The Custom House and attached railings

Details

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TA2710SW
699-1/11/26

GRIMSBY
CLEETHORPE ROAD (south side)
No 16, The Custom House and attached railings

(Formerly listed as The Customs House and attached railings, CLEETHORPE ROAD)

31/10/74

GV
II
Custom 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, five by two bays, with wing to rear left forming one side of a walled courtyard.

EXTERIOR: two storeys. Five-bay symmetrical front with central bay breaking forward and bays one and five narrower. Chamfered stone plinth, angle pilasters, channelled rustication to ground floor with flush black brick bands. Flight of five steps with coped walls and railings to round-arched entrance with two-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 two-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. Three main roof-stacks, each with cogged brick cornices and four 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, two 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 two 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

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

478797

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, John, H, The Buildings of England: Lincolnshire, (1964), 342

End of official list entry

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