projecting forward into the street; and there is another building, exactly similar to it, at the eastern end, which is occupied for a stamp office. In 1827 there was a contemplated removal of the Post Office, and it was deemed proper by the Chamber of Commerce to come on the scene by presenting a memorial to the Postmaster-General; it is stated that the timely remonstrance no doubt contributed to relieve the public of the inconvenience of such removal. Colonel Maberly, the Secretary to the Post Office, advised Lord Lichfield in 1838 that as the ground-floor portion of the Post Office premises occupied by the solicitors was necessary for the extension and improved accommodation of the office, no time should be lost in giving the several sub-tenants notice to quit, and Mr. Hall or the postmaster should be instructed to communicate with the Corporation as to the means of effecting such alterations as might be requisite. His lordship gave authority to that effect. In 1839 the Corporation granted the Government a new lease of the premises and of additional ground behind for the purpose of having the Post Office enlarged. The annual rent previous to this new arrangement had risen to £100.
The building alluded to is that now rented by Messrs. Corner and Co. as a tea warehouse. Few indeed, even of the oldest citizens will remember the Bristol Post Office as located there, and the old square open public lobby where the letters were given out through barred windows. Only the ground floor was utilised, and the area, of the site was but 21 ft. by 20 ft. A door opened from the passage by the Exchange into a very small public lobby. In this lobby was the letter-box, and here all business with the public—viz., giving out private letters, taking in letters prepaid in money, and the issuing and paying of money orders—was transacted by clerks standing in the office behind a glass partition. The prepayment of letters by means of postage stamps was not introduced till some months after penny postage was established. There was not at the time a continuous attendance of clerks at the glass partition. At two of the slides in the partition there were small brass door-knockers, and on the public knocking a clerk appeared; from the inside office and attended to the wants of the applicants. When letters for the private box renters were being sorted a blind was drawn down. When
the mail was ready the blind was drawn up, and three clerks attended to disperse the crowd which had gathered during the half-hour or so while the office was closed. The small space behind the public lobby sufficed for the stamping, sorting, and other necessary duties. One man, history saith, amongst the crowd generally got to the front without difficulty; he was a flour-dusted messenger from the Welsh Back!
In 1847 the Money Order Department had grown amazingly, and a separate room had to be provided for its accommodation. This caused the removal of certain solicitors from the first floor to make room for the postmaster's office, the one formerly held by him on the ground floor being converted into a money order office. In 1855 the shop on the north side of the entrance to Albion Chambers from Small Street was taken by the Post Office and converted into a money order office, it being found that the department devoted to this purpose at the general office in Exchange Buildings was not sufficiently commodious or convenient.
It is on record that in 1863 the Post Office authorities offered £10,000 towards erecting a new
Post Office if the citizens would consent to contribute £2,000 more. A meeting of some gentlemen took place in the committee-room of the Council House to take the proposition into consideration, but owing to the small number of persons that attended further deliberation was postponed to a day not named. Some of the leading citizens were of opinion that it would be wise to defer any decision on the subject until the intention of the Government as to granting a criminal assize for Bristol was known; for should the answer from head-quarters be in the affirmative, it would be necessary to build a new court somewhere, in which case the Guildhall would perhaps suit as a Post Office. Nothing appears to have come of the negotiations, and the business of the Post Office was removed on the 25th of March, 1868, to the new office erected in Small Street on the site where it is now carried on. This original portion of the structure covers 11,000 square feet. The purchase of the site was completed on the 21st December, 1865. It is stated in a legal document that the bricks, stones, and material on part of the site belonged to the Bristol Chambers Co. Limited. Where the sorting office stands there
formerly flourished a fine mulberry tree. There appears to have been no ceremonial in the way of laying a foundation stone, and the antiquarian of the distant future may be disappointed in not discovering the usual coins deposited on such occasions.
In fifteen years the need arose for more space, and that then the Bristol public manifested a keen interest in the position of the Bristol Post Office was indicated by an animated debate which took place in our Council Chamber; and as this book affects to be in part a history as well as a narrative, it is thought well to give the report of the proceedings a full record herein, under permission from the proprietors of the Bristol Times and Mirror:—
Friday, January 2nd, 1885.
"THE SITE FOR THE POST OFFICE.