2016:057 - 123-124 St James Street, Dublin 8, Dublin

The site comprises two-storey structures (which date to the late 1960s). The proposed development is adjacent to St James' Church and within the Zone of Archaeological Constraint for the DU018-020346 (Church and Graveyard) and DU018-020 (Dublin City), which are subject to statutory protection under Section 12 of the National Monuments (Amendment) Act 1994. Cartographic evidence indicates that the boundary of the graveyard has remained unchanged from the earlies map of 1673. No. 125 is located outside the graveyard boundary, Nos 123-124 are both inside the original boundary. Nos 123-124 appear to have been built sometime between 1728 and 1756. There was a structure located at the site of No. 125 prior to 1728. Archive photographs of No. 125 were identified by Carrig in their Impact Statement “The building is shown as a three-bay three-storey Georgian brick property having a carriage-arch to the west facilitating access to ‘Lambs Court’ (Carrig, 2105).

125 James Street

The test pits revealed the presence of a deep basement level in the chip shop area probably extending to c. 2.1m depth. Original basement walls of the earlier 18/19th-century building including a triangular fireplace was also revealed. It is proposed to reduce the ground level in this area by 0.5m so only basement rubble infill deposit will be removed. However it is possible that internal features such as brick partition walls could survive amongst the basement infill. Any service trenches would truncate any internal features. No human bones were found. The brick structures date to the 18/19th century. The natural strata was not reached in the pit thus the possibilty of medieval stratigraphy/features or burials suriving in the yard area cannot be ruled out.  

No 123-124 James Street 

The stratigraphy revealed in Test Pit 6 indicates the presence of floor or surface levels suriving at minimum depths of 0.4m below the present ground floor level. At the northern end of the test pit the top of the natural may have been reached at 1.2m below present ground floor level. The north side of an east-west feature cut into the subsoil was identified, due to depth restrictions we could not explore further, however due to the nature of the site it is possible that it may be a grave cut. The deposits above the natural and cut level consist of garden soil deposits with floor/surface levels above; these surface deposits maybe associated with wall F389. No other walls were identified in the trench and no human bone or medieval artfefacts were recovered from the deposits. The new building requires ground reduction of at least 0.9-1m in this area. This would remove the 18/19th-century floor levels identified. The service trench in this area will be 1.5m deep and this will extend east-west along the line of walls F389 and F400. The service trench to this depth will reomve these walls and assocaited deposits. An area measuring up to 6m by 5m would reqiure controlled archaelogical excavtion in this area. House floor levels and internal brick or stone walls from the 18/19th-century houses may survive in this area. 

Reference:

Carrig, Building Fabric Consultants, May 2015, (unpublished) "St James Graveyard memorials, James St, Dublin. Repair schedule & specification."

ACAS, Annesley Mews, Brighton Ave, Monkstown, Co Dublin