Custom House

Custom house, built in 1781 and rebuilt in replica in 1814; now a commercial premises.

MATERIALS: Flemish bond brickwork with dressings of stone and rubbed brick, under a hipped slate roof with brick ridge and rear, lateral stacks.

PLAN: double-depth plan with a principal rear first-floor room.

EXTERIOR: the Custom House has two upper storeys and a semi-basement. Its front, to the west, is three bays wide, with four-bay side returns to the north and south. The principal façade has a basement impost band, moulded timber eaves, and the central pedimented bay set forward. The central porch has Tuscan columns and an entablature which carries a cast-iron Royal Coat of Arms, restored in around 1990. The double entrance doors are panelled. The porch is approached by symmetrical segmental curved stairs with wrought-iron railings, which copy those of Poole’s mid-C18 Guildhall (Grade II*-listed). Six-over-six-pane sash windows flank the entrance porch, while the central top-floor window is blank, with three-over-three-pane sash windows to either side. Below the entrance, the semi-basement floor has a keyed, segmental-arched doorway with a half-glazed door. The window openings to the semi-basement are round-arched, whilst those to the upper two storeys are flat-arched.

On the side returns the semi-basement forms a lower ground floor, and the fenestration matches that to the front elevation. There is an impost band, doorway and three windows; four sash windows to the floor above and four shorter sashes to the upper floor; and two blocked openings on the return facing Paradise Street.

INTERIOR: the ground floor is understood to be altered, but is reported to contain a rear axial stair, and a roof with four paired king-post trusses, two on each tie beam.