1707 – Custom House, Dublin

The original Custom House by Thomas Burgh, built in 1707, was sited upriver at Essex Quay from the current building, and was judged as structurally unsound just seventy years after construction. Of three storeys with the ground floor, arcaded and a mansard roof, it was finished externally in brick. In July 1886, while excavations were being made for the foundation of the premises of Dollard’s printworks the first course of the Custom House was revealed, exposing chiselled black limestone at a depth of 4 feet 6 inches from the then-level of Essex Street.

It 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. The site chosen for the new Custom House met with much opposition from city merchants who feared that its move down river would lessen the value of their properties while making the property owners to the east wealthier. The old Custom House was used as a barracks for a time until it was demolished.