Tòa nhà trung tâm Bưu điện Hà Nội

Opposite Hoàn Kiếm Lake, the Hanoi Post Office Central Building runs along Đinh Tiên Hoàng, Lê Thạch and Đinh Lễ streets. Three main buildings make up the complex, their facades blending neoclassical order with Art Deco detail, the legacy of French colonial design. The Lê Thạch building, the first of the three, has grown through repeated extensions since it rose.

The story begins after the Nguyễn dynasty signed the Treaty of Quý Mùi, the agreement that allowed French colonial rule. A demand for communication infrastructure brought the Hanoi Post Office into being in 1883 or 1884. By 1888 a telegraph line ran from Hà Nội all the way to Saigon. Henri Vildieu, a French architect, completed the central post office in 1901 on the site of the former Báo Ân Pagoda. A further building joined the row in the early 1940s, completing the continuous front of facades towards the lake. During the August Revolution of 1945 and the nationwide resistance of 1946, the site served as a strategic communication and propaganda hub. In the 1970s the old central post office came down, replaced by a five-storey building with a Soviet-style clock tower. The clock on its roof arrived as a gift from China and quickly became a landmark for the city.

The Art Deco building on Đinh Lễ Street announces itself with tall columns and distinctive glass blocks. From the water's edge, the clock tower still draws the eye first, the cultural symbol Hà Nội has made its own.