County: Dublin Site name: Chatham Street, Harry Street, Swan Yard, Dublin
Sites and Monuments Record No.: DU018-020 Licence number: 17E0480
Author: Paul Duffy, IAC Ltd
Site type: Post-medieval vaulted cellars
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 715790m, N 733725m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.341071, -6.261204
A programme of monitoring was undertaken within the road carriageways of Chatham Street, Harry Street and Swan Lane, during pipelaying and repaving of the area. As the development area is situated within the zone of archaeological potential for Dublin City (DU018-020), monitoring was required.
Monitoring commenced in September 2017 along Swan Yard moving north onto Harry street. A series of four upstanding, back-filled vaulted redbrick cellars were encountered c. 0.3m below the street level. These were located directly east of the gable of the Westbury Hotel and were orientated west-north-west/east-south-east. Modern backfill and road surface overlay these features and modern services ran across the vaults, breaking through the brickwork in places.
To the north of these cellars on Harry Street, the pipeline excavation followed the line of an iron Victorian watermain that had previously disturbed the ground. Surrounding the pipe, a brown, sandy clay fill was observed along the length of the trench.
A further seven vaulted cellars were recorded within the carriageway of Chatham Street, towards the junction with King Street. The cellars found in 1–9 Chatham Street were at c. 0.3m below the street level and were similar in form and construction to those identified in Swan Yard. These cellars had been damaged during excavation and were recorded in section. The span of the cellar vaulting averaged 1.5m in length for each cellar, and they were excavated to an average depth of 0.65m.
The remnants of four vaulted redbrick cellars in Swan Yard date to a period prior to the setting out of the current streetscape. It is probable that the cellars relate to early to mid-18th-century houses that stood along the earlier alignment of Harry Street as depicted on Rocque and Scalé’s mapping. The vaulted cellars found in Chatham Street similarly relate to buildings that no longer exist. It is likely, given the similar dimensions, construction and materials, that the cellars from Chatham Street and Swan Lane are broadly contemporary features relating to the Georgian re-development of the area in the mid-18th century.
No further archaeological work is required on this scheme.
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