Mezza

Attached two-bay five-storey former house, built c.1840, having shopfront to front (west) elevation. Now in use as restaurant and offices. Hipped roof, set perpendicular to street, hidden behind smooth rendered parapet with render coping, and smooth rendered chimneystack having clay pots. Smooth rendered walls to front and rear (east) elevations. Square-headed window openings with smooth rendered surrounds, recent render sills and replacement windows. Square-headed door opening with timber panelled door, overlight and cut stone threshold step. Recent timber shopfront with square-headed window and door openings. Situated to east side and centre of Parliament Street, rear elevation to west side and north end of Crane Lane.

Parliament Street is the first example of formal axial planning in mid-eighteenth-century Dublin. George Semple designed the rebuilding of Essex Bridge (1753-55) and his plan showed a new wide street linking the bridge to Dublin Castle, this plan for Parliament Street was implemented by the Wide Street Commissioners in 1762. Many of the buildings, including this one, were altered and rebuilt in the nineteenth century. It shares a parapet height with its neighbours, lending a sense of continuity to the streetscape. The diminishing scale of fenestration to the upper floors attributes a hierarchy to each floor, creating a pleasantly balanced façade typical of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century townhouses. This building has a long commercial history, listed in 1862 as the premises of The Genuine Tea Company. Although it has been somewhat altered, it retains much of its early form and character.