Dublin Civic Trust

10/06/2026

Downing or Dorset Street? This striking Georgian gable, blackened from centuries of pollution, has been revealed at the corner of Dorset Street and St. Mary’s Place North, beside the Black Church. Concealed for decades behind advertising boards, the intriguing, semi-abstracted façade is punctured with ‘blind opes’ framed by granite sills and flat arches.

This popular feature of late Georgian Dublin is not attributable to window tax and blocked up windows, as is often claimed. In fact, the design concept was well established even before window tax was introduced in Ireland, for a brief period, in 1799, lasting until 1822.

Rather, blind opes gave relief and architectural interest to gable walls where windows were deemed unnecessary. This was part of the wider classical tradition that inflected Dublin’s speculative building trade, borrowing from antiquity the concept of sculptural niches to relieve large expanses of wall. This was executed carefully, aligning with windows on other facades to give a full architectural effect. It seems that the motif was encouraged by the Wide Streets Commissioners (WSC) in its authorised developments from around 1790.

The second picture is a terrific 1984 capture of the same corner by photographer . It shows the missing top storey and captures the entire structure that stood on the site of the adjacent apartment building. It seems that both sides were originally one property, purpose-built as Georgian ‘apartments’ bisected by a staircase in the middle of the plan, with the largest rooms facing Dorset Street. This type of house was popular on busy corners where posh single houses were less desirable to locate.

Also attached are WSC maps, dated 1827, showing the grand plan that never quite materialised for St. Mary’s Place, intended as a formal avenue of houses leading to a crescent at the Black Church. The 1847 OS map still captures the latent potential with a large site remaining undeveloped on the north side.

Several much older houses still survive on Dorset Street, currently being worked on – some captured in an 1840s Fox Talbot photo. Not a single one is a Protected Structure, as with much of Dorset Street.

02/06/2026

Works underway at 25 Parliament Street have stripped back the modern shopfront, revealing the original Georgian red brickwork and granite window sills. Also exposed is the massive timber ‘’bressummer’ beam that supports the front facade. Shopfronts in the 18th century were quite low in height, including the pioneering glazed shopfronts that populated Parliament Street when it was first set out by the Wide Streets Commissioners in the 1760s. The windows featured here are so long and elegant that the window sills may have been fashionably lowered at a later date, perhaps around 1800, and subsequently got in the way of a new shopfront fascia, causing them to be partially covered over. The brick facade was also stuccoed, with fancy pedimented surrounds applied to the first floor windows.

We can note the original brickwork pointing style, too, apparently consisting of a ‘penny struck’ joint with a groove incised into the horizontal joints. Closer analysis is required. Similar brickwork evidence concealed for centuries behind a shopfront fascia at 4 Parliament Street was used in recent years to carefully conserve the facade of House of Read – the former Thomas Read cutlers shop.

31/05/2026

68 Arran Street East | Episode 8

The mezzanine structure has been temporarily revealed, revealing a double height space where all is not quite as it seems. Originally a grand Georgian drawing room, with three large sash windows overlooking the street, the space was radically altered in the 19th century with the removal of the original floor and the insertion of a shopfront and large window. Subsequent alterations in the early 1900s further eroded the original layout. Identifying exactly when the floor was removed, in the 1820s or in the 1840s, has proved elusive. However, one of the previous uses of the building may help offer up a clue…

Supported by the Historic Structures Fund under .localgov.heritage and the Built Heritage Investment Scheme overseen by .

Project Architect:
Contractor: Glanroy Construction

21/05/2026

68 Arran Street East | Episode 7

Consolidating the historic timber floor structures in 68 Arran Street East while preserving the original lath and plaster ceilings underneath is a tricky balancing act. This week we show you what’s been going on to strengthen and re-level the 18th-century joists.

Supported by the Historic Structures Fund under .localgov.heritage and the Built Heritage Investment Scheme overseen by .

Project Architect:
Contractor: Glanroy Construction

19/05/2026

A snapshot of what lurks beneath the floorboards of Leinster House...

During the recent major refurbishment works on the national parliament buildings led by the Office of Public Works, traditional 'pugging' - packing that gave sound and thermal insulation between floors - was found to be made up of sea shells mixed in with more usual sawdust and wood shavings. It demonstrates the former proximity of the Dublin shoreline to the backlands of Merrion Square in the 1740s, and the types of materials available in the locality for building construction.

Note too the considerable thickness of the floorboards. In some areas in Leinster House, expensive oak boards were used rather than imported pine. These represented some of the final uses of oak for flooring and general building around this time, the supply of which was largely exhausted in Ireland by the middle of the 18th century.

10/05/2026

68 Arran Street East | Episode 6

Dublin’s brick building tradition is reflected in structures large and small, as seen in this week’s episode comparing the facade of 68 Arran Street East with 11 Parnell Square, the magnificent new home for Poetry Ireland, Irish Heritage Trust and Irish Landmark Trust. Congratulations to all three organisations, and the design team led by McCullough Mulvin Architects, on the building’s official opening this week by Uachtarán na hÉireann Catherine Connolly. Plus, we take a look back at what has been achieved to date with restoring the facade on Arran Street East.

Supported by the Historic Structures Fund under .localgov.heritage, the Built Heritage Investment Scheme overseen by , and The Heritage Council. Project Architect:

30/04/2026

This is a newly granted Dublin project that caught our eye. Firstly, as it’s beside us on Ormond Quay Upper overlooking the Liffey. But secondly, as it’s such a rare example of a well-considered, thoughtfully designed mixed use refurbishment of a type that was once familiar in Dublin in the 000s. In short, the quality stands out like a diamond as so much else granted in the centre of the city in the past decade has been lowest common denominator, spreadsheet architectural dross, rocket-fuelled by central government meddling in the city’s planning affairs.

The existing owners of the fine collection of buildings at this prominent junction with Capel Street are proposing a deep retrofit, energy upgrade, adaptive reuse and extension of the former early 1900s Bank of Ireland and adjacent offices. The latter building (1989) is one of the earliest works of Grafton Architects, incorporating remains of the former Ormond Quay Presbyterian Church that was destroyed by fire in the 1960s. It was extended to the rear in the 1990s with a chic Euro-moderne façade to Strand Street Little – classy and glassy, but thermally disastrous (as with most fashion items). The former bank (c.1919 and earlier) is exquisitely built with its joyful rounded corner, crisp machined brick and bolshy granite.

Dobbin+Company Architects plan to achieve an A3 energy rating through a clever reimagination of the rear elevation, internal refurbishment throughout, sensitive upgrading of the historic components, and an elegant additional storey on the Grafton block. This storey not only improves the overall quayside composition, it also helps conceal the eye-popping horror of the emerging July hotel at the back (that’s another day’s work). High-end offices will be delivered and a new restaurant on the ground floor. We wholly endorse DCC Conservation’s desire to see the new corner entrance redressed in stone, not metal. Proposed ugly new antennae on the roof were also justly knocked back.

This scheme flew through the planning system as the design team did their homework and presented an exemplary scheme. That’s not too much to ask for our city centre, is it?

18/04/2026

68 Arran Street East | Episode 5

We delve underground this week into the basement of 68 Arran Street East to take a look at its brick vaulted construction. The early 1800s structure is still in excellent condition and will continue to support the solid floor of the ground floor room above without any additional support.

Supported by the Historic Structures Fund under .localgov.heritage, the Built Heritage Investment Scheme overseen by , and The Heritage Council. Project Architect:

18/04/2026

How do layers of Dublin’s past survive beneath the modern city?

In the Spring 2026 issue of Archaeology Ireland, Paul Duffy, Chris Coffey and Marc Piera, in ‘Molyneux House: antiquarianism to modernism’, examine the excavation of a site on Bride Street, revealing a complex sequence of activity from the medieval period through to modern redevelopment.

As noted in the editorial, the study highlights how successive phases of occupation, domestic, institutional and commercial—are preserved within the archaeological record of the city.

📷 Excavations beneath the semi-basement of Molyneux House, winter 2023.

📖 Archaeology Ireland, Spring 2026 (Vol. 40, No. 1)
[https://wordwellbooks.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=2224]

16/04/2026