Old Custom House

The Old Custom House is a merchant's house that was later used as a customs house and is now a shop. It was built in 1586, with an inscription reading "A 1623 K" above the right-hand doorway. The building is constructed from coursed Plymouth limestone rubble with granite dressings and features a steep dry slate roof laid to diminishing courses, with the right-hand end coped to indicate the former roof level. There are large rubble end stacks with drip courses, and the building has a deep plan built around a courtyard.

The exterior consists of two storeys with a very tall upper storey and a four-window range, showing evidence of many old alterations to some openings. The first floor has four two-light chamfered mullioned windows beneath a string course and relieving arches. On the ground floor, there is a wide doorway on the left and a narrow doorway with a relieving arch on the right; both doorways are original, moulded, and feature four-centred arches, square hoodmoulds, and carved spandrels. The left doorway may have been resited, possibly originally belonging to a courtyard wall. Between these doorways is a widened opening with a 20th-century shop window, and above it is a relieving arch similar in size to those on the first floor. It is suggested that the window on the left of the first floor, which must be reinstated, may have been converted from a loading doorway and could be a reused window from the ground-floor centre. The interior has not been inspected, but a former listing description notes that it has a modern interior.