Number 4 Castle Street

Number 4 Castle Street

Dublin Civic Trust’s headquarters is the only surviving Georgian building on historic Castle Street in Dublin city centre. Now fully restored to its former glory, this handsome merchant townhouse and shop is one of the last buildings of its type and period in Dublin to remain intact, and is home to Dublin Civic Trust’s offices and exhibition centre. Read below about the history of the building and how the Trust approached its restoration.

Castle Street

Although Number 4 dates to the early 19th century, the street it stands on is considerably more ancient. One of the oldest and formerly most important streets in the capital, Castle Street served as the primary link route from the eastern end of the city at Trinity College to Christ Church Cathedral in the west, prior to the opening of Lord Edward Street in the 1880s. Until that time, most traffic came along Dame Street, looped around Cork Hill towards the entrance to Dublin Castle, and continued up narrow Castle Street towards Christchurch Place, then part of Fishamble Street.

In medieval times Castle Street was a hive of activity and commerce, lined with impressive timber-caged houses and shops, home to bookbinders, saddlers, armourers and taverns, flanking the great defensive walls of Dublin Castle. The adjoining image shows John Rocque’s map of Dublin from 1756, depicting Castle Street linking Dame Street with Fishamble Street, skirting the precinct of Dublin Castle. The prominence and importance of Castle Street in the life of the city is clearly apparent.

Origins of Number 4

In the early years of the 19th century, efforts were made by the Wide Streets Commission, the planning body in the city, to resolve awkward junctions in the medieval core of Dublin, following on from its successful campaign of street widening in previous years. This resulted in compulsory purchase orders being made on buildings along the southern side of Castle Street where Number 4 now stands. A man by the name of Thomas O’Brien is recorded in 1812 as purchasing properties along this stretch, including the site of the last intact timber-caged house in the city, next door to Number 4, which had been demolished in May of the same year and was acquired directly from the Wide Streets Commission. It was standard practice for the Commission to sell on its cleared plots with strict conditions of lease, with the aim of promoting order, harmony and civic grandeur in the planning and architecture of the city.

Number 4 is a typical example of a building constructed under the guiding hand of the Commission, with Thomas O’Brien recorded as erecting ‘4 good and substantial huses’ between Numbers 1 and 4 Castle Street in the years before 1819. It is likely that the present Number 4 was one of those houses.

Design

Four storeys over basement with a shop to the ground floor, Number 4 is regimentally of the late Georgian, Dublin classical style. It features a tall, narrow façade of good quality tuck pointed yellow brick as was fashionable in the first third of the 19th century, well-proportioned timber sash windows which decrease in size as they ascend through the building, and granite window sills and parapet coping.

The elegant timber shop front with its pilasters and expansive sheet glass display windows dates to c. 1900, but may incorporate some elements from the original shop front. The fascia with trade lettering of the last occupant of the shop, bootmaker and repairer Thomas H. Barnwell, has been retained by the Trust, while traditional window shuttering – the largest expanse surviving in Dublin – has been faithfully reinstated.

In its early years, Number 4 would have been occupied by a relatively wealthy class of merchant, with the earliest recorded occupant being a linen draper and haberdasher, followed by a wholesale dealer in Birmingham ware and Sheffield ware, and a chemist. These traders would have occupied the shop at ground floor level and lived in the residence above, as was typical of Dublin merchant buildings, where access was gained to the upper floors by a separate door on the street which still survives. The spacious scale of Number 4's upper floors suggests it was built with multiple occupancy in mind, whereby a floor or group of rooms may have been sub-let to a tenant by the owner or the ground floor merchant.

By the early 20th century, when Dublin was in a near-permanent state of economic stagnation, Number 4 was entirely in multiple occupancy residential use to its upper floors, with rooms rented out to families and other tenants, all served by a single outside lavatory and communal sinks and running water provided on the landings. One such tenant was Annie McCarthy who lived with her family in the second floor room overlooking Castle Street. The photograph below shows Annie standing on Castle Street in the early decades of the 20th century, when it featured a cobbled roadway, granite pavements and gas lamp standards. Dereliction is also apparent at this early stage, with a vacant site visible adjacent to the former Newcomen Bank at the far end of the street.

The final tenant to occupy the shop at Number 4 was Thomas H. Barnwell, who moved to Castle Street from Werburgh Street in 1946 to continue the shoe repair business know to generations of Dubliners that his father had established in 1881. Mr Barnwell stayed in business until his death in 1985, when the shop was closed and remained vacant until Dublin Civic Trust acquired the building in 1996. In the meantime, the upper floors had continued to be used for residential purposes while the building gradually descended into decay. The last remaining tenant was Mrs Brigid French, who lived for most of her life with her family on the top floor before moving to new accommodation on nearby Lord Edward Street in her final years.

Interior

The interior of Number 4 is typical of merchant houses of the early 19th century, with simple accommodation and decoration of the spare, uncluttered Georgian style. The house has a curious plan, with a room both to the front and back, separated by a small room in the middle and a narrow light well that penetrates all floors of the building. This feature is most uncommon in Dublin Georgian houses, but there are references to a similar design in houses in the vicinity that were demolished on High Street in the 1970s.

No original features survive in the shop except for a large chimneybreast, however the private room to the rear of the shop, which overlooks the house’s back yard and St. Werburgh’s Church, is much as it was in the 19th century, with a large Wyatt window, running mould cornice and a black Victorian chimneypiece. Along the side of the shop runs a narrow corridor from the side entrance on the street to the original Georgian staircase at the back of the house, which leads to the residence above.

Originally, the first floor was likely to be have been used for relaxing and entertaining by its owners, where a large drawing room runs the width of the house overlooking Castle Street, with a smaller square room at the back of the house possibly once used as a dining room. As on the second floor, which features a similar arrangement of rooms once used as bedrooms, there is a third small room to the centre of the house, possibly used as a child’s bedroom, water closet or washroom originally. These central rooms are lit by means of the four-storey light well (today they are subdivided for ancillary use). The third floor features a pair of large rooms which span the width of the house at the front and rear, as well as another subdivided central room.

Restoration

The aim of Dublin Civic Trust in acquiring Number 4 was to lead by demonstration in the restoration of a typical Dublin merchant house using traditional skills and materials in accordance with best conservation practice. This was to show that the restoration of buildings such as these not only preserves our architectural heritage and benefits rundown streets, and the cultural wealth of city at large, but that it is also economically viable to do so.

The Trust acquired Number 4 in 1996 as part of its Revolving Fund project, when the building had been vacant for some time and was scheduled for demolition. The neighbouring plot to the east of the house had already been cleared, while a former factory building occupied the site to the west at the junction with Werburgh Street. The house was not listed for protection at the time, however the discovery of medieval timbers, likely to have been salvaged from the timber-caged house demolished in 1812, embedded in the western exterior wall, was to result in the building being preserved. Designated a National Monument on account of pre-1700 elements surviving in the house’s fabric, Number 4 was saved from demolition and is now also a Protected Structure.

Restoration Works

The immediate concern of the Trust upon acquiring Number 4 was to secure the structural fabric of the building, which had suffered from the ravages of time, neglect and intense multiple-occupancy use and subdivision. These works involved re-roofing using salvaged and newly acquired natural slate, angle-strapping the front and side walls of the house where they had begun to lean out into the street, and doubling up floor joists to strengthen the framework of the house and increase floor loadings.

The yellow brick facade was only lightly cleaned to improve the appearance of the building, while protecting the fabric of the soft brick facings and retaining an air of venerability to the mellow classical elevation. The original tuck pointing was in remarkably good condition on account of the facade’s northerly aspect, and therefore was only repaired where it had decayed to an extent that warranted intervention. All sash windows were carefully retained, with decayed members cut out and new pieces of timber spliced in. Original glass was also preserved where possible.

The fabric of the attractive c. 1900 shopfront, one of the last of its kind in the city, was also largely retained, with replacement pieces of timber inserted where necessary. The fascia of T. H. Barnwell was faithfully restored, while the only notable modification to the shop front was the insertion of a double-leaf entrance door in place of the former single door.

The beautiful leaded fanlight with delicate gothick style panes of glass above the side entrance door was also carefully restored. The six-panelled door below, which was likely to date from the original Georgian shopfront, was so decayed through intense use over the years that it required replacement - an exact reproduction was made.

Inside, the amount of damp ingress to the building over the previous years of vacancy necessitated a complete overhaul of the decaying lime plaster finish to the walls. Most walls and ceilings were stripped back to their bare structural state - taking care to retain sound areas where possible - before being re-plastered using multiple coats of lime plaster. A running mould cornice was then masterfully reapplied in the traditional manner, using a timber mould to sculpt the wet plaster across the top of the wall and out onto the ceiling. As the house is Georgian and pre-dates the mass use of oil and gas lamp pendents, there were never centre ceiling roses in Number 4, and this tradition was respected in the restoration. All room subdivisions were also reversed where possible.

All joinery, including original doors, skirting, architraving and balustrade to the staircase was carefully retained and only repaired and replaced where necessary. The restored gracious staircase with curved mahogany handrail is now one of the glories of the building, seen to best effect in the morning sun flooding through the handsome arched stairwell window. 

Some floorboards were found to be extremely decayed, as in the case of the large first floor room, where it was decided to replace these with similar Georgian boards salvaged from a house then undergoing alteration on Merrion Square. All window shuttering, complete with original security ironmongery, was also made operational once more.

An Asset Reclaimed 

Today Number 4 Castle Street stands as testament to what can be achieved with traditional townhouse and shop buildings that have fallen into neglect, not only in Dublin but in any of Ireland’s towns and villages, where so many vernacular buildings, often with original shop fronts and intact living quarters, languish in decay, sometimes awaiting ill-informed adaptation or wholesale demolition.

With an understanding of the origins of an historic building, its original function, design features and surviving elements, nearly any structure can be rehabilitated and sensitively restored for modern use. Number 4 Castle Street has proved that historic buildings are not only an economic asset to owners and to a city, but that their survival also greatly enriches our collective cultural heritage and serves as an important legacy to pass on to future generations.

Occupants of Number 4 Castle Street

(from earliest directory)

1835-1845  Mr. Rody Keshan – Linen draper and haberdasher
1846-1847  Mr. Thomas McGrade – Wholesale dealer in Birmingham and Sheffield ware
1848-1853  Mr. T. Williams – Chemist
1854-1857  Vacant
1858-1882  Mr. Joseph Quinlan – Wholesaler, portmanteau, trunk and packing case manufacturer
1882-1918  Mr. W. Howard – occupation not stated
1919-1941  Mr. J. Stenbridge – Greengrocer
1941-1945  Ms. Madeline Moran – Hairdresser
1946-1985  Mr. T. Harry Barnwell – Bootmaker and repairer
1986-1995  Vacant
1996–Present  Dublin Civic Trust

Text and current photographs by Graham Hickey