Dublin
Civic
Trust

9 Merchant's Quay

Sited in the most enviable position in Dublin, overlooking James Gandon’s Four Courts masterpiece on Inns Quay, is an unassuming city mansion – Number 9 Merchant’s Quay. This house was one of the Trust’s most transformative conservation projects that rescued the derelict 18^th-century building from almost certain ruination, turning it around to become one of the most beguiling houses in the city.

In the broad sweep of Dublin buildings, Number 9 is instantly seductive. Rising four storeys over basement, with a deeply chiselled, rusticated granite ground floor, it features a rare blind arcade of repeating windows and doorcase. Above street level is a façade of russet-toned brick punctured with sinuous, dark-painted windows and delicately ‘feathered’ window reveals. Scenically positioned behind is the Church of the Immaculate Conception – better known as the Franciscan Adam and Eve’s – whose classical façade, belfry and copper dome inject a courtly air of Italian urbanism to the banks of the Liffey.

The stoical façade of Number 9, which straddles four bays along the quay-front, cloaks a deeper rarity – namely, two entirely separate houses that were conjoined during the 18^th century. Rarer still is the antiquity of one of the houses, which likely dates to the late 17^th or early 18^th centuries, and a surviving boat jetty that provides subterranean access to the Liffey.  

The Trust undertook a meticulous refurbishment of the mansion between 1998-1999 in conjunction with Dublin City Council, where it continues to be used as offices by the local authority.