Connolly Books/The New Theatre

Terraced three-bay five-storey former commercial building, built c.1880, having recent shopfront to front (north) elevation and recent extension to rear (south) elevation accommodating theatre and apartments. Hipped roof, set perpendicular to street, hidden behind red brick parapet with granite coping. Some cast-iron rainwater goods. Red brick, laid in English garden wall bond, to wall to front elevation. Smooth render to rear elevation. Square-headed window openings with cut granite sills, concrete lintels and multiple pane timber casement windows. Recent oriel window to first floor. Recent shopfront having square-headed door opening with half-glazed timber panelled double doors, and square-headed display windows. Recessed square-headed door opening to west bay with recent half-glazed timber panelled door. Situated on the south side and centre of Essex Street East.

The roof form and upper floor window arrangements suggest this building may date from the late seventeenth century, however, the front elevation appears to have been largely rebuilt in the late nineteenth century. The building's proportions and layout with a commercial unit at ground floor level is typical of this dense historic area. Connolly Books, named after James Connolly, sold the writings of James Connolly (1868–1916), Ireland’s Marxist pioneer and martyr, from the time it moved to these premises in 1977. Essex Street opened in 1674 and was divided into east and west in the 1760s, with the development of Parliament Street.