Clock Tower, Custom House Quay, Greenock is a Grade B listed building in the Inverclyde local planning authority area, Scotland. First listed on 4 October 1991. Public clock. 1 related planning application.

Clock Tower, Custom House Quay, Greenock

WRENN ID
former-finial-bracken
Grade
B
Local Planning Authority
Inverclyde
Constituency
Inverclyde and Renfrewshire West MP: Martin McCluskey (Lab)
Country
Scotland
Date first listed
4 October 1991
Type
Public clock
OS grid reference
NS 283 762
Coordinates
55.9484, -4.75075
Source
Historic Environment Scotland listing

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

Description

The Clock Tower at Custom House Quay in Greenock is a cast and wrought iron structure dating from around 1860. It features a Corinthian column with a rope-moulded band around its middle, which stands on a square cast-iron base. This column supports a square entablature that houses a four-faced clock, topped by an octagonal Gothic lantern adorned with a crown, bell, and weathervane.

The base includes a plain plinth, while the panels above display lion head faucets set in stop-chamfered inset panels, each with basins. The Greenock coat-of-arms is prominently featured in a circular cartouche at the top, with low relief thistles in the upper corners of the surround. Other faces of the tower display a crown flanked by the initials 'VR'. Above these panels, a cornice decorated with fleuron ornamentation leads to a tapering plain octagonal section. The base is marked with the name Rankin and Blackmore, Engineers, from the Eagle Foundry in Greenock.

Local climate

Clock Tower, Custom House Quay, Greenock sits in one of the wettest parts of the UK, with an average of 1,620 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 99% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 95% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 48 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 89% of listed buildings. Of these, 26 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.2°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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