planning in 1975 and general phases of wholesale refurbishment throughout.^[1]

Internally and externally the building would appear to be in sound structural condition, well maintained and in good condition. There is evidence of some lateral wall cracking in the first floor walls at the west end of the building and damp at the southeast corner. A small number of the window sashes require repair and maintenance.^[1]

North Adelaide Post Office was listed on the Australian Commonwealth Heritage List on 8 November 2011.^[1]

The North Adelaide Institute and Post Office was constructed in 1883-4 as part of a larger integrated building complex comprising the post and telegraph office, telephone exchange, residence and the North Adelaide Institute and hall. The complex reflects the joint efforts of the private and public sectors, resulting in a structure satisfying both community and public service requirements, and meeting the local desire for a library and cultural facility as well as up-to-date telegraphic and postal facilities. The post office has also played a prominent role in the affairs of North Adelaide and was one of a number of significant public buildings and structures erected in this period of prosperity and confidence in North Adelaide, the others being the Art Gallery, Mitchell Building, Jervois Wing of the Library, Public Baths, Rotunda and Torrens Weir. The North Adelaide Post Office is a rare example in the national context of a combined cultural centre, with its concert, meeting and library spaces, and post office. Typologically, North Adelaide Post Office demonstrates all of the archetypal characteristics of a combined postal and telegraphic facility with telephonic and residential components. The complex's substantial scale also assumes a major civic role in North Adelaide's high street and demonstrates the increased volume in communications of the period. Stylistically, the building is a handsome and deftly composed example of an Italianate public building with Free Romanesque overtones, skilfully combining a multiplicity of components. The broadly Italianate form, modulation and detail is also a harbinger of Federation architecture in Adelaide through introducing an exposed salmon-red brick facade and stilted windows with heavy architraves. The North Adelaide Post Office is a prominent and imposing building in the North Adelaide context, and is a strong visual element of Tynte Street which in turn is dominated by many fine nineteenth century buildings of robust character and appearance. The building's composition, with its massing, symmetry and use of fine salmon red brickwork, stonework, rendered dressings and mouldings, all combine to give the structure outstanding aesthetic appeal. The North Adelaide Post Office has been a prominent public institution in North Adelaide with a long and distinguished history within the local community of providing, and being the focus of, a number of diverse civic and cultural functions including post office, public hall and library. North Adelaide Institute and Post Office is associated with the pre-eminent Colonial architects Edward J. Woods and Charles Owen-Smyth whose styles are clearly evident in the final composition.^[1]

The significant components of North Adelaide Institute and Post Office include the 1883-5 fabric of the complex.^[1]

• GS Warmington and AC Ward, Australia Post Survey of Historic Properties in South Australia, 1992;
• P Stark, City of Adelaide Heritage Survey, 1984;
• Register of the National Estate, ID 6434;
• Susan Marsden, Paul Stark et al., Heritage of the City of Adelaide, Adelaide: City Corporation, 1990, pp. 306–10.
• SA State Heritage Register, File Number 13504;
• Savills, APPD Property Valuation Report, June 2005

This Wikipedia article was originally based on North Adelaide Post Office, entry number 106136 in the Australian Heritage Database published by the Commonwealth of Australia 2019 under CC-BY 4.0 licence, accessed on 15 May 2019.