Relocated Walworth Post Office Re-opens with eye-catching murals

• Relocated Walworth Post Office is turning heads
• Huge murals on shutters combine local history & Post Office images
• Official opening at 388 Walworth Road, London, SE17 2NG
• The Walworth Society founders “cut the ribbon”
• Premises had full refit for Post Office, stationery, gifts & cards
• Temp postmaster has become permanent

Walworth Post Office’s new location is the talk of the area – all for very good reasons and people are flocking to have selfies taken at the eye-catching branch with amazing murals.

The branch has opened at its new permanent home - 388 Walworth Road. The whole premises has been fully refurbished for a Post Office with stationery, gifts and cards.

Walworth Post Office looks great on the inside, but it equally looks amazing on the outside. A brand-new shop front has been installed and new shutters to protect it at night.

To reduce the risk of the front being graffitied and to take advantage of the space postmistress Lakshmi Patel and her husband Dheerup Patel decided to commission Top Murals, a local graffiti artist company to produce two massive murals.

Two exciting new murals capturing the history of Walworth and the Elephant & Castle have been created, featuring an elephant, a castle and East Street market. The amazing artwork also has a Post Office van, post box and an envelope to remind people of the shop within.

The artwork is visible when the branch is closed. Opening hours are Monday - Friday: 9am – 5.30pm; Saturday: 9am – 1pm. This provides 46.5 hours of Post Office service a week.

The official opening of Walworth Post Office at its permanent location has been held (20/2). The ribbon cutting has been carried out by Norma Lawrence and Jeremy Leach, two of the founders of The Walworth Society – an organisation set up to preserve and protect Walworth’s rich architectural and cultural heritage and to provide a voice for the people of Walworth.

Norma Lawrence and Jeremy Leach said: “We are delighted to have performed the official opening now that Walworth has a permanent Post Office once again. The new location will help to bring more people to this part of the Walworth Road. The new premises look to be just the right size. It’s modern, with a good layout and is very welcoming. Owners Lakshmi and Dheerup Patel have done a really good job.

“The artwork was a wonderful surprise. The murals look amazing, reflecting the area’s history close to the Elephant & Castle, once the Piccadilly of the south, and about the important role that the Post Office plays locally.”

The new, permanent postmistress is Lakshmi Patel, who is a second-generation postmaster, followed in the footsteps of her parents who have a Post Office in West Ealing.

Walworth Post Office had been based at 234-236 Walworth Road, London, SE17 1JD. Lakshmi Patel has taken on the branch on a temporary basis in June 2023 to restore service to the community whilst she looked for a new location that would be more suitable.

There are four serving positions: two screened, one open plan and a Post Office serving point at the retail counter. There is time restricted parking and public transport nearby.

Lakshmi and Dheerup Patel said: “The original premises were too large for the current needs of a Post Office and the retail needs of the area. The new location is ideal in terms of size and enough room for four counters and enough room for cards, stationery and gifts.

“Walworth Post Office is now closer to the residential area where most of our customers come from. Lots of new flats have recently been built. So, the new location works well.

“People have had great things to say about our new Post Office and how it looks inside and out. When we close lots and the shutters are down with the artwork on show, we know that lots of people have been turning up to have selfies taken of themselves with the Elephant & Castle themed backdrop. There are big wide pavements here, so groups have also been pictured as the artwork looks so great.

“When we knew that new shutters were being installed, we were worried that the shutters might attract bad graffiti as the surface was like a blank canvas. Our Regional Manager Jason Collins came up with the fantastic idea of getting some artwork painted on it. We contacted a local graffiti art company Top Murals. Together we worked on the design tying in the important history of Elephant & Castle with Post Office images.

“We’re very happy with the finished artwork and so are the local community and passers-by. It’s a big talking point and somewhere that people want to be photographed. It’s a real magnet. It’s worked so well that we are now thinking about artwork for our other Post Office locations in Hanwell and Boston Parade, near Boston Manor.”

Background: The elephant and castle are two symbols that appeared on the crest of the Worshipful Company of Cutlers for local medieval craftsmen who made swords and knives in the area. In 1765, a coaching inn called the Elephant and Castle was established to offer a welcome retreat for coach traffic coming in and out of the south of London; it flourished as travel through south London grew with the opening of Westminster Bridge (1750) and Blackfriars Bridge (1769). There may also have been a tavern there earlier as there is a reference to the ‘Elephant’ In Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, written around 1601.

There has been street trading in the Walworth area since the 16th Century, when farmers rested their livestock on Walworth Common before continuing to the city. During the Industrial Revolution, stalls lined the whole of the Walworth Road, but the market in East Street has only been officially running since 1880 when the arrival of the trams meant that it could no longer operate on the Walworth Road itself.