What is recorded here

Smock Alley Theatre opened in Dublin in 1662 as the first purpose-built stage outside London to carry the Royal title, giving the city a voice equal to London within weeks of the Restoration. It hosted Farquhar, Goldsmith, Sheridan and Garrick before collapsing twice under its own Liffey-reclaimed foundations, closing in 1787 and becoming a church where the first Catholic bell rang in nearly three centuries. The stage slept beneath vaults, a whiskey smell and sacred silence, until excavation and renovation pulled it back into the light in 2012.

Excavations under the vaults of SS Michael and John's Church revealed remains of a substantial earlier structure belonging to the Smock Alley Theatre built in 1662 (O'Flanagan 1993, 23). Located at No. 7 Exchange Street Lower. Smock Alley was the first Theatre Royal built in Dublin. John Ogilby opened it in 1662 as part of the Restoration of the British monarchy and King Charles II in 1660, along with the London's Drury Lane (1662) and the Lincoln's Inn Fields (1661). It was the first custom-built theatre in the city and still remains in substantially the same form, making it one of the most important sites in European theatre history. Smock Alley was the first theatre outside London to receive the title of Theatre Royal, but because it had been built on land reclaimed from the Liffey, the building was unstable and the gallery collapsed twice; it was rebuilt in 1735. In the mid-1740s, Thomas Sheridan took on the role of manager of Smock Alley and made many improvements to it. While it was in operation as a theatre, it gave the world the plays of George Farquhar, Oliver Goldsmith, and Richard Brinsley Sheridan, and the brilliant performances of Peg Woffington, Thomas Sheridan, Spranger Barry, and Charles Macklin. It was on this stage that David Garrick, the greatest actor of the 18th century, first played Hamlet. The theatre closed in 1787. The building was then used as a whiskey store until Father Michael Blake bought it to set a church. When the bell tolled in 1811, 18 years before the Catholic Emancipation, the first Catholic bell to ring in Dublin in nearly 300 years was heard. The facade boasts ornate stained glass windows and the original ceiling plasterwork remain in the Smock Alley as a witness of this time. In 1989, the church was deconsecrated due to falling numbers of parishioners. It was then redeveloped into the 'Viking Adventure,' as part of the Temple Bar rejuvenation scheme, closing down in 2002. After a six-year renovation, Smock Alley Theatre reopened its doors as Dublin's oldest newest theatre in May 2012. Compiled by: Geraldine Stout Date of upload: 16 January 2013

The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.