The Custom House
Gandon's first major commission was so unwanted that a mob of thousands tried to stop the foundations being laid — it still took ten years and £200,000 to finish.
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Built 1781–1791 on ground that contemporary maps recorded as reclaimed swamp, this neoclassical building rewards a slow walk around all four sides. Sculptor Edward Smyth turned the facades into a catalogue of Ireland's rivers, making the exterior the main event.
What to look for
- Edward Smyth's river deity sculptures decorating all four facades — each figure represents one of Ireland's rivers
- The dome statue and surrounding figures, the work of a separate sculptor, Henry Banks
- The quay frontage between Butt Bridge and Talbot Memorial Bridge, where Gandon's swing bridge once stood before it was removed in the 1940s
On Custom House Quay, north bank of the River Liffey, between Butt Bridge and Talbot Memorial Bridge. The building houses a working government department.
The Custom House is one of 35 sights worth the detour in Dublin, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Dublin pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Dublin
- Aviva StadiumOne 51,711-seat bowl jointly owned by rugby and football — two governing bodies, one ground, no separate home for either.
- Dublin CastleThe river that gave Dublin its name still flows beneath your feet — and the building above it ran Ireland for 750 years.
- Croke ParkThe fourth-largest stadium in Europe holds 82,300 people — almost entirely for sports most of the world has never watched.
- National Library of IrelandIreland's paper memory — manuscripts, photographs, and newspapers free to open on the spot.
- St Patrick's CathedralIreland's national cathedral has never had a bishop — that role belongs to the rival church 400 metres up the road.
- Spire of DublinA 120-metre stainless-steel pin planted on the exact spot where an IRA bomb in 1966 — and a controlled demolition six days later — erased Nelson's Pillar.