2001:401 - DUBLIN: St James’s Hospital, Dublin

Line A of the LUAS, the light rail system linking Tallaght to Abbey Street, will pass through the grounds of St James’s Hospital, formerly the South Dublin Union. A stop serving the hospital is to be constructed just inside the main hospital entrance on James’s Street. As this was within the SMR designations for James’s Hospital and Kilmainham, an application was made to test-excavate the area of the stop prior to the commencement of the works.

The site had previously been occupied by a large hospital building dating from 1934. There were no cellars associated with this building and there was a possibility that archaeological deposits may have survived under the foundations of the structure. Of particular interest in this area is the Bridewell, as shown on Rocque’s 1756 depiction of the city. This stood on the street front outside the perimeter wall of what was then the city workhouse, directly on the line of the LUAS track. It would appear to have been a T-shaped structure, with two yards to the rear. While not much is known of the history of the structure, it was probably a bridewell serving the parish, and may have its origins in the late medieval period.

A trench was excavated down the centre of the site, oriented approximately north–south along the footprint of the proposed stop. The northern end was located 14m from the timber hoarding fronting onto James’s Street. The trench was not brought up to the hoarding owing to the presence of water and gas mains and was excavated mechanically to an average depth of 2.5m, measuring 3m in width. The testing took place just outside and to the east of the original hospital precinct, in an area which was an open yard in 1756 and a tannery during the first Ordnance Survey (1838–47). By the publication of the second edition in 1866 the area had been incorporated into the hospital, the eastern boundary of which was now Pigtown Lane (later to become Ewington Lane).

The trench was excavated in two lengths owing to the presence of two water mains crossing the centre of the site; the northern length measured 14m, the southern length 30m, with a gap of 14m between the sections. There was a general spread of mortar and building debris occupying the initial 0.3m below the surface. This would appear to relate to the construction phase of the hospital building as opposed to its demolition phase.

The results of the test excavation show that the initial 0.3m or so of the ground underneath the gravel was still disturbed by the foundations of the 1934 building. Below that was a deposit of garden soil 0.4–0.6m in depth, which sealed the natural subsoil. Several walls were encountered in the trench along with the remains of a stone-vaulted sewer.

2 Killiney View, Albert Road Lower, Glenageary, Co. Dublin