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.