Plans to revive historic Customs House in Grimsby
The site is vacant currently
Plans have emerged to revive a historic Grimsby building. The Customs House, off Cleethorpe Road, Grimsby, has had a varied life.
Aside from its original function as a customs house for the Docks, it has also hosted Chicagos restaurant, Customs nightclub and Tokyo Jo’s nightclub, and been more recently offices for the likes of insurance companies. The site is vacant currently, though.
But owners ASR Property Trading Limited have submitted a planning application and sought listed building consent to transform the use of The Customs House. The plans involve turning the vacant office building into a mixture of retail and flats.
The Grade II-listed building would comprise seven flats, three at the ground floor and four at the first floor. There would be a two-bed and a three-bed flat each, and the remaining would be one-bed only.
A single retail unit is proposed on the ground floor. Its gross internal area of 332.6 sq m would be split into three areas, with 193.1 sq m the actual main retail space. The nature of the store is not specified in the application, but as a Class E(a) use is sought, this means it would be a retail store and not sell hot food.
If approved, the works also include repairs to the historic building. There would be a work schedule of specialist stone and masonry repairs, including repointing brick joints and repainting railings. The Customs House dates back to the Victorian era and has been a listed building for over 50 years.
“Heritage considerations have been central to the design process, with
interventions minimised and justified where necessary,” Plan Architecture state on behalf of the applicant in a submitted document. Internally, historic features are to be reinstated or preserved.
The application details that plans for the revitalisation of Customs House originally included nine flats. But pre-application consultation with the likes of the Environment Agency highlighted a significant constraint in flood risk.
As a result, the mixed use scheme has been pursued. The building’s existing car park would be retained but divided effectively in half between allocated residential parking and parking for the retail unit.