Details
GRIMSBY
TA2710SW CLEETHORPE ROAD
699-1/11/26 (South side)
31/10/74 The Customs House and attached
railings
GV II
Customs house, now restaurant, and front railings. 1874, with
late C20 internal alterations. Red brick with black brick and
stone dressings; Welsh slate roof. Cast-iron railings on
ashlar wall. Main range rectangular on plan, 5 by 2 bays, with
wing to rear left forming one side of a walled courtyard.
EXTERIOR: 2 storeys. 5-bay symmetrical front with central bay
breaking forward and bays 1 and 5 narrower. Chamfered stone
plinth, angle pilasters, channelled rustication to ground
floor with flush black brick bands. Flight of 5 steps with
coped walls and railings to round-arched entrance with 2-fold
panelled door and fanlight (boarded over at time of survey) in
moulded brick reveal with marble nook-shafts, carved stone
hoodmould, pair of stone roundels in the spandrels, and carved
stone frieze and cornice. Plate-glass sashes in wooden
architraves and moulded brick reveals with bracketed stone
sills and brick flat arches, framed by billet-moulded brick
architraves. Brick and stone first-floor string course with
billet moulding; frieze with circular medallions, moulded
cornice. Central bay has 2-light window with carved centre
pilaster with foliate volutes. Above this, carved stone
brackets carry a pilastered segmental-pedimented panel
breaking the roofline, with a large plaque bearing the Royal
Arms in relief, another plaque below inscribed "CUSTOM HOUSE",
and a dated roundel in the tympanum.
Side bays have windows and surrounds similar to ground floor
but with raised apron panels and sill string course. Ornate
brick and stone frieze at eaves, with dentilled and billet
mouldings, bracketed modillions, and cross motifs in black
brick. Hipped roof. 3 main roof-stacks, each with cogged brick
cornices and 4 linked octagonal shafts with a moulded stone
cap.
Left and right returns have similar windows and decorative
details; single door to right return.
Single-storey wing to rear left has plinth, steps to plain
door, and plate-glass sashes with wooden architraves and stone
sills beneath brick flat arches; dentilled brick eaves
cornice, 2 ridge stacks with twin octagonal shafts.
Adjoining courtyard has entrance to rear right with square
piers with dentilled brick cornices and caps, brick-coped wall
ramped up to each side.
INTERIOR: main rooms on each floor, including entrance and
staircase halls, have arched alcoves and moulded ceiling
cornices and friezes. Entrance hall has encaustic tiled floor
with prominent wave motif. Moulded round arch to large
staircase hall, partly infilled with later doorway; open-well
cantilevered staircase with stone steps, balustrade with
ornate cast-iron panels incorporating the Manchester,
Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway Company cypher, wooden
swept handrail with a second, upper, tubular brass handrail,
both rails curving up boldly from ground level, the wooden
rail with a moulded octagonal iron base; embossed patterned
dado with moulded wooden dado rail; ceiling with moulded
frieze, cornice and central roundel.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: front railings on dwarf ashlar wall, with
square column principals and bars with tall finials above a
single top rail; dog bars up to an interlaced openwork frieze.
HISTORY: the building is located between the Royal Dock (qv)
and the Haven Dock (later the Alexandra Dock), and was built
and completed at the same time as the first waterway link
between the 2 docks. Sources identify this Customs House as
built for the Royal Dock Company by the Office of Works. The
staircase cypher of the M, S & L Railway Company presumably
dates from after 1890 when the M, S & L Railway Company took
over the Royal Dock Company.
(The Buildings of England: Pevsner N, Harris J, and Antram N:
Lincolnshire: London: 1989-: 342; Grimsby - Action for
Conservation: Grimsby Borough Planning Department: List of
buildings of local architectural or historical interest:
Grimsby Borough Council: 1972-: NO.91).
Listing NGR: TA2742910422
