Old Custom House And Bank With Railings, 7 South Main Street, Wigtown

The Old Custom House and Bank, located at 7 South Main Street in Wigtown, is a late 18th century, three-storey building with an attic, originally serving as the Custom House. It was expanded in the later 19th century with a three-storey addition to the north, which features a piend-roofed Italianate bank and bank house.

The Old Custom House is a substantial structure made of rubble with a harled side elevation. It has three bays on the south side, where a former central door has been blocked and converted into a window, while another window has also been blocked. The ground floor features flanking windows, with four windows on the first floor and three on the second. The west elevation includes later additions at the ground level, with a first-floor window flanked by a smaller window, a second-floor window, and two small attic windows. The east elevation is adjoined on the left by a later harled brick lean-to porch at ground level, with a later harled stack advanced at the centre, flanked by windows on each floor, including one oculus and two attic windows. The building features sash and case windows, grey slate roofing, and harled stacks.

The bank and bank house, which is wider and taller than the Old Custom House, is rendered and lined with a base course and ashlar quoin strips. It has ashlar margins and mullions that are stop-chamfered. The north elevation facing the street has three bays made of red sandstone ashlar, with a tripartite doorpiece in the outer right bay supported by Ionic columns, a panelled door, and a plate glass fanlight. Each floor of the central bay has a single window, flanked by bipartite windows. The east return elevation features a corniced, fluted Ionic columned doorpiece to the right, leading to the former bank house, which may have been relocated from the former front elevation of the Custom House; the rest of this elevation is blank. The west elevation is mostly blank, with a later tall narrow window to the outer right connecting to the Custom House. The building has tall plate glass sash and case windows, with decoratively bracketed overhanging eaves, red sandstone ashlar, and corniced wallhead stacks, each topped with two decorative cans, all under grey slate roofing.

Inside, the building retains pitch pine window shutters, a cast-iron safe, and notable plasterwork.

Surrounding the property are railings with arrowhead and urn finials to the north, featuring octagonal posts (with some sections missing) and a coped sandstone base.