Custom House, Custom House Square, Belfast, Co Antrim, BT1 3ET

Custom House, Belfast

A freestanding symmetrical two-storey building with attic and basement, built around 1855 to designs by Sir Charles Lanyon. The building is designed in the Italianate Palazzo style and is E-shaped on plan, standing over a deep battered plinth with a raised terrace spanning between projecting wings to the west.

The external walls are constructed throughout in ashlar Giffnock sandstone with string courses between floors. The basement plinth is battered with a tooled feather-edged finish, terminated by a single course of diamond-pointed stone framed by plain and rope-moulded string courses. The piano nobile features rusticated ashlar with diamond-pointed quoins, whilst the first floor is plain ashlar with rusticated quoins. A modillioned cornice sits above a dentilled frieze.

The roof is natural slate with leaded ridges and hips (replacement), with ashlar sandstone chimneystacks having corniced caps surmounted by semi-circular stone terminals. Modern rooflight strips are fitted to all pitches. Lead-lined stone gutters with cast-iron downpipes provide water drainage.

Windows to the piano nobile are round-headed with diamond-pointed jambs and moulded heads, step-jointed voussoirs and string courses at impost level. First-floor windows are rectangular, set over panelled aprons with Corinthian aediculed surrounds. Attic windows have generally been replaced with plain horizontal rectangular openings, although a small number of original oeil-de-boeuf windows are retained to the west wing. Basement windows are in shouldered segmental openings with deep chamfered and moulded reveals. Throughout, windows are fine 6/6 sash windows with heavy secondary casements to the inner face.

The symmetrical west elevation features a central pedimented breakfront with projecting wings, all accessed from the raised terrace enclosed by a balustraded parapet and reached via sixteen granite steps. The breakfront contains a triple arcade of round-headed openings to each floor. From the terrace, three granite steps rise to twin entrances flanking a central alcoved niche with an ornate scalloped head and moulded shelf. A heraldic carving bearing the inscription "HONIT SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE" in deep relief rests on this shelf, though a modern window opening has been inserted into the niche. The openings are divided by rusticated piers with richly carved panels to the tympana over the entrances; modern glazed doors are fitted. Windows above have secondary glazing behind cast-iron tracery with rope-moulded central glazing bars. Each window is flanked by two Corinthian columns supporting enriched archivolts over panelled soffits, and the aprons are enriched with stone carving bearing the letter "VR". The pediment contains a central carved heraldic panel alongside a second shield bearing the Belfast Coat of Arms inscribed "PRO TANTO QUID RETRIBUTAMUS". Roundels occupy each cheek, flanked by three openings to each floor on either side, with original oeil-de-boeuf windows retained to the north side.

The projecting wings are not identical. The north wing is four openings deep to each floor, including a round-headed panelled timber door accessed from the terrace via eleven balustraded granite steps. A single richly carved tympanum to the right side of the north wing is carved with the inscription "INLAND REVENUE". The south wing has seven unequally spaced openings facing onto the terrace. Oeil-de-boeuf windows are present to the inner cheek of the north wing only. Balustraded basement channels extend to either side of the terrace. The projecting wings are three windows wide to each floor, except for the basement at the north wing, which has a single opening. Basement beneath the terrace contains a segmental-headed timber door and a similarly profiled blind niche to either side of the main steps.

The north elevation is nine windows wide to each floor, with three openings in the basement fronted by iron security grilles. The east elevation, facing the river, has six openings flanking a central pedimented breakfront which is three windows wide. Breakfront windows have iron tracery as on the west. The pediment is richly detailed with carvings depicting Britannia flanked by Neptune and Mercury. The spandrels of the upper windows contain richly carved angels, and bearded figurative keyblocks are present to the lower windows. The basement has two windows to either side of the breakfront and a timber-sheeted door to the right side only. The south elevation is detailed as the north, featuring figurative keyblocks depicting Britannia, Neptune and Mercury.

The building is situated immediately west of the former quayside to Belfast Lough, now separated from it by a four-lane carriageway. To the south and west are public realm works comprising Custom House Square, with recent multi-storey development immediately to the south.