House - 17th century

The National Monuments Service's description

Craig (1969, 87-8, 329) mentions the existence of two late 17th century Dutch Billies on this site. The distinctive features of these buildings was that the roof-ridge ran at right angles to the street with the front gables, in the most characteristic examples, being masked by quadrants sweeping up to very flat curved or triangular pediments. These houses were built of brick, normally on stone foundations, and designed to stand in continuous terraces. Very often economy was achieved by the use of corner fireplaces so that two houses might share a single huge chimney-stack. The returns generally contained a small closet on each floor, and the roof-pitch was steeper than became usual later in the century (Craig 1980, 86-87). They were typically divided into two or three rooms that contained corner fireplaces and had compact floors of either cobbles or redbrick. The lower walls were generally constructed out of calp limestone, over which upper courses of redbrick had been laid. In many instances the houses shared party walls and corner chimneys suggesting that they were laid out to a single organised plan. They were demolished in about 1955. There are no visible remains above ground.

Compiled by : Geraldine Stout

Date of upload: 3 August 2012

References

Craig, M. 1969 Dublin 1600-1860: a social and architectural history. Dublin. Allen Figgis.

Craig, A. 1980 Saint Stephens Green, 1880-1980. National Parks and Monuments Service, OPW (Information brochure).