Custom House, 9-11 Register Street, Bo'Ness is a Grade B listed building in the Falkirk local planning authority area, Scotland. First listed on 25 November 1980. 1 related planning application.

Custom House, 9-11 Register Street, Bo'Ness

WRENN ID
silver-loft-fen
Grade
B
Local Planning Authority
Falkirk
Constituency
Bathgate and Linlithgow MP: Kirsteen Sullivan (Lab)
Country
Scotland
Date first listed
25 November 1980
Address
Custom House, 9-11 Register Street, Bo'Ness, EH51 9AQ
OS grid reference
NS 999 817
Coordinates
56.01847, -3.606
Source
Historic Environment Scotland listing

Also on this page: related consents · flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

The Custom House, located at 14 Union Street in Bo'Ness, was designed by William Simpson of Stirling around 1880. This extensive two-storey commercial building features a splayed angle to the west. The structure has a deep base course that forms the ground floor cill course, along with a stepped band course and an eaves course. It is constructed from squared and snecked bull-faced rubble with ashlar dressings. The ground floor has roll-moulded segmental-headed openings, while the first floor features basket-arched openings. The building includes deeply moulded doorheads, hoodmoulds with label stops, bracketed piend roofs, raked cills, stop-chamfered arrises, stone transoms, and mullions.

On the north elevation, the prominent central bay showcases paired panelled timber doors with plate glass fanlights, all linked under a segmental hoodmould that features a high relief carved crown flanked by the letters 'V' and 'R'. Above, a bipartite window on the first floor displays the cast-iron letters 'CUSTOM HOUSE', which break the eaves into a corbelled cornice and piended roof. The flanking bays contain single and bipartite windows, with two additional doors on the left and one on the right at ground level, and smaller piend-roofed bays on the first floor. The outer left bay has a transomed bipartite window on the first floor, topped with floreate carved 'lights' flanked by canine gargoyles, breaking the eaves into a spike-finialled pavilion roof.

The east elevation features a single window on the ground floor and a bipartite window on the first floor. The south elevation, facing Register Street, has similar door and window treatments. The windows are timber sash and case with 4-pane and plate glass glazing patterns. The roof is covered with grey slates, and there are coped ashlar stacks with cans, along with decorative cast-iron finials.

Inside, the building has seen little alteration, retaining decorative plasterwork cornices and centre roses. The interiors include stone dog-leg staircases with decorative cast-iron balusters, architraved surrounds, panelled timber shutters, and both carved and plain timber fire surrounds. Additionally, there is an etched glass screen door and a tiled hall leading to No 7 Register Street.

Local climate

Custom House, 9-11 Register Street, Bo'Ness sits in a wetter-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 980 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 79% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 58% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 46 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 87% of listed buildings. Of these, 25 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

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  • No EPC on record for this property
  • No sale records on file
  • Related listed building consents — 1 application
  • Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
  • Flood risk assessment
  • Radon risk assessment
  • Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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Nearby listed buildings

  1. Custom House, 14 Union Street, Bo'Ness Grade B 14 m
  2. Custom House, 20 Union Street, Bo'Ness Grade B 16 m
  3. House And Post Office, 26 East Pier Street, Bo'Ness Grade C 53 m
  4. Clock And Lamp Standard, North Street, Bo'Ness Grade C 123 m
  5. Jubilee Fountain, Market Street, Bo'Ness Grade C 126 m
  6. Telephone Call Box, Market Street, Bo'Ness Grade B 133 m
  7. 74 North Street, Bo'Ness Grade B 135 m
  8. 47, 49 South Street, Bo'Ness Grade C 136 m
  9. 72 North Street, Bo'Ness Grade C 138 m
  10. Furnishing Dept, Bo'Ness Co-Operative Society Ltd, 57 North Street, Bo'Ness Grade C 138 m