2003:522 - DUBLIN: Bord Gais building, 24 D’Olier Street/3–5 Leinster Market/9–11 Hawkins Street, Dublin

This large group of buildings is being refurbished as the School of Nursing for TCD; the Bord Gais building (24a D’Olier Street) is a protected structure. The buildings are located in the eastern Hiberno-Norse suburb, close to the ‘Stein’, a large upright stone which acted as a navigational landmark in pre-Norman Dublin and was located somewhere south of Pearse Street Garda Station. This area was then within the River Liffey but was eventually reclaimed in the 17th century, after which time it was extensively developed. The assessment and subsequent monitoring programme established that the original basements were cut into post-medieval river gravel and backfilled sometime in the 20th century. Thus there were no surviving medieval deposits.

The reclamation process was largely complete in this area by 1673, as depicted in Bernard de Gomme’s map of Dublin, and by the time John Rocque mapped Dublin in 1756 (before O’Connell street was built) the area had been intensively developed. However, the construction of Carlisle Bridge (O’Connell Bridge) in 1798 was to transform an area that had become very congested. Sackville Street (O’Connell Street) was extended southwards across the river to join with the newly laid out D’Olier Street and this diagonal orientation was a completely new route, which cut through the existing properties including the site under discussion.

The monitoring programme revealed a series of post-medieval walls and a total of four phases were identified, dating from the late 17th/early 18th to the 20th century. Only one wall could be dated to Phase 1 and this was probably related to the reclamation process in this area, as it was a heavy substantial wall (2m high by 0.5m wide) running parallel to the river and bonded with river silt. De Gomme’s map of 1673 indicates that the quay wall was in position by this date and, as this wall runs parallel on the southern side, it can probably be associated with these works. By the mid-18th century the cartographic evidence suggests that there were many domestic houses in this area and two basement walls could be identified with this phase (Phase 2). In Phase 3 the basement was extended westwards (mid- to late 19th century), when a series of buildings were constructed which fronted onto Leinster Market. In Phase 4 the basement was again comprehensively rebuilt, using a distinctive machine-cut yellow brick, but this was subsequently filled in and a new floor inserted.