Custom House

The Custom House is a large, classically styled blond sandstone building on Clyde Street, instantly recognizable by the four Doric pillars across its frontage. Topped by the carved lion and unicorn of the United Kingdom’s coat of arms, the structure was built to oversee the city’s trading economy. Opened in eighteen forty, it served as the office where officials collected duties on imports and exports and maintained official registers for ships arriving at the River Clyde.