store/warehouse

Attached double-gable-fronted fourteen-bay two-storey former warehouse, built c.1890, now in use as offices and studio. M-profile pitched slate roof, set perpendicular to street, with clerestorey, terracotta ridge tiles, and red-brick Dutch gables having decorative terracotta tiles to apex, with carved limestone cornice, red brick pilasters having carved limestone string courses, limestone coping and orb finials. Red brick, laid in Flemish bond to walls, having polychrome, moulded and cogged red brick string courses, and brick plinth course. Segmental-headed window openings with moulded brick voussoirs, chamfered sills and some limestone keystones. Square-headed window openings set in shallow recesses, having cogged brick motif, granite sills, and steel bars. Timber framed casement windows throughout. Segmental-headed door openings with recent timber battened vehicular doors with carved limestone figurative keystones. Street fronted on to Sir John Rogerson’s Quay, overlooking Samuel Beckett Bridge.

This former warehouse is among the most visible and recognisable landmarks on Sir John Rogerson’s Quay, as a consequence of its location opposite Samuel Beckett Bridge and the quality of its brick façade. The façade is beautifully enlivened by Dutch gables, moulded brick detailing, and the riverine keystones. The latter were sculpted by Edward Smyth in 1794 for Carlisle Bridge. When the bridge was rebuilt as O’Connell Bridge in 1880, with wider elliptical arches, the keystones no longer fitted, and smaller replicas were made. The originals found their way here to Sir John Rogerson’s Quay. The heads represent Anna Liffey (west arch) and the Atlantic Ocean (east arch), a riverine theme particularly appropriate in a quayside warehouse.