Capel Street Area

that carpark and gym used be a grain storehouse i think. The carpark beside it is a pretty incredible space. Some of the buildings are up for sale in that alleyway.If the floor above was removed from Tyrone productions car park it would make a really great public square. There is this lovely red-brick arch at the entrance to the car-park.

According to Architecture in Ireland 1837-1921 by Jeremy Williams.

“One of the Boland’s bakery premises designed by Charles Geoghegen. in 1867 he rebuilt three Georgian house along Capel Street with enriched fenestration and mansard roofs. At the rear a glazed gallery with a boldly cross-braced roof leads to the former Presbyterian church; the congreagation had moved to Findalters Church in parnell Square. Later a bakery, now sheltering a congregation of cars.”

Findlater’s was opened in 1864.
But Paul states the archway says 1882 so obviously this is not part of the old church. So what was it?

According to Peter Pearson’s “the heart of Dublin” the fish Market opened in 1897
also on the car park/gym he states

“The Charity schools of the meeting house in St. Mary’s abbey catered for about thirty children in 1835.It is not certain whether any of the meeting house survives, although some of the external walls may form part of the present gym, which occupies an old hall on this site. At the end of Meeting House lane, behing the gym is a large building,now used as a car park where two substantial arcades, erected in 1882, support a heavily constructed steel floor above”

I wish they would renovate the exterior of the Fish market. It’s not as exciting as the fruit and veg market, but its still a fine building. There are many good stone warehouses in the back lanes off Capel Street as well as the great victorian facades like Oman, and the closed Forsye and Foryse.

This has me intriqued now. I looked up a few books on Dublin that I have at home and have found nothing other that what has already been posted here. I think a trip to the Architectural Archive is in order, or a trip to the Railway Archives at Heuston Station (if its a tram terminus, they may have something).

It might be easier to check out old O.S. maps, if there was a terminus-the tracks would show on it.
Archinfo in Richview (ucd) would be worth a visit (large collection of old o.s maps)

Is it true that the Corporation want to demolish the Fish Market because it would cos over a million to reroof it?

The building that is currently the olympus gym is marked on the earliest OS map as the quaker meeting house, as is the building on the corner that is featured at the top of this topic. The interior of the gym dates back to this Dissenter Meeting House with arches dating to 1864.
I have also heard that a tram garage was the original use for the arcades although the brick entrance arch is dated 1882 which is very close to the dates of the meeting house. The os map shows that the main exterior of the meeting house opened into a small square located where the carpark is now. The plan layout look very similar to that of the meetinghouse which has now become the Ark in templebar. I would imageine the facade would have appeared quite similar.
I never found out why the beams of the arcade were so heavy, they seem biger then would be necessary merely to support aroof above so perhaps there was already upper floors in existence before tyrone production came along.
The block has a very interesting history and contained a cistercian monastery, two protestent meeting houses and a jewish synogoue at various periods.
It’s great to find these spaces within the city blocks, forced to move off the main frontages as the groups who built them were not the mainstream religions of their day.

I would say that the church and the arcades are quite seperate and built at seperate times. With the date of 1864 for Findlaters, is it not feasible that the quakers moved there and that the arcades were built after they had left, which would tie in with the date of 1882, 18 years after the opening of findlaters? The arcades are not depicted on the OS map showing the layout of the block including the meetinghouse.
The chapterhouse of the monastery, which is 2 metres underneath the street level is located beneath the stone warehouses on Meetinghouse Lane and you can ring Duchas and arrange access. They have an exhibition about the monastery and some of the later history of the area.

Paul,
You also mentioned an original shopfront on Mary’s Abbey across the road from the picture in the first post. It will soon be gone as that entire side of the street is currently undergoing demolition to align Mary’s Abbey with Abbey street as the Luas can not make the turn through the stagered junction at Capel Street. This will result in an entire new street facade being constructed along this new edge. I haven’t seen if the corporation have drawn up a design for this, does any one know anything about it?

i have an image of the building in question if you tell me how to post it on this page or else i’ll e-mail it direct to you.

there were 2 excellent theses done on that site by Bolton St. students this year – one was, as previously mentioned, a monastery and the other was a music school.