BA2493/2883: Former Bayswater Post Office, 14 King William Street

Summary

The former Bayswater Post Office, 14 King William Street, Bayswater, now occupied by a branch of the Bendgio Bank. The current facade owes much to its 1935 renovation, indicating an economic art deco styling. Bayswater acquired a Receiving Office in 1895, with Mrs Smeed as the first Post Mistress. It was upgraded to a Post and Telegraph office in 1898. Since the Receiving Office was listed as on the corner of Murray and King William Street, it appears that the original building was the Receiving Office. The inadequacy of the accommodation was a sore point especially from the late 1920s when an effort was being made to upgrade the whole town centre. A major, if unsympathetic, improvement was finally made in 1935 at a cost of 500 pounds, but the Post War increases in population once more rendered it obsolete and the latest renovation took place in 1959.