Post office to vacate historic Ballsbridge building after 135 years

The post office in Ballsbridge, Dublin 4, is due to close because of rising costs after 135 years on the same site.

The Ballsbridge post master, Shane Dunne, alerted customers to the closure, scheduled for November, in a notice posted in the premises, and said he was “saddened” that the doors would close for the last time in October in the building which has housed a post office since 1889. “Unfortunately the costs relating to rent, rates, electricity and labour costs have brought me to this decision,” he said.

He added that if the landlord had been “agreeable to letting me stay, I would be forced to run the office with only one staff member as the current remuneration from An Post is inadequate”.

Mr Dunne runs four other post offices in Dublin and Kildare, and highlighted the challenges of keeping them all open, saying higher costs had made them “unviable, even with the highly appreciated support of Government to prevent the collapse of the post office network which will end in 2025”.

He expressed the hope that he would be able to find a new location for the office before the November 1st deadline, although he warned that there was nothing on the market that would be suitable.

Built in 1889, the building was designed by John Howard Pentland, who was also responsible for the design of Fusiliers’ Arch at the main entrance to St Stephen’s Green at the top of Grafton Street, as well as the remodelling of the General Post Office (GPO) on O’Connell Street just before the 1916 Rising.

The post office facade, along with the single storey structure and the two-storey projected bay, are listed on the record of protected structures. The rear section of the building is not listed. It was put on the market in 2021 with a guide price of €1.5 million.

Former lord mayor and Labour Party councillor Dermot Lacey said the closure was the “latest outrage”, and just one of several post office that have gone from Dublin 4 and 6 in recent years. He suggested it could be “devastating” for the local community. “If a rural post office closes it gets half an hour on national radio and we have had all these closures in the area and there has been almost nothing from the so-called Dublin-centric media,” he told The Irish Times.

An Post stressed that while the historic building was closing the “process of finding a new location for the post office is well under way, with ongoing advertisements running for suitable new premises in the general vicinity”.

A spokeswoman said there was a commitment to “securing a top quality, accessible, secure location within which we can continue to provide our ever-expanding range of An Post Money Financial Services, everyday banking for AIB and Bank of Ireland customers, foreign exchange and letter/parcel services as well as social welfare payments.”

She noted that “post offices move location all the time, for example Dublin’s Eastwall and Portmarnock post offices, together with Durrow, Co Laois, Rathvilley, Co Carlow, and Borrisoleigh, Co Tipperary, all moved premises within their localities in recent months”.