The Norseman

Corner-sited attached four-bay three-storey over basement public house, built c.1900, having five-bay elevation to Eustace Street and wraparound recent timber shopfront. L-plan pitched slate roof hidden behind moulded masonry parapet with cornice, with corbels and panelled brackets, and red brick chimneystack. Lined-and-ruled rendered walls having textured quoins, masonry plinth course and inscribed marble plaque to west elevation. Square-headed window openings with moulded masonry lugged-and-kneed architraves, continuous render sills courses, moulded to first floor, and one-over-one pane timber sliding sash windows. Square-headed door openings to south end of west elevation having timber panelled doors, boarded overlights and lugged architraves, that to north with scrolls to base of architrave and recessed double-leaf door. Square-headed recessed and canted corner entrance to public house and square-headed door opening to north elevation, both having half-glazed timber panelled doors and overlights. Basement hatches to pavement on Eustace Street, recent steel doors. Situated on south side of Essex Street East at junction with Eustace Street.

This building, with its ornate detailing and corner entrance, is an imposing landmark at the junction of Essex Street East and Eustace Street. The upper floors are enlivened by render embellishments, adding visual interest to the streetscape and displaying skilled craftsmanship. Mid-nineteenth-century maps show two buildings on this site, and Thom's Directory of 1862 describes them as being in use by a single tenant, as a vintners. Essex Street was opened in 1674, and named after Arthur Capel, the Earl of Essex and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland at the time. The street was divided into east and west in the 1760s, when Parliament Street was laid out, and was largely rebuilt in late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.