County: Dublin Site name: DUBLIN: 18/19 Duke Street
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 01E0468
Author: Linzi Simpson, Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd.
Site type: Well and House - 18th century
Period/Dating: Modern (AD 1750-AD 2000)
ITM: E 715892m, N 733838m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.342067, -6.259617
Nos 18 and 19 Duke Street are adjoining 18th-century houses currently under redevelopment. Joshua Dawson first laid out Duke Street in 1705, at the same time as Dawson Street and Grafton Street, but the first cartographic representation is on Charles Brooking’s map, dated 1728, which indicates that by this date the street was built up on both sides. Nos 18 and 19 are protected structures; although the features in No. 19 are predominantly Victorian, No. 18 had several original features, including a panelled dogleg staircase. However, the buildings were deemed unstable, and a comprehensive under-pinning programme was implemented, monitored by the writer. This included the small yard to rear, which, until recently, housed a later return.
The monitoring established that both houses are cut into subsoil and that the area to the rear had been disturbed in relatively recent times. However, the remains of an 18th-century well were identified to the rear of 19 Duke Street, close to the pavement of Duke Lane. The well was originally 1.6m wide and had an internal diameter of 1m, extending to at least 3.2m deep. It was constructed of drystone masonry (limestone or calp), and the stones varied greatly in size. It was filled with a loose deposit, which contained broken fragments of half brick (of 18th- and 19th-century date) within lenses of mortar and clay-pipe fragments. The surviving section of the well was preserved in situ in the new development.
The remains of a pumping stick were recovered from the rubble in the south-west corner of the yard, and this presumably originally came from the well. The timber was of oak and represented the lower, tapered section of a typical pumping stick, from a capillary-action well; it was 1.9m long, 0.28m wide and 0.22m in diameter at the circular end, which had a central perforation, 85mm in diameter. The bung (probably of ash) was in position at this end. The remains of two small recesses were found on two of the surfaces.
2 Killiney View, 2 Albert Road Lower, Glenageary, Co. Dublin
