Nelson Post Office

Now occupied by the Nelson City Council this Brutalist former Post office building with its clock tower still arouses strong emotions among Nelsonians. Designed by the Ministry of Works District architect Eric Dinsdale the clock tower was included as an undertaking had been given that the clock faces and bells from the old post office building be incorporated.

According to the Nelson Mail:
Mr Dinsdale said he understood that the clock was built in 1905 by John Taylor and Co of England.Its mechanism was of the same design as that of London's Big Ben, with four faces and five bells.It had driving gear that originally required a minimum height of 15.5 metres to enable the weights to operate to their full extent. Mr Dinsdale said a redesign of the clock tower so that the weights could use ventilation shafts meant a reduction in the minimum height requirements for the bells and machinery, to around 5m. "As it is a four-faced clock, it requires a situation of some height above the roofscape to be seen from all directions," he said.