Aldborough House

Detached four-bay single-storey stone former barracks building, built c.1850, within forecourt of Aldborough House (50010082) fronting onto street. Currently not in use. Hipped slate roof with central profiled limestone ashlar chimneystack, and cast-iron rainwater gutters on corbelled eaves course and cast-iron down pipes. Coursed squared and snecked calp limestone walls with granite ashlar plinth course. Square-headed window openings with voussoired limestone heads, granite sills and six-over-six pane timber sliding sash windows to front, blind to rear. Arcaded south side elevation to entrance gates of Aldborough House with continuous impost course, blocked up to two bays, and replacement door to easternmost bay. Segmental-headed opening to west elevation with impost course continued from south elevation opening into recessed entrance porch having blocked up entrance. Former barracks building forms part of boundary walls of Aldborough House.

Constructed by the Earl of Aldborough between 1796 and 1799, Aldborough House was the last great Dublin mansion to be built before the Act of Union, which radically altered the social and political landscape of the city. Such great houses were no longer necessary as the aristocracy no longer attended parliament in Dublin. Attributed to Richard Johnson and constructed for the purpose of lavish entertaining, Aldborough House passed out of private ownership in 1813 when it was leased to a school. By the middle of the nineteenth century it had passed into use as an army barracks. This single-storey building is the physical reminder of that period of the house’s history and exemplifies the robust but unadorned military style of architecture during the nineteenth century. This rather dour calp limestone façade is in sharp contrast with its neighbour, the attractively detailed former theatre building, but builds a picture of Aldborough House’s chequered history.