A view of the old Customs House Hotel at the bottom of Finkle Street, Stockton.
Photograph and details courtesy of John Simpson
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
A view of the old Customs House Hotel at the bottom of Finkle Street, Stockton.
Photograph and details courtesy of John Simpson
Picture Stockton Archive 
Would I be correct that this is approximately where the spiral entrance to Castlegate rooftop car park is now or maybe a bit closer to the river..?
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You would be correct Dave it was a large building.
I had one of the last pints pulled in the Custom House pub the night it closed. Home on leave my pals took me in as we had often had a drink there I think there were around eight of us altogether then we wonder why pubs close, the Custom Pub had no Customers.
Frank.
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Both sides of Finkle St. were shortened to make room for the Riverside road, which leaves the left hand wall of the Customs House Hotel, as shown in this picture, right on the edge of the northbound carriageway. The majority of the building being in the area of the car park slip road/grassed area between the Riverside road and the spiral ramp. It’s surprising to see that the slip road and spiral ramp take up half of what was once the southern side of Finkle St.
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I remember this building and the others on the south side of Finkle Street. I used to park my moped on the street and walk to Collingwoods the jeweller where I worked for a short time in 1966. It was sad but typical of the Council to allow the destruction of such important buildings only to be replaced by fine examples of architectural barbarism.
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No matter how neat a job they made of taking a slice out of the building at some point, I guess there was no saving it after that.
https://picturestocktonarchive.wordpress.com/2006/09/04/finkle-street-in-stockton-2/
I love how the slice goes through everything, even the window ledges 🙂
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Couldn’t agree more. Born in Stockton in 1955 I remember Finkle Street well. Used to go down there as a kid, walk along the old railway tracks along the river edge. Remember the old capstains the ships used to tie to. The Empire, Leslie Browns, Blob Ford’s, Doggarts, Blackett’s. The town had so much architecture and history. Well done to the council’s and town planners for destroying heritage.
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I remember the place very well as I used to play around that area as a boy.
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I seem to remember there was a very deep hole… an old well maybe – behind the railing there at the highest point.
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Were these properties later turned into offices, around. 1957 ish after college, I seem to remember going to a solicitors office for an interview with other girls, the solicitor we found out later was deaf and lip read. I was the only person who he could lip read.
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One of the offices there was the business of Gerry Myers who ran his Quantity Surveying company from it. On demolition he moved to Varo Terrace.
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