It is on record that in 1863 the Post Office authorities offered £10,000 towards erecting a new Post Office if the citizens would consent to contribute £2,000 more. A meeting of some gentlemen took place in the committee-room of the Council House to take the proposition into consideration, but owing to the small number of persons that attended further deliberation was postponed to a day not named. Some of the leading citizens were of opinion that it would be wise to defer any decision on the subject until the intention of the Government as to granting a criminal assize for Bristol was known; for should the answer from head-quarters be in the affirmative, it would be necessary to build a new court somewhere, in which case the Guildhall would perhaps suit as a Post Office. Nothing appears to have come of the negotiations, and the business of the Post Office was removed on the 25th of March, 1868, to the new office erected in Small Street on the site where it is now carried on. This original portion of the structure covers 11,000 square feet. The purchase of the site was completed on the 21st December, 1865. It is stated in a legal document that the bricks, stones, and material on part of the site belonged to the Bristol Chambers Co. Limited. Where the sorting office stands there formerly flourished a fine mulberry tree. There appears to have been no ceremonial in the way of laying a foundation stone, and the antiquarian of the distant future may be disappointed in not discovering the usual coins deposited on such occasions. In fifteen years the need arose for more space, and that then the Bristol public manifested a keen interest in the position of the Bristol Post Office was indicated by an animated debate which took place in our Council Chamber; and as this book affects to be in part a history as well as a narrative, it is thought well to give the report of the proceedings a full record herein, under permission from the proprietors of the _Bristol Times and Mirror_:-- _Friday, January 2nd, 1885._ "THE SITE FOR THE POST OFFICE. "The TOWN CLERK said that as the next part of the report referred to the site for the Post Office, he would read a letter he had received from Mr. Lewis Fry, M. P., which was as under:-- "'Goldney House, Clifton Hill, _30th December, 1884_.