A three-story brick building with shopfronts at ground level and an arched passage entrance marked by the word TELEGRAPHS.

Entry to Post Office Terrace as well 4 & 5 St Andrew’s Street

Post Office Terrace, St Andrew’s Street, Cambridge

History of Post Office Terrace

Post Office Terrace is reached through an archway just next to the entrance to the Lion Yard shopping centre. It was originally the yard of the Brazen George. Post Office Terrace replaced the inn in 1850, the yard becoming a small street then the site of the Post Office until 1886. The terrace of houses was lived in until after WWI, when it became offices.

A three-story brick building with a shop, Post Office, and archway on a cobblestone street in St Andrew's Street, Cambridge. — Post office, St Andrew’s Street, undated

A rectangular printed trade card featuring text about bookbinders Cox and Allen, flanked by small illustrations of workers. — 4 Post Office Terrace (British Museum)

A black and white architectural map showing house footprints, gardens, a yard, and shops with hand-written labels in ink. — Plan of Vail premises at 1 Post Office Terrace (Christ’s College)

A circular black metal fire grate with a hinged lid, set against a dark decorative metal plate and encased in white plaster. — Circular fire grate from Post Office Terrace (MoC169/57)

1861 Census

(1) John Vail, 50, whitesmith 4 men and 2 boys, b Essex(2) George Carpenter, 42, tailor, b London(3) Ann M Naden, 52, lodging house keeper, b London(4) William H Shearman, 43, plasterer employing 2 men, b Cambridge(5) James Willis, 23, plumbers labourer, b CambridgeSmith Shop: unoccupied

1865

Arthur Nicholls moved his photography business to 1a Post Office Terrace from 5 All Saints Passage.

Narrow cobblestone alleyway in 1873 flanked by brick buildings with arched doorways, a lantern, and two figures near a table. — Post Office Terrace, 1873 (MoC64/68)

Ink drawing showing a narrow urban passage with brick buildings, a pram, two figures by a doorway, and a handcart on the left. — Post Office Terrace, 1873 (MoC64/68)

A group of fourteen men in work clothes and hats pose around an anvil in front of a brick building in a late 19th-century photo. — John Vail ironmongery business late 19th century (Cambs Collection)

1913 Kelly’s Directory

SOUTH SIDE
ARCHWAY
C W Clark, college servant and University lodging house keeperThe Northern Equitable Insurance Co. Ltd: W A Taylor, district secretaryC Percy Jones, solicitorJ Palmer Clarke, art and landscape photographer: F H Sanderson; C E Goodrich(1) John Vail, furnishing ironmonger, smith, bellhanger, gas fitter: John Barnes Vail(2) H J Whitehead & Son, solicitor(3) William Nicolls, Wright and Scruby: auctioneers, valuers and estate agents
NORTH SIDE
(6) Office of the Cambridgeshire permanent Building Society: J G Bland secretaryF C Field Hyde, teacher of voice production, music, singing and elocutionJohn Vail, furnishing ironmongerH Johnson and Nephew, goods entrance: Mrs Harrod

A line of women sits on high stools before a large manual switchboard while a man in a suit stands to the left. — Telephone Exchange, Cambridge, 1914

1957

Much of the terrace demolished for a telephone exchange

People walk through a narrow brick alleyway framed by an archway, passing estate agent signs and a parked vintage car. — Post Office Terrace c1960 (MoC42/60)

1970

A narrow street between a dark brick building with oval windows and a modern glass-fronted office building in Cambridge. — Post Office Terrace 1970 (MoC 202/70)

A brick building in Post Office Terrace with a shop corner marked R&M, beside a corrugated fence with a danger warning sign. — Post Office Terrace 1970 (MoC 202/70)

1972 Kelly’s Directory

The north side of the terrace was demolished as part of the Lion Yard development.

Demolition site with rubble, an excavator, and a skip in the foreground, with historic stone buildings visible in the background. — Post Office Terrace c. 1972 (MoC 121/72)

A tracked excavator sits on rubble in front of a partially demolished building with a ladder leaning against a remaining wall. — Post Office Terrace c. 1972 (MoC 121/72)

Projects

Post Office Terrace

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