Civic Buildings

Custom House - Port of Cork

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The first known Custom House in Cork was built in 1724 in Emmet Place and is now part of the Crawford Art Gallery. In 1818 a new Custom House was designed by William Hargrave and built at Custom House Street. It became known as the 'new' Custom House. Its main work dealt with inland revenue and then in 1904 the Cork Harbour Commissioners took over from the building on a 999 year lease.

The institution known as the Cork Harbour Commissioners governed the Port of Cork from 1814 to 1997. In 1997, after the Harbours Act of 1996, the status of the Cork Harbour Commissioners changed to the Port of Cork Company, whose offices continue to be based in the Custom House.

The building is situated in Custom House Street between the north and south channels of the River Lee. When the Custom House was built in 1818 the area was the centre of the Port of Cork. The Custom House is a two storied, three bayed building over vaults. The vaults are used by Cork Bonded Warehouse Ltd. The frontage of the building on Custom House Street is 24 metres wide.

The front of the building is of dressed limestone and the lower third is rusticated. There are three recessed arcades at street level with round arches with the keystone connected to a broad string course. The centre arch is the entrance and the two others are blank arches in which are set blank windows. There is a spur stone at both ends of the building. The entrance has a cast iron grill and ornate scroll work. The name Cork Harbour Commissioners is carved over the entrance on the string course.

The upper two thirds of the building are also of dressed limestone, with three tall segmented windows with round arches, twenty feet high by nine feet wide. The windows are set back slightly in rectangular recesses. The cornice and frieze of the pediment are plain and there is a finely wrought Cork Coat of Arms in the pediment depicting the two castles sheltering a boat with the Latin inscription 'Statio Bene Fide Carinis' - a safe harbour for ships. The roof is slated. The rear and side walls of the building are of regularly coursed sandstone and the original windows have round heads with dressed limestone surrounds.

The main access to the ground floor is via an open stair well. The ground floor vestibule is spacious, measuring 14m by 15m, and featuring Corinthian style columns which support the first floor. The main room on the ground floor, which is now divided by partitions and houses the reception desk is the former long room where the main business of Customs and Excise was carried out.

In 1906 a very important addition was made to the building. A magnificent Boardroom, designed by William Price, the then Harbour Engineer, was built – said to be one of the finest in Europe. It has semi-circular tables, an imposing desk set on a shallow podium between the windows and red leather upholstered chairs matching a royal blue and red patterned carpet. The impressive doors are made of oak.

The citrus-yellow walls are decorated with Corinthian columns with florid capitals finished in gold leaf. The coffered ceiling has as its centrepiece a pendant light-fitting of plaster acanthus leaves, surrounded by decorative plasterwork of cornucopia, doves, garlands and (possibly) Neptune blowing for a fair wind. From the ceiling are suspended three of the building’s brilliant crystal chandeliers (there are more in the main hall, another in the committee room) and the windows are dressed in heavily-pelmeted curtains of raw silk. Above the fireplace is a huge tablet of the coat of arms.

The Committee Room is panelled in dark wood, with pale cream and gold wallpaper lightening the room and a delicately patterned ceiling; more restrained than that of the Boardroom. The Boardroom and Committee Room house a fine collection of maritime artwork owned by the Port of Cork Company.

A maritime painting exhibition was held in the Custom House over the summer as part of the Capital of Culture 2005 celebration. The Port of Cork Company collection was greatly enhanced by a number of works lent by the Crawford Art Gallery and from private collections, creating a unique and memorable exhibition of Cork maritime history, which also included a number of engravings, maps and artefacts telling the story of Cork Harbour from the seventeenth century to the present day.

The above information is taken from various sources including a newspaper article by Mary Leyland, Author.

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