The Customs House Hotel was situated at the foot of Finkle Street. This apparently wasn’t the original Customs House which was located in the Vane Arms and later the Town Hall.
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
The Customs House Hotel was situated at the foot of Finkle Street. This apparently wasn’t the original Customs House which was located in the Vane Arms and later the Town Hall.
Surely the Stucco facade of this block is on Finkle Street? The last building on the right, as you go down towards the river? My memories of it are very vague; I was only a kid.
You can see the rail link from the quayside running in from the right. It ran down the middle of the narrow road from this point to the crossing on Bridge Road. Flagmen walked ahead of the engine on this stretch.
That’s right, and the Venetian windows are round the corner from Finkle Street.
Even by the date of this photograph (I’d guess circa 1900) this building is in a certain form of dilapidation. The facade to the riverside appears to have been stucco rendered with inscribed stone-coursing, and the projecting stone ‘stringer’ courses have been ‘chopped-off’ at the corner with Finkle St. Nevertheless, the main entrance is sporting a wonderful ‘hooded’ portico canopy.
On the Finkle St elevation there are two ‘venetian’ windows (possibly to a staircase) and evidence that a window, or doorway has already been infilled at basement level. The rainwater downcomer is askew and a soil-pipe(?) appears to terminate at first floor level with evidence of long-term continued discharge down the external wall.
Just out of shot there appears to be a flag-pole to the roof-parapet, precarious access to which, seems protected by a low timber balustrade.
It is of note, that an exact facade with ‘angled’ bay windows as that of the adjacent riverside property shown, still exists on Church Rd. It is in the terraced section of original townhouses once known as ‘Paradise Row’. This was once converted to a Workingmens Club and later a Nightclub /Bar. Sadly, being without a tenant for many years, it too is now becoming more dilapidated and vandalised, as time passes.
We used to play in the ruins of what was left of this building back in the 50s when the docks were still active