Survey Data

Reg No

20512753


Rating

Regional


Categories of Special Interest

Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Social


Previous Name

Crawford School of Art once Royal Cork Institution originally Cork Custom House


Original Use

Custom house


Historical Use

College


In Use As

Museum/gallery


Date

1720 - 1725


Coordinates

167472, 72021


Date Recorded

18/03/2003


Date Updated

--/--/--


Description

Detached seven-bay three-storey former custom house, built 1724, with breakfront end bays. Now in use as art gallery. Pitched and hipped slate roofs with red brick chimneystacks. Red brick walls with limestone string course between ground and first floors, moulded eaves course, and ashlar limestone quoins. Ashlar limestone dressings to window openings, with pediments to first floor openings. Replacement timber pivot and casement windows. Ashlar limestone door architrave, flanked by Doric columns having entablature above. Replacement timber panelled door with toplight. Ashlar limestone plinths with wrought-iron railings and gates.

Appraisal

This former custom house which is of apparent architectural form and design makes a notable and positive addition to the streetscape. This building was Cork custom house for just over one hundred years, and was set along King's Dock, which is now built over and forms Emmet Place. The building was presented to the Royal Cork Institution in the early 1830s, and became a school of design in 1850. The materials utilised in the construction of this building articulate the form of the building and add colour and textural interest to the streetscape.