 Contact Artefacts | MenuHomeUpfront Now Up Books Towns Structures People Firms Lexicon | Post Office PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT: Architect Thelma NEWLANDS: Artist tiled panel |  | ||||||
| |||||||||
Click to view map Coordinates: | A small scale, symmetrical, Baker-style building under a hipped fibre cement slate roof with a triple bay columned loggia, flanked on each side by a blue-and-white Ceramic Studio tiled panel, both of which are by Thelma Gifford Gayton. Between the loggia and each of the rectangular glazed panels, is a fine, salt-glazed, Ceramic Studio pot (now painted white). Each of the two pots is mounted on a low, rectangular plinth with a quarry tile capping. A later concrete ramp - to permit disabled access - partially obscures the original face brick entrance stairs leading up to the loggia. The loggia is formed with a pair of finely proportioned Tuscan columns flanked on either side by a square attached Tuscan column. The four columns collectively form the three bays and support a deep, finely moulded entablature. A modern wrought iron screen is set behind the columns and serves to secure the loggia and the post boxes within. A feature of the front facade are the buttresses, which bookend the building and are capped with heavy quarry tiles creating a sloping upper surface. The left hand tiled panel depicts a map of the Cape in the 18th Century. The artist's name, T Gifford Gayton, is inscribed in the bottom right hand corner. Inscribed below this is the text: The Ceramic Studio 1938. At the bottom right hand side of the panel is a graphic scale which is surmounted by an opened pair of dividers which in turn frames a crest with a rampant lion. Below this are the words From An Old Print (and the same words repeated in Afrikaans). The right hand tiled panel depicts a view of tall masted ships in Table Bay with Table Mountain and the Castle in the background. The words From An Old Print (and the same words repeated in Afrikaans) also appear - this time in the bottom left hand corner . The artist's name, T Gifford Gayton, is inscribed in the bottom right hand corner. Inscribed below this is the text: The Ceramic Studio 1938. 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, June 2011] STATUS UPDATE: This post office branch closed down at the end of April 2024, as part of a business rescue plan for the SA Post Office. Books that reference Post Office
|
