The new offices were officially opened by Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh on
6th May 1966, one day short of 100 years after its opening. The Postmaster-General, Mr.Anthony Wedgwood
Benn, remarked "The Post Office today, performing all the functions of a Ministry of Communications,
is a huge science based industry now undergoing a radical period of revolutionary technological change".
That change was also taking place in Edinburgh, for away from the public gaze much was being done to
merchanise the workings of the Post Office; this included the construction of a mail compound at
platform level in the adjacent Waverley Station and the erection of a bridge over the railway track
to house conveyors to carry mail bags to and from the letter and parcel offices. At the same time
parcel sorting machines were installed in the Parcel Office, and mechanisation of the Letter Sorting
Office was carried out. This was partly in anticipation of the introduction of the postal codes
which we now take for granted.
As part of the £350,000 modernisation work, the external stonework of the building was carefully
cleaned and renovated, revealing once again the beauty of the original material, after being hidden
for many years under a layer of grime. By 1966 the Head Postmaster of Edinburgh controlled a postal
staff of 1540, handling 340 million letters, packets and parcels a year.
In 1980 the Post Office building was sold to the British Gas pension fund, on a lease-back
arrangement, but remained in use as a Post Office. Times were changing, however, and by 1983
the Sorting Office had moved to new premises in Leith.
In 1988 the building was acquired by a developer, but continued to house Post Office Administrative
Staff as well as a Delivery Office and Edinburgh’s main Post Office until these functions were moved
to a new high-tech centre on the west side of Edinburgh in October 1995. Ownership of the building
changed hands yet again in 1994 .
