2014:062 - 65-68 St Stephens Green South, St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2., Dublin

The site was the Canada House building on the south-east corner of St Stephen’s Green. This had been built in the 1970s as five stories over one level of basement replacing four previous 18th-century houses. Permission was granted for a new building of six stories over two levels of basement.
The site is located on the north bank of the now culverted River Steine. The site is east of the church of St Stephen and also the medieval ecclesiastic enclosure of St Peter’s. In the early 16th century the Green appears to have come under civic administration and was a commons (as earlier) used for pasture. In 1663 a decision by the City Assembly had been taken to allow civic land to be used for urban development; this included the Green. By 1728, the physical character of the Green had been shaped. Rocque's map shows complete development of the south side of the Green by 1756. The houses nos 65-68 can be seen to be flanked by other houses on the east side which were to be removed in the next century to create the road now known as Earlsfort Terrace.
A cross slab, DU018-240, is located 160m to the north-east of the site. About 80m to the south-east, DU018-020249 is recorded as an 18th/19th-century house. To the west, DU018-020519 and DU018-020520 are recorded as a house of indeterminate date. Stephen’s Green itself is recorded as a park, DU018-020334.

The development consisted of the demolition of the existing building, including the associated ramp and ESB substation. This was followed by the piling around the footprint of the new building and clearance of soils within this outline of piles.

The upstanding structures were all demolished and the basement and foundations also removed. The piles were bored by a rig and then filled with steel reinforced concrete. The soil from the piles was closely monitored for stratigraphy and finds. At the north end of the site the hardcore of the 1970s overlay a brown sandy clay 2m deep. Below this layer was a 3-4m thick layer of grey clayey soil with broken and deteriorated stone, then bedrock of limestone. From the centre of the site southwards the 1970s hardcore was above a layer of rubble of red brick, slate and mortar. Then the same layer of brown sandy clay was present but below this was a bed of fine gravels. This bed of gravels became deeper the further south in the site. The gravel lay over the same grey clayey soil and bedrock as in as in the north of the site. There were a few localised deposits and redeposit of rich loamy soils along the southern boundary which held large amount of domestic waste. Once the piling was completed the area within the piles was removed by digger.
Three features of archaeological interest came to light: the northern limit of the river gravels, the boundary walls along the south and east of the site, and a concentration of red brick and other demolition debris in the centre and south of the site.

The line of river gravels indicates the previous extent of the Steine as being over 30m north of the position of the culverted river today. The Steine would have been a substantial watercourse, both as a natural boundary and a communications route in prehistoric times.

The features of the south boundary wall would suggest that there were two windows on the west side of the wall as viewed on its north-facing elevation. That there was a pair of windows and no door would suggest that the building was accessed from the garden. It is unclear to which house the ‘outbuildings’ belonged. On the east section of wall there was some very fine cut stone cornicing. A rectilinear aperture in the wall on the east end may have been a drain or a beam socket. In a redeposit of brown clay material against the foundation courses of this wall a single Iron Age bead was discovered.
The eastern wall comprised of a brick wall above an angular limestone wall, and was devoid of any architectural features. It would seem that this wall was simply a dividing wall between the properties of No. 65 and the now-demolished houses to the east. Very little was exposed of the other short section of wall along the southern edge of the site and again it had no apparent architectural features. This wall was of similar construction as the other section of south boundary wall. As this section of wall was not being disturbed by the current project it was left in situ. The lack of architectural features on these walls as compared to the southern boundary wall in the west of the site implies that there was no outbuildings here.
The depth of these walls, up to 3m below current street level, is indicative of the shape and slope of ground levels in this area at the time the first buildings were constructed on these plots. The depth of the rear of the gardens was 3m lower than the street level towards the front of the house which may be the reason for the large amount of demolition rubble and domestic waste found in the centre and south of the site. The domestic waste found around the south-east boundary walls shows the use of the lower section of the garden for a rubbish or midden heap by the occupants of the houses. The finds within the context show use of this area as a midden heap from the 17th century to the late 19th and possibly early 20th century. The brick and other building material that overlies this midden and much of the southern half of the site shows levelling of the gardens with rubble from the demolition of the original houses and boundary walls to make way for the 1970s building.

Ballybrack Road, Glencullen, Dublin 18.