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

Belfast Custom House

Belfast's Custom House is a freestanding, symmetrical Italianate Palazzo-style building of two storeys plus attic over a basement, designed by Sir Charles Lanyon and built between 1854 and 1857, though the original design dates to as early as 1847. It stands as one of the finest public buildings in Belfast and a high point of Lanyon's prolific career, representing the prosperity and confidence of the city at the height of its industrial success. The listing extends to the building itself together with its railings, steps, and lamp standards.

Design and Authorship

Lanyon (1813–1889) was Victorian Belfast's most distinguished and productive architect, responsible for many of the city's important civic and public buildings between 1840 and 1870, working across styles from Renaissance Italianate to Scottish Baronial. Although some commentators attribute the Custom House to the partnership of Lanyon and William Henry Lynn (1829–1915), Lanyon's original design of 1847 predates the partnership, which was not formed until 1854 or 1855. It is possible that Lynn contributed to the developed design during the early years of their collaboration when the building was actually under construction. The Builder records the cost of construction at £30,000.

Plan and General Form

The building is E-shaped on plan, set over a deep battered plinth, with a raised terrace over the basement spanning between the projecting wings to the west. The walling throughout is 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 above is rusticated with diamond-pointed quoins, while the first floor is plain ashlar with rusticated quoins. A modillioned cornice runs above a dentilled frieze.

Roof and Rainwater Goods

The roof is a replacement hipped natural slate construction with leaded ridges and hips. The chimneystacks are replacement ashlar sandstone with corniced caps surmounted by semi-circular stone terminals. Modern rooflight strips have been added to all pitches. Rainwater is carried in lead-lined stone gutters with cast-iron downpipes.

Windows

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

West Elevation

The symmetrical west elevation has a central pedimented breakfront and projecting wings, all approached from the raised terrace. The terrace is enclosed by a balustraded parapet and reached by sixteen granite steps. The breakfront presents 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 carrying a heraldic carving of the motto HONI SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE in deep relief; a modern window opening has been inserted into this niche. The openings are divided by rusticated piers, with richly carved panels to the tympana over the entrances, which now have modern glazed doors. The windows above have secondary glazing behind cast-iron tracery — with rope-moulding to the central glazing bar — and each window is flanked by two Corinthian columns supporting enriched archivolts over panelled soffits; the aprons are enriched with stone carving bearing the royal cypher VR. The pediment carries a central carved heraldic panel bearing the same motto, twinned with a second shield carrying the Belfast Coat of Arms and the motto PRO TANTO QUID RETRIBUAMUS. A roundel appears to each cheek. To either side of the breakfront are three openings per floor, with original oeil-de-boeuf windows surviving to the north side.

The two projecting wings are not identical. The north wing is four openings deep to each floor, including a round-headed panelled timber door reached from the terrace via eleven balustraded granite steps. The south wing has seven unequally spaced openings facing onto the terrace. There is a balustraded basement channel to either side of the terrace. A single richly carved tympanum to the right side of the north wing is carved with the words INLAND REVENUE. Oeil-de-boeuf windows appear to the north wing on the inner cheek only. Each projecting wing is three windows wide to each floor, except at basement level on the north wing, where there is a single opening. Beneath the terrace, the basement has a segmental-headed timber door and a similarly profiled blind niche to either side of the main steps.

North and South Elevations

The north elevation is nine windows wide to each floor, except at basement level, which has three openings fronted by iron security grilles. The south elevation is detailed similarly to the north, with figurative keyblocks depicting Britannia, Neptune, and Mercury.

East (River-Fronting) Elevation

The east elevation, which faces the former quayside, has six openings flanking a central pedimented breakfront that is three windows wide. The breakfront windows have cast-iron tracery matching those 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 there are bearded figurative keyblocks 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.

Sculpture

The building is adorned by a number of sculptures by Thomas Fitzpatrick and Samuel Ferres Lynn (brother of William Henry Lynn). On the seaward east facade, carvings depict Neptune, Mercury, and Britannia. Beneath the pediment, carved spandrel figures represent the defining ideals of the industrial city: Manufacture, Peace, Commerce, and Industry.

Interior

The interior has suffered significant loss of original fabric. In 1926, major structural renovation was required due to settlement of the central block and south wing; the interiors of these sections were entirely removed and reinstated, with many original features lost in the process. Only fourteen years later, in around 1940, a further major renovation installed a new staircase in the north wing.

Historical Development and Alterations

The area now occupied by Custom House Square was reclaimed from the River Lagan in 1757 and was used as an early shipyard a decade later. It was not until the mid-19th century, when the surrounding docks were filled in, that sufficient land became available to build the Custom House. Upon completion, Griffith's Valuation of 1860 valued the structure at £2,000. Shortly afterwards, in 1861, alterations were carried out under the direction of persons appointed by the Board of Works: the forecourt area between the north and south wings was raised to provide additional basement storage and to create a new west entrance to the central block. The Annual Revisions from 1862 record the building subdivided among a number of occupiers, including the Inland Revenue, Income Tax, Post Office, and Mercantile Marine, with the central block valued at £650 and individual offices valued between £70 and £480, giving a slightly reduced total of £1,870 due to subdivision.

The building continued to be administered by the Belfast Board of Works through to 1930, when a reorganised valuation assessed the whole at £2,841, with the Stationery Office on the lower ground floor valued separately at £264, giving a combined total of £3,105. By the First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland in 1935, the value had risen slightly to £3,280, with the Stationery Office at £300. The Second General Revaluation, conducted between the 1950s and 1970s, concluded in 1972 with Custom House valued at £3,652 and the ground-floor office — then occupied by the Northern Ireland Ministry of Finance — at £592.

In 1872, a triple-arched stepped entrance to the post office on the southern elevation of the south wing was removed and replaced with a more modest entrance to the west of the south wing; this replacement entrance was itself removed in 1886. The major 1926 renovation, prompted by structural settlement, resulted in the removal of all original chimneys, the addition of a new second-floor level, the building-up of the main entrance portico on the east face, and the complete removal and reinstatement of the interiors of the central block and south wing, with consequent loss of original fabric and character. In 1940 a new staircase was installed in the north wing.

The building was listed in 1978. In 1983 the exterior was cleaned and repaired. In 1987 a security pavilion was installed at the central bay of the west approach to the central block. In 1989 most of the original roof was retiled and modern uPVC glazing was installed.

Setting

The Custom House stands immediately west of the former quayside of Belfast Lough, now separated from the waterfront by a four-lane carriageway, which has compromised its original relationship with Belfast's historic quays. To the south and west are public realm works forming Custom House Square, developed with a £4 million investment by the Laganside Corporation. Recent multi-storey development stands immediately to the south. The modern landscaping to the west maintains the view of the main facade. The square includes a bronze statue called The Speaker — depicting an orator at the foot of the west entrance steps — which reflects the original use of the space as Belfast's speakers' corner. Minor modern features detract from the building's character and detailing, but the original design has otherwise been maintained, and the building retains a strong civic presence.

Significance

The stonework is notably fine throughout. As Charles Brett wrote, the Custom House "is Belfast's finest public building and the peak of Lanyon's achievement... The whole thing has the lazy grandeur that characterises Victorian masons' work at its very best; not an affair of muscle, still less of bone or structure, but of mass." It is a distinguished example of the Italianate Palazzo Custom House type by one of Ireland's most significant 19th-century architects.