Subject

The General Post Office moved from Bishopsgate Street to a building in Abchurch Lane in 1678 and remained there until the opening of this building in St. Martins-le-Grand in 1829, designed by Robert Smirke.  Here Trollope began work as a junior clerk and here Rowland Hill transformed the Post Office into an efficient, greatly-loved institution.  Raikes had the General Post Office North built in the 1890s and the magnificent Smirke building was demolished in 1910.  All that remains is an Ionic capital outside the Vestry House Museum in Walthamstow.