Built in 1738, and a tenement until the 1950s, number 7 Henrietta Street is a grand old Dublin house looking for a white knight to restore it, writes FRANK McDONALD Environment E ditor
ONLY A hero would undertake the restoration of No.7 Henrietta Street. The once-grand Georgian house, built in 1738 by Nathaniel Clements, is in such a decrepit state that even after spending €1.85 million to buy it, you would need another €3 million or so to put it right.
It was first put on the market by Hassett and Fitzsimons two years ago, with an asking price of €3.25 million. But although numerous people have viewed the property, it has yet to find a buyer – probably because the amount of work needing to be done is so intimidating.
Like almost every house on the street, number 7 became a tenement and even as late as 1950 there were more than 70 people living in it, with whole families being reared in single rooms and only one toilet per floor – located in a narrow block added in the late 19th century.
The house was rescued in 1967 by the late Uinseann Mac Eoin, architect, conservationist and crusader for Georgian Dublin. It has since provided affordable studios for 12 artists, one of whom actually lives there, as well as providing an authentically distressed setting for films.
From the outside, it is clear that the entire façade needs to be restored. The windows look as if they haven’t been painted for decades and some are loose, while the fanlight and sidelights of the entrance door have been replaced by plywood with painted tracery.
Inside, there is a vast double-height entrance hall topped by a compartmented ceiling. Its walls were painted in yellow ochre, all now crumbling, and the treads of the staircase are worn and uneven, with many of its original balusters gone, stumps of timber in their place.
The original stone-flagged floor is in bits, and there are cobwebs around the Corinthian newel-posts and almost everywhere else. A hand-scrawled sign on one of the windows above a kitchen sink reads: “Caution slugs crossing”. This is not a place for the faint-hearted.
The house stands four storeys over basement, with vaulted cellars extending out towards the middle of the cobbled street. It is four bays wide, with generous high-ceiling rooms, chunky cornices and some good plasterwork. However, not a single original mantelpiece survives.
There is a rickety backstairs right behind the main staircase that serves all floors, with a skylight above it. Rooms on the top floor have coved ceilings and would make fine bedrooms. A studio on the first floor has a padlocked door; its walls are covered in pictures.
The entire house is bitterly cold, particularly its north-facing rooms at the rear. Geraldine O’Neill, one of the artists with a studio there, was still feeling the cold yesterday, despite eight layers of clothing. “It’s impossible to do any fine work at this time of year,” she complained.
With a total floor area of 763sq m (8,210sq ft), No.7 is vastly larger than any family would need. It would suit an institutional use better. One stumbling block is that the mews is no longer part of the property, which means there is no on-site parking or rear access. On the plus side, Dublin City Council has drawn up a conservation plan for Henrietta Street and is funding the “stabilisation” of the two most endangered houses (numbers 3 and 14) by Dunwoody Dobson. No.13 has just had its entire façade repointed by Michael Casey.
No.11, a house owned by the King’s Inns, is in fine condition, as are the very fine houses (numbers 8 and 9) owned by the Daughters of Charity. There is also a plan to reinstate the “missing half” of number 15, the Pipers Club, although when this will materialise is anybody’s guess.
