Custom House, 65-67 Commercial Street, Leith, Edinburgh

Custom House, 65-67 Commercial Street, Leith, Edinburgh

This is a grade A listed building designed by Robert Reid between 1810 and 1812, with significant additions and alterations carried out by William Burn in 1825. It is a symmetrical neo-classical structure of two storeys with an attic storey rising above the advanced centrepiece and end bays. A single-storey stable range stands to the rear.

The building is constructed in cream sandstone ashlar with a base course, cill course to the first floor, band course above, and a dentilled cornice. A balustraded parapet separates the panelled and coped attic storeys. Windows are punched openings throughout.

The south elevation on Commercial Street forms the principal façade. At its centre stands a three-bay pedimented 'temple' composition with a pair of fluted Greek Doric columns set in antis between broad piers. Each pier contains a niche at ground level and a framed square panel above. The tympanum displays the Royal arms of George III, carved from wood and painted and gilded, accompanied by the inscription 'Honi Soit Qui Mal Y Pense'. A two-leaf panelled door with moulded architrave and cornice sits below, accessed by perron steps (external stairway with platform) that are panelled to the front with bulbous balusters and piers. Three bays and a broader advanced end bay flank the centrepiece to either side. Single-storey pavilions with windows in recessed arches, moulded impost courses, and blocking courses with raised panelled central tablets stand at both ends. Spearhead cast iron railings on flat ashlar beds run between the pavilions and the centrepiece.

The west elevation on Dock Place comprises a single-storey pavilion to the south with a large rectangular window in a recessed segmental-arched panel, a panelled door with a three-pane rectangular fanlight, and a blocking course with raised panelled tablet. A coursed rubble screen wall encloses the stable court to the south, featuring two small windows and a door. This extends to a tall ashlar carriage gateway detailed as a pavilion with two-leaf boarded gates in a round-headed arch. To the north, the elevation steps back to reveal the piend-roofed two-storey coursed rubble stables of three bays, with a blind central window at first-floor level. The first floor of the main block shows a pair of central windows with slightly advanced outer bays.

The east elevation facing the Waterfront is similar to the west, but the south pavilion has a round-headed arch with a standard window and no door. The ashlar screen wall contains five bays with a panelled door to the left with a consoled cornice, a narrow door with flanking sidelights to the inner left, and three windows to the right. The stable pavilion features a door to the centre at ground level.

The north elevation to the rear is eight bays of two storeys and attic, constructed in coursed rubble with ashlar dressings, band course, cornice and parapet restricted to the advanced single end bays. The centre four bays are advanced with attic windows and a pediment. Flanking bays contain round-headed loading bays breaking the eaves at the centre, a projecting porch to the third bay from the left, and to the inner right bays, a projecting garage door addition at ground level. End pavilions match those described above.

The stable range is a two-storey coursed rubble structure of 12 bays with stugged ashlar dressings. Four central bays have irregular fenestration between pairs of slightly advanced fronts with recessed archways (blank to the left, with windows to both floors to the right) and blocking courses. Two bays extend beyond, with taller end bays completing the composition.

Throughout the building, 12-pane timber sash and case windows are employed. Roofs are covered in grey slates and finished with piended forms. Cast iron downpipes and decorative rainwater heads stamped "GIIIR" provide the drainage.

The interior continues the classical theme, though substantially altered by Burn. A lobby leads via a tripartite doorway with an elliptical fanlight to an oblong central stair-hall. An Imperial stair descends to ground level and ascends to a gallery and principal floor, with acanthus balusters embossed with lions rampant. An oval dome on pendentives with elliptical arches featuring coffered soffits opens through smaller elliptical-headed doorways to rooms on either side. To the east stands a top-lit Boardroom with an apsidal-ended meeting room beyond. To the west lies a top-lit arcaded Long Room with a D-shaped room beyond. At ground level to the east, Burn created a public reception room in a single-storey link with direct external access. This room features an elaborate nine-compartment ceiling on a bracketed cornice and was fitted out as an exhibition room in 1970.