History of the General Post Office in Chennai

The Madras General Post Office, which at present is located in a well known heritage building built more than a hundred years  in the Rajaji Salai,  was established first in the year 1786. The first appointed  Post Master General  was Sir Archiebald with secretary  A M Campbell.  Sir Robert Mitford was the deputy Post Master General.

History of the GPO Madras / Chennai
In the early days of the post office which was functioning from the beach near the Fort St George. The new Post Office was served by one writer /clerk, 5 sorters, one head peon and 10 postmen. These staff seems to have worked from a building close to the beach at the Fort St George Square.
In October 1837 the post office was shifted to the old bank building which is placed inside the Fort and where at present Fort Museum is located .
Then in 1856,  it got shifted to Garden House, Popham's Broadway, which was located near the Kothwal Chavadi.
Eventually in the year 1884,  the GPO shifted to its own building, that too, a beautiful one, designed and built by Chrisholm  from where it is working still.

The Post Office started expanding itse services  and opened its first receiving offices in March 1834 at Hunters Road, Vepery, and at Westcott Road in Royapettah. In 1845, 4 more receiving offices were opened one each on Mount Road and Triplicane and two in Black town, which is the present George town.
In 1855,  a set of them were added  one each in Teynampet near St Georges cahedral,  and in Santhome. Like this the GPO went on opening receiving offices one after the other in the city area.  When these expansions warranted a central distribution system  the Madras Chamber of Commerce urged the Government to build a large General Post Office. The construction started in 1880 and the building got big enough to hold Post and Telegraphs and was finished only in 1884.

The 352 feet long,162 feet broad and 125 feet tall  towers with three floors came up  and was inagurated in the year 1884, There is a high ceilinged central hall  in the ground floor provided space for stores, kitchen servants etc.
The first floor was used fpor the offices and the second floor as the accommodation for the officers. The PMG shifted  into the building on 1st march 1884 and rest of the staff on 26th April.

The present GPO ( 2011 ) is still there at Rajaji Salai . The Facilities available at the GPO are speed post, registered post, parcel, insurance, e-billing, and e-posting. Chennai GPO has a 24 hour telegraph office attached  from where you can send telegrams even now if needed,  in the days of E Mails and smses.