Arts & Culture \ Leith Custom House Renewal

Leith Custom house was originally designed by Robert Reid in 1810-12 as customs and excise buildings. The main facade to Commercial Street, complete with double height entrance portico, belied the plan.  There was no entrance, and the façade stretched across two buildings which were entirely independent of each other, with a party wall that extended from front to back.  Entrances were from two corner pavilions leading to walled lanes on east and west sides. Fifteen years later, William Burn combined the two buildings, demolished their respective internal staircases and formed a new central staircase and cupola which was linked at a half-level to a new entrance in the centre of the portico, itself only accessible by two identical external staircases.

To the rear, the two storey ‘cruiser store’ addressed what was then a quayside on the north side, and a lane runs between the two buildings with gates at either end. On the east side, the building complex fronts the quayside of the Water of Leith; on the west it fronts a square as part of Dock Place.

The building ceased its customs use in 1980 when it became a store for the Museum of Scotland.  In 2015 the City of Edinburgh bought it and leased it to the Scottish Historic Buildings Trust (SHBT) who currently sublease to a variety of businesses and artists.

Richard Murphy Architects was appointed in 2019 to look at ideas for the building’s regeneration and a number of options were presented.  Since then, a new director of SHBT has revisited the options and our proposals have been updated to ensure the building, once private government offices, becomes a fully accessible public building, with a major new digital museum on the first floor, a variety of public uses on the ground floor, and a lively lane of cafes and restaurants at the rear.

The main physical alterations to the building are:

• The partial removal of the William Burn stair on Commercial Street to create a level access and prominent front door.
• The creation of a new internal space stretching from to back containing reception and café and in the centre preserving but also displaying the William Burn staircase.
• An east-west circulation route accessed from re-entrant entrances on both east and west facades.
• The glazing of the original gateways in Reid’s south-east and south-west corner pavilions.
• The creation of a digital museum on the first floor circulating clockwise around the stair.
• Removal of later buildings in the lane and the opening up of both Cruiser-Store and Custom House to create a lively lane of eating and drinking.

It is hoped that a planning and listed building application will be submitted later this year.