House — 17th/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 in the early 1800s. A two-bay, four-storey terraced former house of on a c.4m wide plot, c.12m height to top of front parapet. The cruciform roof, substantial chimney stack centred along the E boundary and gabled rear return all indicate a ‘Dutch Billy’ typology. John Speed’s map (Speed, 1610) shows development at the site of No. 135. These gable-fronted buildings were prolific along this busy market street from the medieval period. Despite not depicting the closets or returns to the rear of both buildings, the extant structures are believed to be those noted on Rocque (Rocque, 1756) due to the age, form and appearance of the surviving historic fabric, and in fact some of the internal fabric may pre-date Rocque’s survey, as is likely at No. 134. The omissions of the returns is likely an error. Rocque also shows No. 135 having the same plot depth as Nos. 132-134 and 136. No. 134 and No. 135 share bundled brown brick and rendered chimneystacks and roughly mirror image returns (alternate footprint to No. 135), which suggests that they may have been built as a pair in the first instance, together as part of a terrace of five structures. However, the varying floor levels between Nos. 134-135 and No. 136 may indicate that the development was not as large, or else that the extant building at No. 136 underwent alterations or rebuilding.