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Eastern Telegraph Office



Located at 20 Norfolk Street, this public telegraph office allowed the public to send telegrams throughout the world.



Grid reference:

Map showing the location of the Eastern Telegraph company's Manchester office

Picture of 20 Norfolk Street today
The buiding which today occupies 20 Norfolk Street, the site of the Eastern Telegraph Office.

The Eastern Telegraph company was formed in 1872 through an amalgamation of the British-Indian Submarine Telegraph Company, the Anglo-Mediterranean Telegraph Company, the Falmouth, Gibraltar and Malta Telegraph Company and the Marseilles, Algiers and Malta Telegraph Company with John Pender as Chairman. John Pender was a Glaswegian who made his fortune as a Cottom Merchant in Manchester in which he had premises at 29 Dale Street. At its formation, this new company had 8,860 miles of operational telegraph cable, which would grow to 22,400 in only 15 years.

A picture of the Eastern Telegraph Company's Manchster office on Norfok Street
The original Eastern Telegraph Company office at 20 Norfolk Street.

It is not known when the Manchester Office was opened but it proudly promoted through large lettering on its windows, “Telegrams forwarded by diect cable route to” which was followed by a very long list of countries. This building has now sadly gone and replaced with a modern building on the site.

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