"The Custom House is a 19th-century B+ listed building located in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Completed in 1857, the building has been used by various governmental departments, including the Belfast Board of Works, the Inland Revenue, and an Income Tax Office.
The building is currently occupied by HM Revenue and Customs, who are scheduled to relocate by 2021.
Designed in 1847 by English architect Charles Lanyon, work on the actual building didn't begin until some seven year later under construction firm D. & J. Fulton who finished in 1857 at a cost of £30,000.
Throughout the years the building has undergone numerous alterations with the first taking place just a few year after its completion. In 1861 the building's forecourt was raised to allow greater basement space and a Westward facing entrance was added. Again in 1872 the Southern entrance (then used as a Post Office) was removed and replaced with an other Western entrance which was itself removed in 1886. Further changes were again carried out in 1926 when the interior of the central and Southern blocks were removed, a second floor was added above them and the building's original chimneys and Eastern entrance's portico were demolished. A new staircase was installed in the Northern block in 1940.
In 2001 under a PFI agreement HMRC transferred ownership of the building to private company Mapeley STEPS Ltd who are contracted to provide accommodation to HMRC up until 2021."
A freestanding symmetrical two-storey +attic over basement Custom House in Italianate Palazzo style, built c.1855 to designs by Sir Charles Lanyon.
E-shaped on plan over deep battered plinth with raised terrace over basement spanning between projecting wings to west. Replacement hipped natural slate roof with leaded ridges and hips, replacement ashlar sandstone chimneystacks with corniced caps surmounted by semi-circular stone terminals. Modern rooflight strips to all pitches.
Lead-lined stone gutters with cast-iron downpipes.
Walling is ashlar Giffnock sandstone throughout with string courses between floors; basement plinth is battered with tooled feather-edged finish, terminated by a single course of diamond pointed stone framed by plain and rope moulded string courses; piano nobile is rusticated with diamond pointed quoins; first floor is plain ashlar with rusticated quoins. Modillioned cornice over dentilled frieze.
Windows to piano nobile are round-headed having diamond pointed jambs and moulded heads, step-jointed voussoirs and string course at impost level; first floor windows are rectangular over panelled aprons with Corinthian aediculed surrounds (unless otherwise stated); attic windows have generally been replaced with plain horizontal rectangular openings, with a small number of original oeil-de-boeuf windows retained to west wing. Basement windows in shouldered segmental openings with deep chamfered and moulded reveals. Exceptions are stated with each elevation. Fine 6/6 sash windows with heavy secondary casements to inner face, except where otherwise stated.
Symmetrical west elevation has central pedimented breakfront and projecting wings, all accessed from the raised terrace which is enclosed by a balustraded parapet and accessed via sixteen granite steps.
The breakfront has a triple arcade of round-headed openings to each floor; from terrace, three granite steps rise to twin entrances flanking a central alcoved niche with ornate scalloped head and moulded shelf on which rests a heraldic carving (HONIT SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE) in deep relief (modern window opening inserted to niche); openings divided by rusticated piers, richly carved panels to tympana over entrances; modern glazed doors. Windows over have secondary glazing behind cast-iron tracery (rope-moulded to central glazing bar; each window is flanked by two Corinthian columns supporting enriched archivolts over panelled soffits; aprons enriched with stone carving bearing ‘VR’.
Pediment has central carved heraldic panel (as before, twinned with a second shield bearing the Belfast Coat of Arms ‘PRO TANTO QUID RETRIBUTAMUS’. Roundel to each cheek and flanked to either side by three openings to each floor (original oeil-de-boeuf to north side). Projecting wings are not identical: north wing is four openings deep to each floor including a round-headed panelled timber door addressed from terrace via eleven balustraded granite steps; south wing has seven unequally spaced openings to facing onto terrace; balustraded basement channel to either side of terrace. Single richly carved tympanum to right side of north wing, carved with ‘INLAND REVENUE’. Oeil de boeuf windows to north wing (inner cheek only). Projecting wings are three windows wide to each floor, with exception of basement at north wing, which has a single opening.
Basement beneath terrace has a segmental-headed timber door and similarly profiled blind niche to either side of main steps. North elevation is nine windows wide to each floor, with exception of basement, which has three openings fronted by iron security grilles. East (river fronted) elevation has six openings flanking central pedimented breakfront, three windows wide. Breakfront windows have iron tracery as west.
The pediment is richly detailed with carvings depicting Brittania flanked by Neptune and Mercury. The spandrels of the upper windows contain richly carved angels and there are bearded figurative keyblocks to lower windows. The basement has two windows to either side of the breakfront, and a timber sheeted door to right side only. South elevation is detailed as north, with figurative keyblocks depicting Brittania, Neptune and Mercury. Setting: The building is set immediately west of the former quayside to Belfast Lough, now separated from it by a four-lane carriageway. To south and west are public realm works comprising Custom House Square.