Parcels and pani puri: post office takeaways get our stamp of approval
Inside the businesses where you can send a birthday card, pay your road tax and grab an order of pav bhaji to go
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Post offices were once vital community hubs, depended on by the nation as places to buy stamps, send parcels and pay bills. Nowadays, paperless billing and payment services have streamlined our financial transactions, while email and messaging apps have drastically reduced the need to communicate by post.
According to postal services regulator Ofcom, 6.6bn UK-addressed letters were posted in 2023-2024, a 67% decline in 20 years from a peak of 20bn annually. There were more than 18,000 post offices in the UK at the turn of the millennium, but by 2024 that figure had dropped to 11,805.
Of those that remain the vast majority are operated as concessions within supermarkets and convenience stores by franchise partners or independent sub-postmasters, but nearly half are no longer profitable. The number of crown branches, owned directly by Post Office Limited, declined from nearly 400 in 2012 to just 115 in 2024 — and now they face being offloaded entirely.
However, nearly 90% of people in the UK consider post offices to be an essential service, with 64% saying they are “important to them as a channel of communication with friends and family”. In an effort to keep the doors open, some post offices are redefining their role by offering an array of other services — including counters where hungry customers can pick up takeaway treats. Here are three branches where you can grab a juicy shawarma after picking up your passport renewal forms or an order of pani puri while posting that important birthday card.
Moorgate Post Office, London
Moorgate Post Office serves the City of London, the capital’s financial district. In 2021, postmaster Dewan Zaky Ashrafi took a bold turn and brought Fusionend Spices into the business, serving up Chinese, Indian street food and authentic lunchtime curries to local workers.
Moorgate has gained low-key renown as the first post office in the city to include a curry house, with lunchtime queues flowing into the streets from 11am to 3.30pm, Monday to Friday. In a kitchen below the main floor, a menu of 34 items is cooked fresh for up to 250 customers each day.
Data analysts Tineyi Gonah (left) and Amer Zribi (right) work near the post office, making this their trusty lunch spot. “My go-to is the butter chicken for lunch,” says Gonah. But for Zribi, the “lamb biryani always slaps”.
“We have mixed reactions when customers come in. Some people are excited that there’s a food corner, others are like ‘How can you work here? The curry smell must go all over your clothes,’” says Alaisa Shaheda at the post office Drop & Go desk. “I get my lunch from here most days.”
The Post Box Shawarma — Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester
Chorlton-cum-Hardy Post Office was established in the early 1960s, built on the site of properties destroyed in the Manchester blitz in 1940. In 2013 part of the building was transformed into the Post Box Cafe. In September 2021, the Post Box Shawarma was born, bringing Middle Eastern fare to the location.
“We have had a major drop in government contracts, which is of great concern in terms of the future of the post office,” says Nazmat Hudda, 69, who has been a sub-postmaster since 2009. “The post office element is definitely in decline, but the recent addition of the banking facilities has helped us a lot. The retail side keeps us going, so that’s what we need to focus on.”
“The fatayer is one of the best sellers, along with the chicken and lamb shawarma,” says the Post Box Shawarma’s manager Shakhawan Ahmed (left). “It’s like a calzone stuffed with meat or spinach and feta.”
Fluffy diamond-shaped samoon, a traditional Kurdish flatbread, are made fresh every morning in the on-site stone oven.
“I send money to my wife in Thailand every month through the post office next door and then stop by here to get a shawarma,” says Irfan Asaf. “It’s one of the best places to eat in Chorlton, halal and fresh and even better than Wilmslow Road.”
Hawker Asian Street Food / Camden High Street Post Office – London
In July 2024, at a time when many post offices were feeling the pinch, the Camden High Street branch in north London launched Hawker Asian Street Food on its premises, serving up South Asian street food staples from aloo tikki and pav bhaji to a variety of chaats and samosas.
“I was really shocked to see the hot food when I first came in,” says 31-year-old clinical coordinator Sabina Begum. “My parents are on holiday and my dad doesn’t use card payments to pay bills, he uses cheques, so this post office is really convenient for me. I ordered the aloo bhaji, onion bhaji, pani puri and chicken biryani for me and my siblings.”
“Being able to offer multiple services, especially hot food, makes sense,” says Shahin Mohammed, who works in the shop. “It’s like bringing the street markets of South Asia to the streets of Camden, where you can drop off a parcel before grabbing a paneer tikka wrap.”
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