CUSTOM HOUSE

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Three-storey five-bay Custom House of Classical-style. L-shaped plan form, constructed with adjoining Post Office building [HB01/21/017A] to west end in 1876.

Principal elevation with a combination of round-arched and segmental-arched windows in asymmetric layout faces east set back from riverfront.

North elevation faces onto shared courtyard leading to Queens Quay, with mix of schist and buff sandstone with redbrick dressings.

East elevation faces onto Harbour Square and riverfront, with round-headed casement (bottom-hinged) windows to first floor, and segmental-headed 1/1 painted timber sliding sash windows to second floor. Ground floor windows are shoulder-headed with chamfered reveals, 1/1 painted timber sliding sash. Original 3 panelled square-headed painted timber doorway to left of centre with fanlight and round arch above having angle-roll hood mould and foliated label stops. Segmental arched passageway to right of centre with modern painted, sheeted and braced sliding doors.

South elevation is stepped merging with Post Office building; west elevation to rear is attached to Post Office building at south end with external courtyard to north end.

Elevations of snecked squared rubble quarry-faced, with a mix of Barony Glen and Giffnock sandstone with projecting stone cornice at eaves on stone corbels and ashlar stepped quoins.

Hipped slate roof with lead rolled ridge. Stone chimneys mid-ridge to east end of east elevation and gable-end to north elevation with four clay pots. Cast-iron rainwater goods

Materials:
Roof Natural Slate
RWG Cast Iron
Walling Sandstone
Windows Timber Sliding Sash

Setting:
Located on a corner site to Custom House Street and Queens Quay, west of the River Foyle, north of the city walls. Set within a group of three blocks with street frontage overlooking Harbour Square and river.

Historical information

The Custom House, a three-storey sandstone building merged with the adjoining Post Office (see HB01/21/017A), was constructed in 1876. The building is at least the fourth Custom House to have been established in Londonderry. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs note that the first (recorded) Custom House was located at nos 31-33 Shipquay Street (HB01/19/034) but had moved to a different location on Shipquay Street by 1826. The second Custom House remained at Shipquay Street until at least 1837; in that year the memoirs noted that that building was ‘originally a store … built in 1808-09 by Mr, John A. Smith, from whom it was rented by the government as a king’s store until 1826 in which year the front part was converted into a Custom House’ (OSM, pp 116-117).

The Custom House had moved to its current location by c. 1850; the Ulster Town Directories records that the third Custom House had been constructed at Ship Quay by at least 1852 and Calley states that street was renamed Custom House Lane in 1851. The contemporary second edition Ordnance Survey map (1853) lacks detail but depicted and captioned the ‘Custom House’ at the corner of Ship Quay and Custom House Street. In the 1850s the Custom House was administered by the Londonderry Harbour Commissioners (whose offices were on the Strand Road) and was valued at £250 under Griffith’s Valuation (1856); the valuer noted that the new site for the Custom House continued to be leased by John A. Smyth (John A. Smyth & Co., a general merchant’s firm held business premises on Waterloo Place - Ulster Town Directories).

The numerous relocations of the Custom House throughout this period was due to the expansion and success of Londonderry’s port; the Londonderry Port and Harbour Commissioners record that ‘by the early-19th century Derry had become one of the most important and thriving ports in Ireland. In 1835 the value of exports from Derry exceeded £1 million, making her the fifth largest port in Ireland [and by 1861] the Harbour Commissioners had spent nearly £150,000 on improving harbour facilities (Londonderry Port and Harbour Commissioners). Tenders for the erection of the current Custom House, and adjoining Post Office, were invited as early as 1874 and the buildings were completed by 1876; the new building was erected along Ship Quay, in close proximity to the quayside and docking ships. The Ulster Town Directories records that the construction of the Custom House and Post Office cost as estimated £10,000 and that the pair were originally known as ‘Government Buildings’ and also included the Inland Revenue Office and Income Tax Office (UTD). The architect of the Government Buildings is not known, however he employed locally quarried Barony Glen Sandstone into the masonry of both structures whilst utilising Derry Schist as a secondary material for the Custom House (Natural Stone Database).

Following the completion of Government Buildings, the total rateable value of the Custom House section (which included the Custom House and offices for the Inland Revenue) was set at £175; this joint value was later split to take the separate offices into account and from c. 1885 until 1931 the Custom House was valued at £100 and the Inland Revenue offices were valued at £75. In 1935 the First Revaluation increased the value of the ‘Custom House and Excise Offices’ to £200, however under the Second Revaluation (1956-72), the formerly separate values of the Post Office and Custom House were combined and set at £1,768.

In 1970 the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society described the Custom House and adjoining Post Office as ‘stone-faced, with dressed stone round-headed windows and door openings, deep reveals giving strong sturdy form;’ the Custom House and Post Office were both subsequently listed in 1979 (UAHS, p. 38). The NIEA HB Records note that a renovation of the Custom House was carried out in 1984 when the stonework was repaired and repointed, the roof was reslated in natural slate, and the original chimney stacks were repaired. With the removal of Londonderry’s port to Lisahally in 1993 the former docklands along the Foyle were redeveloped and, as a result, the Custom House was vacated and is no longer used for its original purpose. As part of a further renovation in 2010, the former Custom House was converted into a restaurant named Custom House Restaurant & Wine Bar.

References

Primary Sources
1. PRONI OS/6/5/20/2 – First Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1830)
2. PRONI OS/6/5/20/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1853)
3. PRONI VAL/12/E/157/1/10 – Annual Revisions Town Plan (c. 1873)
4. PRONI VAL/2/B/5/16F – Griffith’s Valuation (1856)
5. PRONI VAL/12/B/32/11A-11ZD – Annual Revisions (1860-1897)
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/33/2D-2F – Annual Revisions (1898-1931)
7. PRONI VAL/3/B/6/4 – First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1935)
8. PRONI VAL/4/B/5/14 – Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956-72)
9. Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Londonderry (1837)
10. Ulster Town Directories (1852-1943)
11. First Survey Record – HB01/21/017 (1970)
12. First Survey Image – HB01/19/017 (No Date)
13. NIEA HB Records – HB01/19/017B

Secondary Sources
1. Calley, D., ‘City of Derry: An historical gazetteer to the buildings of Londonderry’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 2013.
2. Ferguson, W. S; Rowan, A. J; Tracey, J. J., ‘List of historic buildings, groups of buildings, areas of architectural importance in and near the city of Derry’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1970.
3. Rowan, A. J., ‘The Buildings of Ireland: North West Ulster’ London: Yale University Press, 2003.

Online Resources
1. Natural Stone Database - http://www.stonedatabase.com//stone_types.cfm?stc=45
2. Londonderry Port and Harbour Commissioners website - http://www.londonderryport.com
3. Custom House Restaurant and Wine Bar website - http://customhouserestaurant.com

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
X. Local Interest
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance
Z. Rarity
T. Historic Importance

Evaluation

Together with neighbouring Post Office, two three-storey 'Barony Glen' sandstone buildings treated and constructed as a single composition in 1876, and established as at least the fourth Custom House in Derry, reflecting the expansion and success of Londonderry’s port. Today utilised as a restaurant and (adjacent) post office (HB01/21/017A). An important building which maintains a strong presence and represents the prosperity and confidence of the era in which it was conceived, in its setting overlooking Harbour Square and the River Foyle beyond, bounded by the former Harbour Commissioners’ Offices and Guildhall to the south east. Later modifications to the exterior are sensitively integrated, though clearly evident and despite the loss of the interior plan form and original fabric, the exacting and restrained external detailing of this building set it aside as noteworthy. Now converted to a wine bar and restaurant, the sturdy and commanding public facade is a fine example of unpretentious civic architecture.

General comments

Previously HB01/21/017