2016:522 - No. 49 Talbot Street, Dublin (rear of), Dublin

The site, to the rear of No 49, Talbot Street, lies within the zone of archaeological potential associated with Dublin City (DU018-020-)and is located at the eastern end of the street on its north side. Evidence from both historical and cartographic sources show that the present area of the city occupied by the eastern end of Talbot Street was located beyond the limits of the precincts of St Mary’s Abbey, suggesting that the site is unlikely to have medieval stratigraphy. In fact Talbot Street only developed towards the end of the 18th century, probably between 1750 and 1770, and originally comprised both Cope Street and Moland Street. As such, the site remained undeveloped until the latter half of the 19th century. This is largely supported by the evidence from archaeological investigations elsewhere on the street where, despite five sites being examined, nothing earlier that 19th-century deposits were encountered.

The building No. 49 Talbot Street is a protected structure and listed on the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage (Ref 50010135) as a building of regional importance.

Two test-trenches were mechanically excavated at a proposed development site to the rear of 49 Talbot Street. These revealed that the earliest deposit surviving on site was a layer of sticky silt loam clay, probably a variation of inter-tidal sleech. It was not truly ‘natural’ as some flecks of charcoal and sea shell were noted within the matrix. Over this lay a layer of late 18th-/early 19th-century garden soil. A red brick and slate drain was laid within this layer, as noted in Trench 2, with the recovery of a stoneware vessel confirming the late date. This was in turn sealed by rubble layers dating to the 19th century and later, into which a series of drains and service lines had been laid. No deposits of archaeological significance were identified in any of the trenches. The test-trench horizons seem to reflect the cartographic sources, which suggest that the development site was open ground until the later half of the 18th or early 19th century.