 |
No. 1 was the GPO Studd Street building. |
The building on the right of the photo housed (as viewed) top half, the BT Acoustics Laboratory complete with an anechoic chamber. The bottom half was unused for quite a while, but once housed a high voltage test chamber, where electricity insulators were tested within a caged room.
The NDO was the building (2) that has been demolished and was totally Royal Mail. The building (1), now known as 8 Esther Anne Place, was an engineering building, which housed the Engineer-in-Chief's Office; London Test Section and London Materials Section and the main GPO Stores prior to its move to the Crayford depot and also the GPO Factories division until that part and those based in Bovay Place, Holloway, transferred to the Bilton Way, Enfield site.
Once empty, half the basement and the whole of the ground floor was handed over to the NDO, to expand the sorting office and also encompass the North London Royal Mail Parcels Office, until that moved to Canning Town. Within the building, the BT Occupational Hygiene Group was also based. This was an offshoot of the London Materials Section.
When BT and the Post Office spilt apart, there were many joint user buildings. The Studd Street site was handed over to the Post Office/Royal Mail and the BT departments, then paid rent to occupy what had always been an Engineering Building. The London Test Section, was spilt into the Quality Assurance Division and Calibration Services, all part of the Procurement Executive. Calibration Services was transferred to the BT Factories Division, renamed BT Repair Services, which was later was renamed BT Fulcrum, before being sold off to Cerplex, which over a few years died a death.
Part of the London Test Section’s duties was the Test and Inspection of Gloves and Gauntlets IR. This was closed down towards the end of 1985 as BT Repair Services had no place to house it, and did not want it. I purchased the equipment and set up glove testing on my own - Safeglove : High Voltage Testing, was launched on 1st December 1985. The last bastion of the LTS is alive and well in South Wales and is now in year 32!
Studd Street
 |
Studd Street in Islington was originally the HQ of the GPO stores department. |
Circa 1906 to 2014. The facade of the building is to be retained as the whole Northern District Office site is redeveloped as Islington Square. An extension of Mail Rail to this site was once proposed, but never was never instigated.
Upper Street Post Office
 |
Northern District Post Office, 116 Upper Street, Islington. Grade II listed building built in 1906 to the designs of Office of Works architect Jasper Wager. |
Page last updated 19th March 2017.Checked May 2021.
All logos and trade marks are the property of their respective owners and are used on the Light Straw site(s) for review only. Students and researchers are recommended to make their own independent enquiries as to the accuracy of the information contained therein.