of the building's facade. However, the side and rear walls of the building were also of brick, and so the brick attic storey "tied in" with these treatments. The General Post Office was officially opened on 26 September 1923 after around nine years of protracted construction, at a total cost of £400,000. The new street in front of the building was ceremonially opened on the same day, and named "Forrest Place" in honour of the late Sir John Forrest, Western Australia's first Premier. At its opening, the new General Post Office was Perth's largest building, and it has been said that its imposing design proclaimed "the might of the new Commonwealth". Subsequent history The Commonwealth precinct expanded with subsequent construction of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia building immediately south of the General Post Office. It was officially opened on 22 March 1933 by Sir Robert Gibson. It was designed in a similar style to the General Post Office by the architectural staff of the bank, and built by A. Douglas for a tender price of £207,000. The building featured cornice lines and columns of the same style as the General Post Office. Another similarly-styled Commonwealth department was planned for the General Post Office's northern side; this was not constructed for many decades, and did not emulate the design of the General Post Office. Forrest Place was closed to traffic in the late 1980s as part of the Forrest Chase development. The Padbury Buildings on the eastern side of Forrest Place, which had been constructed in 1925, were demolished, and the newly created pedestrian mall featured basement parking and loading docks for the General Post Office. The widening of Forrest Place has effectively created a town square dominated by the General Post Office building. On 22 June 1992, the General Post Office was recognised for its heritage value by interim listing on the Western Australian Register of Heritage Places; it received a permanent entry on the Register on 16 October 1992. After decades serving as Perth's central post office, Australia Post vacated the building on 22 July 22 2016. A franchise of clothing retailer H&M opened in its place in March 2017. Australia Post later reopened its central post office on 19 December 2016 at its new permanent location at Perth railway station. Design The architecture of the General Post Office building has been referred to as High Edwardian Classical and a "free treatment of the Greek Renaissance". It features a neo-classical facade, featuring Donnybrook stone (a sandstone), including large paired Ionic columns, rising above an arcade lined with Mahogany Creek Granite facing. At the time of its opening, the building was considered to be "by far the most ornate structure in the city". The interior of the General Post Office was similarly well-finished, with jarrah features throughout. An estimated 600,000 jarrah blocks were used in the herringbone-pattern flooring. The ground floor is fronted by a large colonnade along its entire width. The main postal hall was two storeys high, with balconies from the first floor above. The postal hall also featured a frosted glass roof, above which a lightwell reached to the top of the building. The basement of the General Post Office accommodated vaults and was also used for the handling of bulk parcels. The first floor served as the Mail Room, while the second floor housed executive offices. The third floor housed the State Engineer in addition to the managers and operators of the telephone and telegraph systems. The telegraph operating room was connected to the ground floor by pneumatic tubes. The fourth and fifth floors of the