Pub history

The Old Post Office

On the front of 2 York Buildings is carved ‘The Old Post Office’. During 1854–1927, these premises housed Bath’s main post office, with Oldham T Barlow its postmaster for nearly 30 years (1863–90). Thomas Moore Musgrave was also a long-serving postmaster here. On 2 May 1840, Thomas famously posted ‘an item of mail’ from the Bath post office (then at 8 Broad Street) with the newly invented Penny Black postage stamp – this was the world’s first adhesive postage stamp’s earliest use.