New Post Office

Until the imposing late-Victorian General Post Office was built in Westwell Street, overlooking the Guildhall Square, Plymouth’s newest post office was the premises grandly described as the Postal Telegraph Office at the corner of Whimple Street and St Andrew Street, thus it was no surprise to find, a few doors down at No.3 St Andrew Street, there was a pub, or a beerhouse at least, called the New Post Office.

That Post Office building, which now houses Café Rouge, was built in 1848, at a cost of £3,000 from the designs of Mr Oswald Arthur and superceded Plymouth’s previous Post Office which had been in Bilbury Street and which had only been expanded three years earlier following Rowland Hill’s Penny Postage Act of 1939 which prompted a massive increase in the amount of post being sent around the country.

Licensees

1857 - Thomas Reed
1862 - John Damerell