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Post Office
Qumbu, Eastern Cape

PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT: Architect

Date:1937
Type:Post Office
Status:Extant

 


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Coordinates:
31°09'42.17" S 28°52'13.91" E

A small scale, symmetrical, Baker-style building under a hipped roof with six arched openings on the main facade forming a covered stoep. The entrance is through one of the openings; the entrance flanked on each side by a large bulbous salt-glazed, Kirkness pot; each pot mounted on a low, square quarry tiled plinth. The two tiled ceramic panels by Audrey Frank - one on each side of the collonade on the external wall - appear to have been removed or have been painted over. An interesting architectural feature are the buttresses at each end of the main facade.

The massing, architectural proportions, refined details and limited palette of materials used in the Post Office building are testament to the design skills of the architects of the Public Works Department at that time.

Still used as a Post Office.

[William MARTINSON, February 2011]