Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP for Clapham and Brixton Hill “cut the ribbon” (9/5) at the official opening of Clapham Park Road Post Office in fully refurbished, modern, premises with eye-catching artwork on the shutters.
This has restored Post Office and banking services to the area at 82-84 Clapham Park Road, Clapham, SW4 7BX, close to Clapham High Street and residential areas.
Post Office consulted and made the decision to close the Directly Managed branch at Clapham Common in March 2024 – the premises at 161 - 163 Clapham High Street were in need of investment and it was not sustainable to retain the service.
We committed to advertise the opportunity to run a new service. Now Clapham Park Road Post Office has opened with a very experienced and highly regarded postmaster family. Krishan Shah is a second-generation postmaster. The Shah family have run busy London Post Offices since 1987 at Hoxton and Holloway Road.
There are four Post Office counters, one full-screened, two open-plan and a Post Office counter alongside the retail counter of the cards and stationery store. This is large enough to meet the needs of the community.
Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP said: “The closure of Clapham Common Post Office was a real blow to our community. The decision to close this busy branch attracted widespread local opposition and triggered a community campaign to protect local postal services. I welcome the opening of the new Clapham Park Post Office, which will provide a wide range of services to plug this gap. I want to thank postmaster Krishan Shah and his family for their big investment into the new branch, which looks great inside and out with some fantastic artwork on the shutters.”
Post Office services are open: Monday – Friday: 9am – 6.30pm; Saturday: 9am – 5.30pm. This offers customers 56 hours of Post Office service a week. This is longer opening hours than Clapham Common Post Office previously offered as there is later closing than before.
Clapham Park Road branch offers a wide range of Post Office services including driving licence renewals, ID verification and vehicle tax renewal, however, excluding passports.
There are no banks in the area after four closed within the last few years. However, businesses and individuals can use a wide range of banking services including cash withdrawals and balance enquiries for customers of all the main UK banks. Bill payment, a full range of foreign currency and Post Office travel card services are also available.
Customers can also post letters and parcels to collecting and returning online shopping items including DPD buy in store and returns, and Amazon are available at this branch.
Noah Rai, Post Office Area Change Manager, said: “We’re delighted Clapham Park Road Post Office has opened. It’s operated by a well-respected independent postmaster family. With no banks or ATMS in this vicinity it provides a convenient location for businesses and residents to do their everyday banking and for people to withdraw cash during the Post Offices opening hours. It provides a wide range of Post Office services.”
Postmaster, Krishan Shah, said: “Clapham Park Road branch is the largest of the three Post Offices that we have, but we are very experienced in providing the full range of services at Clapham Park Road. We were able to train up staff at our existing branches before they transferred over, along with our manager, who had been at Hoxton.
“Customers are so happy as they can easily get here, especially those without transport and the less mobile as they had to get up Balham Hill. We are just around the corner from the shops in Clapham High Street, near businesses and by lots of residential homes - luxury and social housing, so we are ideally placed.”
The premises had been a former Shisha bar. It has been completely refurbished, including removing many layers of ceiling that had been added by different tenants, to create spacious, modern, premises with new lighting, counters, shelving and flooring.
There is an eye-catching mural on the shutters, which can we admired out of hours. This is an
anti-graffiti deterrent as there is no blank canvas to deface. A professional artist painted the shutters with Post Office themed artwork, co-designed with the postmaster’s wife, Aarti. They are a cat-loving family. It features a black and white cat, similar to Jess from Postman Pat, but it is their oldest cat, called Sox, who is 16-years-old.
Krishan Shah said: “We love cats. As our family’s originally from Kenya, we could have featured big cats, but it tied in nicely to feature our black and white cat in the Post Office themed mural. The community really loves it. They admire it when they pass by out of hours. It’s a real talking point.”