I promised a second photo today, and here it is: Newcastle’s old Post Office. It’s just opposite St Nick’s Cathedral, though was built rather more recently, in the 1870s, to James Williams’s design. Williams also designed twenty or so other Post Offices, from London to Carlisle.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about this building is that it marks the centre of Newcastle. Whenever road signs give a distance to Newcastle, it is the distance to this very building, and all signs to the “city centre” point in this direction. Tourists are sometimes confused about the Metro’s decision to label the nearby station “Central”, rather than reserving that title for “Monument” which is rather closer to the retail centre of the city: now you know why.

These days, the building is used by a subsidiary of the Royal Institute of British Architects, and Newcastle’s main customer-facing Post Office is in the corner of the first floor of WHSmith. I wonder what Williams would make of that?!