Thank you Richard that’s a great addition to this thread. I think the second and third buildings depicted in the drawing are new information which I don’t think has been mentioned before. It certainly helps to make sense of the reference to the New Street Office in the September 1877 newspaper article below. I couldn’t relate the description of the interior with Post Office #1 in the drawing.
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It’s surprising (and slightly confusing) as to how many central Post Offices there have been. But the drawing provides the missing links. Viv.
I am trying to clarify the timeline and have looked at these sources:
1) Thomas Harman's 'Showell's Dictionary of Birmingham', 1885?
2) Samuel Lines landscape painting of Birmingham from the viewpoint of St Phillips Cathedra Dome, 1821 posted by Vivienne14 in post No.9 above
3) RK Dent's 'Old & New Birmingham', 1880 and 'Making of Birmingham', 1894
4) The drawing with the three Post Offices in my post at No.1 post above
5) The New Street frontage view and Pigott's map of 1824 posted by 'mikejee' in post No.6 above
6) Kelly's Directory of Birmingham for 1845, 1850, 1855, 1867, 1872, 1872.
According to Harman (p250), there was a post office opened in 1783 and this was believed to be the Bennett's Hill site on New Street.
Dent 1894, describing the appearance of the town in 1800 describes the Post Office on New Street at Bennett's Hill as a plain two-storey house (p.240). Harman (p250) provides further detail, stating the site included a 'rickyard' with accommodation for mail-coaches and stabling for horses. This is consistent with the Samuel Lines landscape and the frontage view. That is both of those artworks were created before Bennett's Hill was cut.
At some point after 1800 Bennett's Hill - the Street - was cut. Now from the Samuel Lines landscape painting this had not occurred by 1821 but, the Piggott Smith map indicates it had been completed by 1824.
However, this does not necessarily mean that the Post Office building shown in the middle of the three Post Office drawings was built immediately. Both Harman and Dent mention that when the street was laid out the Post Office was 'slightly altered' to 'give a covered approach to the letterbox window' (Harman, p250) through the construction of a 'Penthouse' on the gable end of the building (Dent, 1894, p355). Further Dent, mentions a change to mail-coaches and horses being provided by the hotels. This presumably because the 'rickyard' and stables had to go to accommodate Bennett's Hill, the Street.
So when was the Post Office building in the middle drawing constructed? Dent,1894 (p450), in his retrospective of changes in Birmingham between 1825 and 1850 mentions that the 'old world village post office of the early years of the century had given way to a building of more official appearance in the corner of New Street and Bennett’s Hill, with a porch supported on Doric columns'. Further in his description of Birmingham in 1832, Dent (1880, p429) refers to the Post Office as a ‘a new and rather imposing structure … at the western corner of Bennett’s Hill.’ This would appear to be a possible description of the Post Office in the middle drawing. That would put the construction of that building to be between 1825 and 1832.
The next major change for the New Street / Bennett's Street Post Office was the move to the old 'New Royal Hotel' premises across the street at Nos 92-3 New Street. This occurred on 19th October 1842 and the central Post Office remained at this site until 1873 when it moved into the then new Paradise Street building opposite the Town Hall.
Postscript: the building vacated by the Post Office in 1842, continued in existence under the name of 'Post Office Buildings' with non-Post Office occupiers, until sometime between 1855 and 1867 (Kelly's Directories), when it would appear to have been demolished.
The New Street 'New Royal Hotel' premises was demolished when the Post Office moved out c.1873.
