This was originally the offices of the British & Irish Steam Packet Company which was designed by William Henry Bryne & Sons and completed in 1909.
The building faces onto the quay and is one of the older buildings left in the area.
The Company formed on 27 July 1836 after a group of Dublin businessmen met in the Commercial Buildings in nearby Dame Street.
The company’s first ships were all wooden paddle steamers and initially sailed between Dublin and London calling at Plymouth. Other vessels soon joined the fleet and by 1845 they were investing in auxiliary steam powered vessels.
In 1860 they bought the small paddle steamer 'Mars' to operate the Dublin to Waterford service but this route was abandoned in 1863 and the Mars was sold to American owners, interestingly she was later used as a blockade runner in the American Civil War.
In 1870 they bought the Waterford Steam Ship Company's London service together with a number of vessels and in 1920 took over the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company.
By 1917 all the B&I Shares were owned by Coast Lines who also owned a number of other companies, the Irish Government bought the Company in 1965 and operations continued until the early 1990's.