History

A location like no other building in Dublin, The chq Building overlooks the River Liffey and George’s Dock. The chq Building is a grade one listed building situated within the heart of the city’s bustling International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) in the Docklands. It was built in 1820 as a new bonded warehouse to store large and valuable cargos of tobacco, tea and spirits. The dockers and merchants knew it as the Tobacco Store, or later, as Stack A. The building was made famous when it hosted the Crimean War Banquet in 1856 celebrating the return of 3,000 Irish soldiers.

Designed by the Scottish engineer John Rennie, this industrial masterpiece boasts the largest pre-20th century clear-floor space in Dublin City. External walls of beautiful Georgian brickwork enclose a vast area of over 8,000sqm, with a slate roof supported by a sophisticated, innovative cast iron frame. No wood was used in the construction to ensure it was absolutely fireproof. The chq Building measures 155m by 55m and still includes virtually the complete set of nine vaults that originally ran from West to East to cover the entire footprint of the building; half of one vault was removed when the building was reduced by 5m at it’s Southern end in 1884 in order to widen Custom House Quay.

The Grade One protected structure was sympathetically restored by the Dublin Docklands Development Authority in the early 2000’s. The major restorations included the innovative and immense glass facade, originally designed by the brilliant Irish engineer Peter Rice, which now frames the Southern end.

Restoration

There has been much confusion as to the actual construction date of Stack A. The first piece of concrete evidence of Stack A can be found in the minute books of the Wide Street Commissioners of 1821 where the subject of the “ranging of the wall on the south end of the timber yard with … Continued

John Rennie

John Rennie was born in 1761 in the small village of Preston Kirk in East Lothian. By the time of his death, he could lay claim to a major professional involvement in the East and West India docks in London, Holyhead Harbour, Hull docks, Ramsgate Harbour, the dockyards at Sheerness and Chatham and Howth and … Continued

The Crimean War Banquet

The Crimean War (1854-1855) has often been described as a pointless, minor war in a far off place. Certainly this conflict, primarily involving France, Russia and Britain, was pointless, in as much as all wars are but a minor war it was not. It accounted for the lives of almost three quarters of a million … Continued