The Old Custom House, Dublin

The Custom House
A Prospect of the Custom House, and Essex Bridge, Dublin from a c 1753 engraving by Joseph Tudor
LocationWellington Quay
Dublin
Ireland
Coordinates53°20′43″N 6°16′01″W / 53.345402°N 6.267017°W / 53.345402; -6.267017
Built1707
Demolishedc1812-14
ArchitectThomas Burgh

The Custom House was a large brick and limestone building located at present-day Wellington Quay in Dublin, Ireland which operated as a custom house, hosting officials overseeing the functions associated with the import and export of goods to Dublin from 1707 until 1791.[1][2] It also served as the headquarters of the Revenue Commissioners, as a meeting place and offices for the Wide Streets Commission and was said to be Dublin's first dedicated office building.[3]

The building's main function was transferred to the significantly grander new Custom House downriver nearer the Irish Sea in 1791.

From 1798, the structurally unsound building partially operated as a temporary barracks until around the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815. In the early nineteenth century, the original Custom House Quay was renamed Wellington Quay in honour of the 1st Duke of Wellington, who had been born in Dublin, while the quay itself was extended eastward between 1812-15.[4]

  1. ^ "Custom House". askaboutireland.ie. Retrieved 13 November 2022.
  2. ^ "1791. Custom House". archiseek.com. Retrieved 13 November 2022.
  3. ^ Usher, R. (13 March 2012). Protestant Dublin, 1660-1760: Architecture and Iconography. Springer. ISBN 9780230362161. Retrieved 17 November 2022.
  4. ^ Casey, Christine (1 January 2005). Dublin: The City Within the Grand and Royal Canals and the Circular Road with the Phoenix Park. Yale University Press. ISBN 0300109237. Retrieved 16 November 2022.