Cafe Topolis

Attached two-bay five-storey over basement former townhouse, built c.1840, having recent shopfront to front (east) elevation. Hipped roof, set perpendicular to street, hidden behind smooth rendered parapet with cut granite coping to front, and brown brick chimneystack. Smooth rendered walls having render quoins. Square-headed window openings with cut granite sills, replacement windows and recent balconettes to first, second and third floor windows. Square-headed window and door openings to recent shopfront. Situated on west side and south end of Parliament Street.

Parliament Street is the first example of formal axial planning in mid-eighteenth-century Dublin. When George Semple designed the rebuilding of Essex Bridge (1753-55) his plan showed a new wide street linking the bridge to Dublin Castle, and this plan for this street was implemented by the Wide Street Commissioners in 1762. Many of the buildings, including this one, were adapted and rebuilt in the nineteenth century. The decreasing scale of fenestration to its upper floors attributes a hierarchy to each floor, creating a pleasantly balanced façade. Historic maps show that the building was formerly numbered 26 Parliament Street. It is described in Thom's Directory of 1862 as housing the Dublin Evening Mail offices.