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Click to view map Coordinates: | A small scale, symmetrical, Baker-style building in red face brick - in English bond - under a hipped roof with double arched loggia flanked on each side by a Ceramic Studio tiled panel by Audrey FRANK. The floor of the loggia is tiled with large square quarry tiles. A fine, salt-glazed, globular Kirkness pot was placed on each side of the right hand side (entrance) arch. The two pots are mounted individually on low, square quarry tiled plinths. A third Kirkness pot is placed on the right hand side of the entrance elevation. The arch on the left hand side was fitted with a horizontal pipe balustrade to prevent entrance into the loggia at this side. An interesting architectural feature of the front facade are the buttresses, which bookend the building. Each buttress the typical 'tumbled-in' brickwork detail as the depth of the buttresses reduces at the intersection with the upper face of the wall. The left hand tiled panel depicts a scene of Zulu women dancing, holding small shields and dancing spears, with seated men watching the dance. Thatched Zulu 'beehive' houses form the background to the composition. The artist's name is inscribed in the bottom left hand corner with the date of 1937 and THE CERAMIC STUDIO. The right hand tiled panel depicts a scene of Zulu men with spears and shields dancing, with seated men watching the dance. Thatched Zulu 'beehive' houses form the background to the composition. The artist's name and the date of 1937 is inscribed in the bottom left hand corner; THE CERAMIC STUDIO is inscribed in the bottom right hand side corner. 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. [William MARTINSON, March 2011] Books that reference Post Office
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