The Custom House, Cork

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Custom House
Commissioners Office - geograph.org.uk - 1838747.jpg
Front façade on Custom House Street
Location map Ireland Cork Central.png
Red pog.svg
Location in central Cork
Alternative namesNew Custom House, [1] Customs House [2] Harbour Commissioner's Offices [3]
General information
Type Custom house
Architectural style Palladian [4] and Neoclassical [5]
Classification Protected structure [6]
AddressCustom House Quay
Town or city Cork
CountryIreland
Coordinates 51°53′57″N8°27′48″W / 51.89913382879658°N 8.46332627499966°W / 51.89913382879658; -8.46332627499966
Construction started1814
Opened1818
Renovated1906
Technical details
Floor count2
Grounds2 acres (0.81 ha)
Design and construction
Architect(s)Abraham Addison Hargrave (d.1838)

The Custom House is an early 19th-century building in Cork, Ireland. [7] [8] Originally developed as a custom house and opened in 1818, the Cork Harbour Commissioners (later reorganised as the Port of Cork Company) took over the building in 1904. [2] [9] The Port of Cork Company vacated the building in early 2021. [10] The Custom House is, together with a number of other buildings on the same site, listed by Cork City Council on its Record of Protected Structures. [6]

Contents

Location

The Custom House is located at the eastern extremity of Cork City's centre island, where the north and south branches of the River Lee reconverge. [11]

History

The Custom House is attributed to designs by Abraham Addison Hargrave, the eldest son (and partner in the architectural practice) of Abraham Hargrave the Elder. [12] Built between 1814 and 1818, the building was used initially by the Inland Revenue, having replaced an old custom house on Emmet Place, now part of the Crawford Art Gallery. [1] It was built on "slob" land, which was reclaimed at a cost of £10,000; the building itself cost £70,000. [12] In 1904, it became the headquarters of the Cork Harbour Commissioners, [9] who took over the building on a 999 year lease. [2]

The building was extended in 1906, [3] with additions including a new boardroom, designed by William Price the then Harbour Engineer. This boardroom, with semicircular tables and upholstered chairs, [13] [14] was described in the Irish Examiner as "one of the finest examples of the commercial interior design of the time". [15] Originally the royal arms were on the building's pediment, being replaced by the city arms in 1957. [16]

As of 2021, the Harbour Commissioners had vacated the building, [17] and a number of developments were proposed for the site. [18] Aspects of the proposed developments, including the proposal to "largely demolish the Revenue Building" (a protected structure on the Custom House Quay site), have been the subject of some opposition, including by the Irish Georgian Society and An Taisce Corcaigh. [19] [20]

Description

The main building is a two-storey three-bay structure over vaults. The facade is in Cork grey limestone: the top two thirds are of dressed ashlar and the lower part is rusticated. At street level there are three recessed arcades with round arches. [16]

The committee room (boardroom) is a wood panelled room with pale cream and gold wallpaper and patterned ceiling. The Custom House also holds a collection of maritime art owned by the Port of Cork Company. [14]

Other buildings on the Custom House site include bonded warehouses (protected structure PS163), [21] and the Revenue Building (protected structure PS818), both also built in 1814. [6]

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 "1818 – Custom House, Cork". 19 July 2008.
  2. 1 2 3 "Cork Port vacates Cork Custom House (1881) to enable hotel development". Irish Bulletin. 16 February 2021.
  3. 1 2 "Cork Harbour Commissioner's Offices, Custom House Street, Cork City, Cork". buildingsofireland.ie. National Inventory of Architectural Heritage. Retrieved 14 December 2021.
  4. ↑ "Custom House Quay - Real Estate Brochure" (PDF). property.cushmanwakefield.ie. Retrieved 14 December 2021.
  5. ↑ Hopkin, Alannah; Bunney, Kathy (3 March 2010). The Ship of Seven Murders: A True Story of Madness & Murder. Gill & Macmillan Ltd. ISBN   9781848890947 – via Google Books.
  6. 1 2 3 "Inspector's Report - ABP308596-20 - Redevelopment of the Custom House site" (PDF). pleanala.ie. An Bord Pleanála. February 2021. Retrieved 14 December 2021.
  7. ↑ "Custom House". www.askaboutireland.ie.
  8. ↑ Marmion, Anthony (13 June 2013). The Ancient and Modern History of the Maritime Ports of Ireland. BoD – Books on Demand. ISBN   9783954273522 – via Google Books.
  9. 1 2 "About Us - Port History". portofcork.ie. Port of Cork Company. Retrieved 14 December 2021.
  10. ↑ "Port of Cork moves out of iconic Custom House". irishexaminer.com. Irish Examiner. 4 February 2021. Retrieved 14 December 2021.
  11. ↑ Gibson, Charles Bernard (1861). "The History of the County and City of Cork". T.C. Newby – via Google Books. The Custom House stands in the fork of the river, which here divides itself in two, sweeping round our island city
  12. 1 2 "CO. CORK, CORK, CUSTOM HOUSE QUAY, CUSTOM HOUSE". Dictionary of Irish Architects. Irish Architectural Archive. Retrieved 15 December 2021.
  13. ↑ "Venue & Agenda - Location - The Port of Cork". corkbic.com. CorkBIC. Retrieved 15 December 2021.
  14. 1 2 "Custom House-Port of Cork". Cork City Council.
  15. ↑ "Campaign launched to keep Port of Cork building in public ownership". irishexaminer.com. Irish Examiner. 17 February 2016. Retrieved 15 December 2021.
  16. 1 2 "The Restoration of Corks Custom House". Hearthstone. 15 October 2014. Archived from the original on 17 September 2016.
  17. ↑ Shanahan, Catherine (4 February 2021). "Port of Cork moves out of iconic Custom House". Irish Examiner.
  18. ↑ "Preserving maritime design on the banks of the River Lee". irishtimes.com. Irish Times. 5 June 2021. Retrieved 14 December 2021.
  19. ↑ "IGS Objection to the Proposed Demolition of Cork's Revenue Building". igs.ie. Irish Georgian Society. Retrieved 15 December 2021.
  20. ↑ "An Bórd Pleanála gives the green light for Ireland's largest building in Cork". breaingnews.ie. The Irish Times DAC. 24 March 2021. Retrieved 12 December 2021. The city council's decision had been appealed by the Irish Georgian Society, by An Taisce Corcaigh [..] who had all expressed concerns about the height of the tower [..] and on the treatment of several historic but disused buildings on the site
  21. ↑ "Bonded Warehouses, Custom House Street, Cork City, Cork". buildingsofireland.ie. National Inventory of Architectural Heritage. Retrieved 15 December 2021.
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