What does your post office look like?

[idontcollectstamps]

MCPO or Manila Central Post Office
(PHILIPPINES )
Our neoclassical style post office building located in Liwasang Bonifacio, city of MANILA.
The original building was designed by Juan M. Arellano and Tomás Mapúa. The construction of the building began on 1926 under the supervision of the architecture firm of Pedro Siochi and Company. Proposals for the completion of the Manila Post Office Building were made known on November 28, 1927, but the awarding of the project was made only in 1928. However, it was severely damaged in World War II during the Battle of Manila and was subsequently rebuilt in 1946 while retaining most of its original design. #PostOffice

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[roxsm]

The details are stunning!

[idontcollectstamps]

I couldn’t agree more

[racer7949]

Thank you for posting this; I found the official announcement here:

https://about.usps.com/newsroom/local-releases/ca/2022/0106-sanford-po-to-move.htm

According to the USPS website location finder, it seems the proposed relocation to a new facility has not yet happened, as it doesn’t come up in a search. The nearest Post Office is the Oakwood station. Decades ago I went to the Oakwood station to pick up my college diploma, which had been sent by certified mail. Somehow the clerk knew what it was and congratulated me on the achievement. That was a good postal experience.

[PaperCosmos]

This is my local post office too! I was about to post pictures but you got there first

I just wanted to add the old post boxes that are on the outside that I find really cool:

Source of image here

I usually just use a postbox but when I want to use the self service machines I come here (it’s a lot smaller inside than you may expect though). Sometimes I will visit other local post offices in the area for certain stamps though.

[vireolanius]

Pretty bland post office I stopped at in Fillmore, California, but it had a nice quilt hanging up inside!

[linos203]

Here is the post office from Porto Novo in Benin.

[Cerimoon]

Hello everyone! I finally took a pic of my little township satellite post office located inside our local hardware store in Pennsylvania, USA. My friendly postal lady Janet wanted to hide from the image. I could post mail from my house, but I like to pop over and mail the cards and letters directly from here if my work schedule allows.

I have enjoyed the variety of images - keep them coming!
Karen @Cerimoon

[Donald]

Today I visited a poor post office in the suburb of my city. It is called Qixia Post Office

The counter

The delivery office is just beside the counter. The mail will go directly to the delivery office for processing after acceptance.

A tiny TV is on the wall to promote the new stamp. Although they don’t sell it in this post office.

The look of the Post Office from the outside. It is located together with a hotel.

The bus stop across the street.

The surrounding of the Post Office. It is located near the oil factory in our city.

However, they do have a beautiful scenery postmark there.
A very interesting thing is that the original post office clerk there is absent today so there is only a delivery man there to help accept mail. He has never accepted International mail before so I have to teach him to fill in the info and register them in the system. Luckily, it was safely done and the mail is successfully accepted.

International A.R. mail accepted there

The receipt

This one is Fuzimiao Post Office. It was originally the post and telecommunications office of the entire city.

It still remains the decoration of the ROC period and is a historical building preserved by the city government. (Sorry that I forgot to take a picture inside)

[ChristianJ]

I always take pictures of the post offices I visit. They might not be my post offices (I live in Geneva, Switzerland), but I thought it’d still be interesting for you guys to see my pics! (It’s always so interesting to see the postmarks from each one of these post offices!)

Bosnia and Herzegovina (Sarajevo)

Bosnia has three different postal services. I also saw the one in Banja Luka (Republika Srpska), and I know Mostar has a Croat one. I think the other two postal services have received their own country codes, which means that, for instance, international mail sent to the Serbian part of Bosnia won’t need to be sorted in Sarajevo. Sorting will happen in Banja Luka instead… It’s sad to see how divided this country is (and travelling there shows you the extent to which things are different in the different parts).

China (Wenzhou)

I think they put the wrong letters here – it should be “China Post” (and this is what most of the post offices in China say)… Or maybe “China Postal [insert another word]”… If you travel to China, you’ll see that many signs show little familiarity with Latin alphabet typefaces, and they will often display bad kerning, among other misspellings! This is perfectly normal though – after all, the Latin alphabet isn’t China’s main writing system!

Egypt (Alexandria)

I walked around Alexandria’s alleyways and got a glimpse of everyday life – shops, teahouses and homes… At the post office, they went through each postcard I wrote, in order to decipher the countries of the recipients (I tried to label everything in Arabic to be helpful). I then took this picture, but was immediately told not to do it… Is there a rule in Egypt? Maybe post offices are government owned, and I know from experience that many countries won’t let you take pics of government buildings…

Kenya (Masai Mara, Nairobi, Narok)

The first one is in the middle of the savannah. As you can see from the writing of the wall, “Masai Mara” can also be spelled as “Maasai Mara”. The postmark says “Masaai Mara” though, which, I believe, is wrong

Kyrgyzstan (Bishkek, Karakol, Osh)

Bishkek’s main post office is really beautiful. Its interiors are decorated with colourful mosaics. There’s also a clock tower next to the post office that locals call “the Big Ben”! I also went to the cities of Karakol and Osh. The postal system works great, although, for some reason, none of the 15+ postcards I sent in May made it to their destination…

Mexico (San Cristóbal de las Casas)

Nice post office with a hand painted sign (so many signs in Mexico are hand painted!). I asked them whether they had stamps and they said that they didn’t, and told me where I could find them (it was the next big city down the motorway).

Morocco (Fès, Marrakesh, Rabat)

The post office in Rabat is really beautiful! I remember I woke up super early just to go to the post office before the tour started. All the postcards I sent from Morocco reached their destination (except the ones I dropped at the post office in Chefchaouen… The city was very very pretty though!).

Turkmenistan (Daşoguz)

Postally speaking, this was the cheapest country I’d been to. I got around 20 stamps for the postcards I wanted to send, and the total price wasn’t even 3 euros. (That’s because Turkmenistan has a very tricky currency exchange situation, which makes government services super cheap…) The stamps were beautiful too, and all the postcards were dropped at the post office in the city of Mary (forgot to take pics!).

[linos203]

Africa is always good for surprises, mostly the bad way, but sometimes really positive.
I’m actually in Bohicon / Benin on the way to deep Africa and was already aware the office would be closed, but wanted to know where it is.

And what should I say the post office was closed, but on a window on the side I could still buy stamps 1/2 hour after closing time.

[neongreen]

Very boring but that’s my closest Post Office from my home.

The inside

My nearest post box which I think is much more fun but the pick up times are of course limited. And it’s around the block from home.

Greetings from California

[janniks943]

I love this topic and looking at all the beautiful and interesting post offices!

Last September, I went to Monaco and stumbled upon this beautiful post office:

It was sadly closed, so I had to get my stamps from the tourist office, but it was still beautiful to look at!

Also, I went to Switzerland last year as well and was able to send some cards from the “smallest post office in Switzerland” in a tourist shop in the “Heididorf” - in the middle of the Swiss Alps!

[linos203]

Here another small post office it is just at the main entrance of the university of Parakou (biggest city in the north of Benin). Only one woman is working there. The blue door at the right goes to the post boxes. Yes they don’t have postman who deliver the post, you need to have a post box. And btw. there aren’t any mailboxes, you have to bring your post during opening times to the post office.

[Selena]

Maybe the clears is wearing gloves for hygiene reasons? Paper is also very drying for skin when handling it all day.

[TazocinWilson]

I live in a leafy suburb of Colombo called Cinnamon Gardens. True to its name many years ago this whole area was a giant cinnamon plantation before British colonial settlers started to move in. Today the cinnamon trees are long gone and where they stood wide open roads and suburban houses. It’s rapidly becoming more commercialized and most of the old residents are moving out.
My Post Office established in 1905 is a living museum. It is an Edwardian institution through and through. A throwback to the days of Colonial Ceylon when the post was an integral means of communication and when letters were delivered up to four times a day by uniformed smartly clad postmen in their livery by foot and by cycle.
A big telegraph operation center was integrated with the post office and together they formed the epicentre of this town.

I have boxes of postcards from as early as 1900 written by family members writing home from far-off corners of empire, from land as well as onboard merchant steamers. All these have all traveled through this outfit that is the postal service.

Today the enterprise is shadow of its former self. The old building stays. Lending an almost quaint village like feel to this rapidly urbanising quarter of the city, my Post Office is a stunning old dame, Brick Red and white this post office is a stunning two-storied building with the Postmasters quarters above and the offices below. Lined with Burma Teak creaky flooring and old chandelier and walls adorned with old moustached postmasters; stepping inside takes you back 100 years in time to a time of Empire.
The Post Box is a large worn out mammoth wooden chest with a brass lock made in far off Edinburgh and faint traces of Edward the VIII.
The post is still collected in worn-out leather bags and sorted by hand.
Franking Machines are not commonplace here. We like to do it the old-fashioned way of stamping with messy India Ink and a worn-out stamper.
On the outside the building is an attractive porte-cochere made for horse drawn carriages; a very practical architectural feature in the sun and rain of tropical Colombo.

The elegant but functional building was designed in far-off England. The plans approved by the civil servants in Whitehall and brought to life by the Public Works Department of Ceylon. Ceylon (or Sri Lanka as it is now known) was a model colony and pride of the empire. The building was naturally built in flamboyant style with no expenses spared with liberal use of Ionic columns, decorated windowsills, and intricate oriental touches on the arches. The whole thing lies in a large manicured garden of shady coconut trees.

With falling revenues and not many people using the post office is an eventuality that old buildings like this will have to make room for sleeker more cramped Post Offices but for now, my walk to the Post Office takes me back in time to the good old days.

[si356z]

Hellenic Post, Kypselis Square, Athens Greece. Almost all post offices in Greece are nowdays housed in ugly buildings.

[pmsobon]

Thanks for the hint about the post office at Heididorf – I now have to get there for a postal visit!!

[samquito]

the people at our local post offices wear glove (blue ones) in the morning when sorting out the mail. i’d ask before, but was some time ago and don’t remember why they use them.

[Phibatola]

Thank you for sharing Kostas . I was the only one so far. And yes ours is ugly too in Nea Smyrni