Custom House, Custom House St., Londonderry

Custom House, Custom House Street, Londonderry

This is a three-storey Classical-style Custom House built in 1876, constructed together with the adjoining Post Office to the west as a single unified composition using locally quarried Barony Glen sandstone. It represents at least the fourth Custom House to have operated in Londonderry, and its construction reflects the remarkable expansion and commercial success of the city's port during the 19th century. The building now operates as a restaurant and wine bar, while the adjacent structure continues in use as a post office.

Architectural Description

The building has an L-shaped plan with five bays to its principal elevation and sits on a corner site at Custom House Street and Queens Quay, west of the River Foyle and north of the city walls. The frontage overlooks Harbour Square and the river, with the former Harbour Commissioners' Offices and the Guildhall to the south east.

The east elevation, which faces Harbour Square and the riverfront, is the principal public facade. It presents an asymmetric arrangement of round-arched and segmental-arched windows. To the first floor are round-headed casement windows, bottom-hinged. The second floor has segmental-headed one-over-one painted timber sliding sash windows. Ground floor windows are shoulder-headed with chamfered reveals, also fitted with one-over-one painted timber sliding sashes. Left of centre sits the original doorway: a three-panelled, square-headed painted timber door with fanlight, set within a round arch with an angle-roll hood mould and foliated label stops. To the right of centre is a segmental-arched passageway now fitted with modern painted, sheeted, and braced sliding doors.

The north elevation faces onto a shared courtyard leading to Queens Quay and displays a mix of schist and buff sandstone with redbrick dressings. The south elevation is stepped where it merges with the Post Office building. The west elevation at the rear is attached to the Post Office at its southern end, with an external courtyard to the north end.

All elevations are built in snecked squared rubble with a quarry-faced finish, combining Barony Glen and Giffnock sandstone. A projecting stone cornice runs at eaves level on stone corbels, and the corners feature ashlar stepped quoins. The hipped slate roof has a lead rolled ridge. Stone chimneys sit mid-ridge to the east end of the east elevation and at the gable end of the north elevation, each with four clay pots. Rainwater goods are cast iron.

Historical Background

The Custom House has its origins well before the current building. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs record that the first Custom House in Londonderry was located at nos 31–33 Shipquay Street, having moved to a different position on the same street by 1826. This second Custom House remained on Shipquay Street until at least 1837. The Memoirs describe it as originally a store, built in 1808–09 by John A. Smith, who rented it to the government as a king's store until 1826, when its front part was converted into a Custom House.

By around 1850 the Custom House had moved to its current general location. Ulster Town Directories record that a third Custom House had been built at Ship Quay by at least 1852, and the street was renamed Custom House Lane in 1851. The second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1853 shows and labels the Custom House at the corner of Ship Quay and Custom House Street. During the 1850s the building was administered by the Londonderry Harbour Commissioners and was valued at £250 under Griffith's Valuation of 1856. The valuer noted that the new Custom House site continued to be leased by John A. Smyth, of the general merchant firm John A. Smyth & Co., which held business premises on Waterloo Place.

The repeated relocations of the Custom House throughout this period were driven by the rapid growth of Londonderry's port. 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 it the fifth largest port in Ireland, and by 1861 the Harbour Commissioners had spent nearly £150,000 on improving harbour facilities.

Tenders for the current building, along with the adjoining Post Office, were invited as early as 1874, and the completed structure was in use by 1876. The pair were erected along Ship Quay in close proximity to the quayside and docking ships. Together they were originally known as Government Buildings, and also housed the Inland Revenue Office and the Income Tax Office. The total estimated construction cost was £10,000. The architect is not known, though he made use of locally quarried Barony Glen sandstone as the primary material for both structures, with Derry schist employed as a secondary material for the Custom House.

Following completion, the combined rateable value of the Custom House section — which included the Custom House itself and the Inland Revenue offices — was set at £175. This was later split, and from around 1885 until 1931 the Custom House was valued at £100 and the Inland Revenue offices at £75. Under the First Revaluation of 1935, the combined value of the Custom House and Excise Offices rose to £200. Under the Second Revaluation covering 1956–72, the formerly separate valuations of the Post Office and Custom House were merged and set at £1,768.

In 1970 the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society described the Custom House and Post Office as "stone-faced, with dressed stone round-headed windows and door openings, deep reveals giving strong sturdy form." Both buildings were subsequently listed in 1979.

A renovation in 1984 involved repair and repointing of the stonework, reslating of the roof in natural slate, and repair of the original chimney stacks. Following the removal of Londonderry's port operations to Lisahally in 1993, the former docklands along the Foyle were redeveloped and the Custom House was vacated, ceasing to serve its original purpose. A further conversion in 2010 transformed the building into the Custom House Restaurant and Wine Bar.

Significance and Setting

Despite the loss of the original interior plan form and fabric, and despite later modifications to the exterior, the Custom House retains considerable architectural and historic importance. Its exacting and restrained external detailing sets it apart as a noteworthy example of unpretentious civic architecture. It occupies a prominent corner setting overlooking Harbour Square and the River Foyle, within a group of three blocks sharing a street frontage, and adjacent to the former Harbour Commissioners' Offices and the Guildhall. In this setting it continues to convey the prosperity and civic confidence of the era in which it was built.