The site of the little Post Office alluded to was required in 1742 in connection with the building of the Exchange, and the Post Office was transferred to a house in Small Street, in later days occupied as the printing office of the _Times and Mirror_ newspaper. There seems to have been some informal understanding that when the Exchange was finished a suitable site would be provided by the Corporation for postal business, and in August, 1746, a Committee reported to the Council that they had contracted for the erection of "a house intended to be made use of as a Post Office, certain workmen having agreed to build and find all the materials at the rate of £60 per square (_sic_); while Mr. Thomas Pine (nephew to Henry, the former postmaster) had offered to become the tenant at £40 a year, which he alleged is the highest rent he is able at present to pay." The Council approved of the proposal, recommending the Committee to get as much rent as was practicable. The house, which was of scanty dimensions, cost £700 exclusive of a ground rent of £15 a year given for the site. Only the ground floor was set apart for postal business, Mr. Pine residing on the premises. The first year's rent (£43) was paid in 1750. Between 1750 and 1815 the building must have been considerably enlarged, for in the latter year the Post Office is spoken of as a handsome and convenient building of freestone, near to the western end of the Exchange, to which it has a wing projecting forward into the street; and there is another building, exactly similar to it, at the eastern end, which is occupied for a stamp office. In 1827 there was a contemplated removal of the Post Office, and it was deemed proper by the Chamber of Commerce to come on the scene by presenting a memorial to the Postmaster-General; it is stated that the timely remonstrance no doubt contributed to relieve the public of the inconvenience of such removal. Colonel Maberly, the Secretary to the Post Office, advised Lord Lichfield in 1838 that as the ground-floor portion of the Post Office premises occupied by the solicitors was necessary for the extension and improved accommodation of the office, no time should be lost in giving the several sub-tenants notice to quit, and Mr. Hall or the postmaster should be instructed to communicate with the Corporation as to the means of effecting such alterations as might be requisite. His lordship gave authority to that effect. In 1839 the Corporation granted the Government a new lease of the premises and of additional ground behind for the purpose of having the Post Office enlarged. The annual rent previous to this new arrangement had risen to £100.