Paddington Post and Telegraph Office

The Paddington Post Office (and former telephone exchange) was designed by the New South Wales Colonial Architect’s Office under James Barnet and later Walter Liberty Vernon.

The current site on the corner of Oxford and Ormond Streets was secured in 1882; and plans drawn up during 1884 under the supervision of the New South Wales Colonial Architect James Barnet in the Victorian Italianate style and was officially opened in 1885. The building has been in continual operation as a post office since that time.

The appointment of James Barnet as Acting Colonial Architect in 1862 coincided with a considerable increase in funding to the public works program. Between 1865 and 1890 the Colonial Architects Office was responsible for the building and maintenance of 169 post offices and telegraph offices in NSW. The post offices constructed during this period were designed in a variety of architectural styles, as Barnet argued that the local parliamentary representatives always preferred "different patterns".