NEW POST OFFICE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23060, 10 June 1938, Page 12

NEW POST OFFICE

iWELLESLEY ST. tWEST OLD BUILDING TO GO • PREPARING FOR DEMOLITION Tenders are being called by the City Council for the demolition and removal of the old buildings on the site in Wellesley Street West which has been taken by the Government for the purpose of erecting a post office. The new building will replace the present post office in the central telephone exchange block in Wellcsley Street East. Owing to the growing requirements of the exchange the space now used for postal purposes will have to be vacated before very long, and the department considers that the volume of business warrants the erection of a separate building.

Having frontages of 51ft. to Wellesley Street West and 130 ft. to Fergus-' ,son Street, tho site provides room for a fairly large structure. No vote pears to have been placed on the Estimates yet, and it is not clear at present whether the Government intends' to erect a building merely sufficient for postal purposes, or whether office accommodation will be provided for other departments as well. The property, which had been owned by the City Council for many years, became vested in the Crown by Order-in-Council at the end of April, and an arrangement was made by which the council was to have the buildings demolished. This is now to be done, and the amount to be paid by the Government as compensation will be settled later.

The buildings consist of a two-storey block of brick shops, with a very old wooden structure further along Fergusson Street and an interior building used as a garage. Most of the shop tenants have vacated the premises. As the shops stand some feet over the alignment of Fergusson Street, the building scheme will enable the frontage to ba set back and the footpath to be given its proper width.