The chimney built to catch smugglers

Built in 1680 at the height of Exeter's wool trade boom, the Custom House was the first building in England purpose-built for that job, home to the officials who regulated everything passing through the port, at a time when woollen mills were working flat out and cloth was being loaded onto ships just outside the door.

Inside, they had something called the King's Pipe, a chimney built for one purpose only: burning contraband tobacco seized from smugglers working the Exe estuary. It's a strange little piece of architecture, a whole feature built entirely around catching people out, and it says as much about the amount of smuggling going on as any official record could.

I painted the Quayside in watercolour and ink, that pink brick facade above the water. There's a poster with a letter home and a postcard if you'd like one.

Shop the poster here: Exeter Quayside · Travel Poster