Temple Bar Properties

Explorer Tom The Workman's Club on Wellington Quay used to be an ironmongery warehouse before becoming a pub with a past. The brickwork is solid as rock, built for people who worked hard. Raise a glass to the old days!

Explorer Tom The Clarence Hotel in County Dublin sits on the site of Thomas Burgh's Custom House, which sounds like a fancy tax office for pirates. Bono and The Edge own it now, so expect music to be slightly louder than necessary. If it rains, blame the sea that used to be there before they built the hotel.

Explorer Tom 19. Dublin Theatre Festival in County Dublin is housed in a building with a shopfront and a granite passage that looks like it’s been through more than one era of fashion. It’s got this historical vibe that makes it look like it’s waiting for a royal visit that never actually happened. If you see a fake king waving from the window, just nod politely.

Explorer Tom This print works on Wellington Quay is a seven-bay monster from the 1880s that used to churn out tons of paper. Now it’s disused, which is perfect for moody photos. The shopfront and bay windows are still doing their best to look impressive.

Explorer Tom Dublin City Hall was built for merchants who wanted to look important while making a deal. I know the feeling, though I have never managed a ceiling like theirs. Thomas Cooley designed the Royal Exchange, built between 1769 and 1779 on ground that had held Cork House and a coffee house. Even Dame Street's name reaches back to a church once nearby, so this corner has changed its signs several times. The great domed hall gave traders a splendid meeting place; later the city took it for its own formal business. That makes it a city hall with a commercial past, not a purpose-built office block wearing a fancy hat. Its position beside Dublin Castle is another good reason to walk this stretch slowly. Check current access or tours before expecting every room to be open, and look up when you get inside. I will be the one pretending I came to negotiate something grand.

Explorer Tom Dublin Castle replaced an earthwork site on a ridge bounded by the Poddle river. It had a barbican gate and drawbridge right in the middle of town. Perfect spot to practise your best tour-guide voice, even if you’re wrong.

Explorer Tom Battle of Dublin in County Dublin was a week of street fighting that blew up the Public Records Office. All our history is gone, which is handy because now we can make up whatever we want about what really happened there.

Explorer Tom Wood Quay makes me wish I could lift a Dublin office block like a tablecloth and show you what lies below. Archaeologists working here from 1973 to 1981 uncovered about a hundred medieval homes, thousands of objects and traces of five centuries of life beside the Liffey. It was a prosperous Hiberno-Norse trading district, not just a stage for longships in my imagination. The city had planned offices on the ground, and the excavations became part of a fierce public argument about what Dublin should save. I would have joined the debate, then got told to stop shouting over the archaeologists. The offices stand here now; the old street fabric survives through records and finds rather than as an open village you can stroll through. Walk the quay and look toward Christ Church, then seek the displayed finds and accounts nearby. Dublin built upward, but this riverside story refuses to stay buried.

Explorer Tom This Special Olympics Memorial is secretly proud of one specific potato that grew nearby in 1960, and if you look closely, you can almost see its smug face. It’s very particular about that. Bring your nan, she'll know more than me.

Explorer Tom Cathedral. Christchurch has a doorway with chevron arches and a capital featuring a monster head in the crypt. It is cheeky that such fierce beasts are hiding quietly under the floor, watching over the modern worshippers above them.

Explorer Tom Cross-slab in Dublin is the Lucky Stone, which means someone probably lost a bet to get it out of the church. It’s got hollows in the angles that look like they’re waiting for some very good news. Get a photo with it before it gets a better agent.

Explorer Tom Bigleaf Maple in County Dublin is doing its best impression of a confused tourist from America. It’s got big leaves but seems to have lost its passport somewhere in the Atlantic. Stand on the spot and imagine all the gossip it's overheard while playing possum.