The Custom House was a 19th-century Neo-classical building located in Liverpool, England. It housed a

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

, dock office, and offices for

Customs Customs is an authority or Government agency, agency in a country responsible for collecting tariffs and for controlling International trade, the flow of goods, including animals, transports, personal effects, and hazardous items, into and out ...

and

Excise file:Lincoln Beer Stamp 1871.JPG, upright=1.2, 1871 U.S. Revenue stamp for 1/6 barrel of beer. Brewers would receive the stamp sheets, cut them into individual stamps, cancel them, and paste them over the Bunghole, bung of the beer barrel so when ...

. It was built on the site of the historic

Old Dock The Old Dock, originally known as Thomas Steers' dock, was the world's first commercial wet dock. The dock was built on the River Mersey in Liverpool, England, starting in 1710 and completed in 1716. A natural tidal pool off the River Merse ...

in 1839 and operated up to

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

when it was partly destroyed during the

Liverpool Blitz The Liverpool Blitz was the The Blitz, heavy and sustained bombing of the British city of Liverpool and its surrounding area, during the Second World War by the Nazi Germany, German ''Luftwaffe''. Liverpool was the most heavily bombed area o ...

, then finally demolished in 1948. Today the area which formed the base of the building makes up part of the

Liverpool One Liverpool ONE is a shopping, residential, and leisure complex in Liverpool, England. The project involved the redevelopment of 42 acres (170,000 m2) of land in Liverpool City Centre, the city centre. It is a retail-led development anchored by ...

shopping complex. It is considered amongst Liverpool's most regrettable losses when it comes to landmark buildings.

History

Following the closure of the

on 31 August 1826, plans were made for the construction of what was to be Liverpool's fifth Custom house on the site which was filled in with concrete prior to construction. The town's surveyor, John Foster, who would later go on to design The Oratory and

St James Cemetery St James's Cemetery is an urban park behind Liverpool Cathedral that is below ground level. Until 1825, the space was a stone quarry, and until 1936 it was used as the Liverpool city cemetery. It has been designated a Grade I Historic Park by ...

, was charged with designing the H-shaped building located parallel to the shoreline. On 12 August 1828, the first stone was laid by Liverpool's mayor, Thomas Colley Porter, to mark the start of construction; this took 11 years, with the building opening in 1839. In 1941, during

, the Custom House was hit with a bomb, partly destroying the building but ultimately leaving its structure intact. After the war had ended, the government (who owned the building) refused to repair the building despite protests, and it was subsequently demolished in 1948. Notably the building was a subject of a painting by John Atkinson Grimshaw.

References

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External links

Photos
Demolished buildings and structures in Liverpool Buildings and structures in the United Kingdom destroyed during World War II

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

Buildings and structures demolished in 1948

History

References

Further reading

External links