Custom House, Dock Street, Dundee

The Custom House, located on Dock Street in Dundee, was designed by John Taylor and James Leslie and constructed between 1842 and 1843. It was subsequently extended in 1884 by C and L Ower. This is a significant Greek Revival building with Ionic detailing, serving as a customs house and later housing Harbour Trust offices.

The building is constructed of ashlar stone with a channelled ground floor and architraved windows topped with cornices. The rear is of coursed rubble with ashlar-margined windows. A full entablature runs along three sides, topped with a dentil cornice, while the rear features a simpler main cornice.

The Dock Street elevation has thirteen bays, with the central three bays projecting and featuring a tetrastyle Greek Ionic portico above an arcaded and wreathed ground floor. A central entrance to the Custom House is flanked by royal arms in a tympanum. The main pediment also bears royal arms, which were recarved by Graciella Ainsworth in 1992. Additional arched entrances are located in the third and eleventh bays, and the first-floor windows are scroll-supported, pedimented, and have balustraded aprons.

The west elevation is three bays wide, with a similar arched entrance and a window above it. A segmental arched entrance to the coach house is located on the right, with a balustraded parapet. The east elevation was extended in 1884 by C and L Ower from three bays to five bays, with consoled and pedimented windows added to the second and fourth bays of the first floor. A ground-floor arched entrance was moved to a single-storey, four-bay wing, which is not channelled and has its own parapet.

The rear elevation is of coursed rubble with ashlar-margined windows and the main cornice. An advanced four-bay elevation is part of the Ower addition. A rubble-built, south boundary wall includes a circa-1920 single-storey, harled garage.

The roof is piended and covered in slate, with ashlar ridge stacks. Sash windows with a 12-pane glazing pattern are present throughout.

Inside, a pilastered vestibule leads to the Custom House. A Harbour Trust Boardroom, created in 1884, features a fine timber chimney piece and a plaster ceiling remodelled circa 1950 by Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, incorporating unicorn motifs.

Wrought and cast-iron railings are located on the side elevations, and wrought-iron gates, located on the east side, are listed separately under East Dock Street. The west end of the Custom House was formerly occupied by the Dundee Harbour Trust, and the east end by the Custom House, making it the second largest in Scotland after Greenock. Original plans and documentation are held in the Dundee Architectural Archive (DARC), Dundee Harbour Board papers, and the Wellgate Local History Library. Newspaper coverage from the Dundee Advertiser, dated 1 May 1884, also provides further information.