House — 18th century in Unknown Townland

The historic thoroughfare of Thomas Street follows the path of the ancient highway of Ireland, Slige Mor. Thomas Street became the main street of The Liberties, running parallel to the Liffey. The Liberties area was an ecclesiastical and later commercial district located W of Newgate on the outskirts of the former city walls. Development occurred during the 12th and 13th centuries and declined in the 14th and 15th centuries. The area became associated with the silk and weaving trade and Huguenot immigration which sparked a wave of development in the late 17th century and peaked by the early 1800s. By the mid-19th century, Thomas Street had become an important commercial thoroughfare, and a centre of the thriving brewing and distilling industries in the city. Rocque (Rocque 1756) shows No.55 having the same plot depth as No.56 to the E and a shallower plot depth than No.54A to the E. There is a step in the line of the street between No. 54A and No.55. A carriageway to the W end of No.55 provides access to Mulligan’s Yard (Molyneux Yard), which connects to Engine Alley to the S. The plot of No.55 extends further S along Molyneux Yard with the front elevation aligned with No.54A in the later OSI 1847 and 1864. OSI 1886 and 1907 show a small rear yard to the E end and a small return linking the main house to a structure forming the S boundary. Dublin Civic Trust estimate the date for construction to be c.1720-1740, and state it to be a ‘…building of early eighteenth-century date that was almost certainly gable-fronted originally.’ (Dublin Civic Trust, 2012) A four-storey mid-terrace house of two bays on a c.6m wide plot, c.12m height to top of front parapet. The diminutive proportions and clustered fenestration suggest an early eighteenth-century gable-fronted house typology.