Reply To: Decentralisation and the Customs House

Maybe the building’s too big for such use, there’s literally acres of office space including the basement.
Whereas the corridors and open spaces are very fine, as far as I know the offices themselves are of the suspended ceiling variety.
Nonetheless they are high – but it would still require a lot of money and effort to convert the whole building successfully. Hopefully the current Visitors Centre in the 18th century part will act as an encouraging precedent.

Its such a shame that the fire destroyed almost all the building, including the beautiful Long Room – what a fantastic place it could be today – a museum in itself.
John Beresford’s private apartments to the left-rear of the building at time of completion in the 1790s were described as ‘vieing with oriental magnificence – the palaces of Kings and Princes’. And in 1789, 50 mahogany doors at a whopping 6 guineas each were ordered for the apartments.
What a loss.