James Gandon - Designing The Custom House

Designing The Custom House

In 1780 Gandon declined an invitation from a member of the Romanov family to work in St. Petersburg but in 1781, at the age of 38, he accepted an invitation to Ireland from Lord Carlow and John Beresford (the Revenue Commissioner for Ireland) to supervise the construction of the new Custom House in Dublin. Thomas Cooley, the original architect on that project, had died and Gandon was chosen to assume complete control. The new Custom House was unpopular with Dublin Corporation and some city merchants who complained that it moved the axis of the city, would leave little room for shipping, and it was being built on what at the time was a swamp. It is said that the Irish people were so opposed to the Custom House and its associated taxes that Beresford had to smuggle Gandon into the country and keep him hidden in his own home for the first three months. The project was eventually completed at a cost of £200,000, an enormous sum at the time.

This conspicuous commission proved to be the turning point in Gandon's career and Dublin was to become Gandon's home and its architecture his "raison d'etre" for the remainder of his life. He took a house in Mecklenburgh Street (now Railway Street), that he might be near the residence of John Beresford, the main proponent for the development of the city. The city, which in Gandon's lifetime was to grow to become the fifth largest city in Europe, was undergoing vast expansion, mostly following the Palladian and neoclassical designs already popularized in the city by Edward Lovett Pearce and Richard Cassels.

The newly formed Wide Streets Commission employed Gandon to design a new aristocratic enclave in the vicinity of Mountjoy Square and Gardiner Street. The new classical terraces of large residences became the Town houses of members of the newly built and imposing Irish Houses of Parliament situated in College Green south of the river. Gandon also designed Carlisle Bridge (now O'Connell Bridge) over the River Liffey to join the north and south areas of the city.