House - 17th century

The National Monuments Service's description

This site was entered as 'mint site' in the Dublin RMP (1998) for the property at No. 27 Capel Street. Present house described by the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage (NIAH) as follows; 'Terraced three-bay three-storey former house, built c.1715, but possibly late seventeenth century. Now in use as restaurant with flats above. Roof concealed behind rendered parapet, with granite coping and replacement uPVC rainwater goods. Identified in the Dublin Civic Trust, 'Survey of Gable-fronted and Other Early Buildings of Dublin', (2012), this modest building would appear to be early eighteenth century, or possibly late seventeenth century, in date, making it a significant addition to the street's historic building stock' (NIAH Reg. No. 50060518). An engraving of the house by Thomas Archdeakon in the National Gallery of Ireland (NGI.11919) depicts the building as a 5 bay two-storey high house with steeply pitched dormer roof, bracketed eaves and two tall chimney stacks to rear of house rising above the roofline with the pitch of a second roof to rear of house which suggests that this may have been an L-plan or T-plan house with projecting wing to rear of house. A letter dated the 15th of July, was sent by the Commissioners of the Mint "to all collectors of his Majesty's revenue throughout the kingdom/' urging them" to procure as much hammered or forged copper and brass as your parts can afford as soon as you have four or five hundred weight, pray it to us, the Commissioners of his Majesty's Mint, Mint House, in Capel Street, Dublin" (Smith 1870, 248).

See attached lantern slide entitled 'Illustration of King James II Mint House, Capel Street, Dublin City, Co. Dublin', courtesy of the The Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland - https://www.europeana.eu/en/item/2020741/object_DP_28265403

Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of update: 11 November 2022

References

Smith, A. 1870 Money of Necessity. Issued in Ireland in the Reign of James the Second. The Numismatic Chronicle and Journal of the Numismatic Society Vol. 10, 244-266.