The Georgian House that Offers a Glimpse into another Dublin

There are few streets in Dublin where the past feels quite so close to the surface as North Great George’s Street. Laid out in the 1760s, the street was once one of the city’s most fashionable addresses, lined with handsome Georgian houses that were built for use by wealthy families from landed estates in the country, who were looking for a seasonal house for the winter parliamentary season at the heart of a new fashionable district in Dublin’s city centre.

More than 250 years later, the street has a very different rhythm. Cars pass, people hurry along the pavements and modern Dublin carries on around it. Yet behind the red-brick façade of No. 11, the atmosphere changes almost immediately; the current owners have spent decades sensitively restoring and preserving many of the detailed architectural features and spaces that were integral to the design of the original building.

Completed in 1774, No. 11 is one of the earliest houses on the street and has witnessed extraordinary changes in its fortunes over a 250-year history. It has been a fashionable townhouse, a home to notable residents, home and city offices to a series of 19^th century barristers, and during the 20^th Century a tenement, which is when the building fell into serious decline.

In 1987, when very few people were interested in renovating a large derelict Georgian building on the north side of the city, it was taken on by a couple who recognised the beauty through the dirt, dust, and decay – architect, John Hanley, and sculptor, John Aboud. After thirty-five years of painstaking restoration, the house is once again an elegant and spacious home, and a place where visitors can experience elements of the original 18^th century vision. They have in many ways achieved their aim to preserve the historic fabric of no 11, while allowing the house to function as a modern home

John Hanley explains ‘The aim has been to preserve as much of the 18^th century as possible and to highlight its qualities…’ and adds, ‘Once you close that front door, you’re in a  very different  environment to the city outside. It is its own little world…. ….at the same time, we wanted to the make the overall building as contemporary as possible in terms of function and energy use.’

A House Built for Georgian Dublin

Built as a three-bay, four-storey Georgian townhouse with handmade red-brick façade and tall timber sash windows that typify high-quality 18^th century architectural design, no 11 boasts all the classical dimensions, symmetry and natural light associated with the period as well as many unique architectural details.

Stepping into Another World

The contrast between the busy street outside and the interiors of No. 11 is striking. Inside, surviving eighteenth-century craftsmanship creates an atmosphere that feels remarkably removed from the city beyond.

The late-eighteenth-century Rococo plasterwork is among the house’s greatest treasures. Associated with the Robert West school, it includes 3-dimensional birds, acanthus leaves, flower baskets, vases, pendants, and cartouches, with elaborate friezes running throughout the rooms.

Elsewhere, Neo-Classical overdoors and joinery reveal how fashions changed during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. A Chinese Chippendale staircase serving the top floor, and an eighteenth-century Murano glass chandelier add further layers to the interiors. An original internal door key has even survived generations of occupants.

One of the couple’s favourite discoveries during the restoration process was graffiti scratched into the plasterwork of one of the original bedrooms (now their dining room) which they have deciphered as ‘August 10^th, 1774, Cormac, and, more indistinctly, James an Jonathan ‘.

John Hanley explains that they think ‘it’s a lovely little insight into the three guys who were hanging wallpaper two or three months before the house was first occupied, but first scratched their names onto the wall.”

A Doctor, a School, and a Change in Dublin

Dr Charles Orpen is one of the many people who once called No. 11 home. Orpen, who lived in the house during the 1830s, was a pioneering physician and educator who went on to establish Ireland’s first school for deaf children. His work offers a fascinating connection between this Georgian townhouse and the wider social history of nineteenth-century Dublin, a period when ideas around education, medicine and social reform were beginning to change.

John states proudly ‘I think that deserves a blue plaque on the outside of the house.’

The Irish Revolutionary leader, Michael Davitt, who fought passionately for home rule and land reform, is also rumoured to have taken refuge in no 11 in the 1870s, when it was then owned by a barrister friend.

35 years: A Race Against Time

By the early 1980s, after years of multi occupancy tenants, No. 11 was in a state of total disrepair. The roof was close to collapse, moisture had taken its toll, and pigeons were occupying the upper floors.

Like many of Dublin’s Georgian buildings during this period, the house had come dangerously close to being lost. Its restoration was therefore about much more than decoration. It was a long process of understanding what remained, repairing what could be saved and finding the specialist skills needed to work with a building that was already more than two centuries old. The plasterwork presented a particular challenge, as it was thickly covered with centuries of paint. John Aboud spent many hours working to strip, clean and restore these features, sometimes dedicating up to 8 or 9 hours a day, the effort was worthwhile, fully revealing the grace and beauty of the robust Rococo style stuccowork.

After 35 years of restoration, the requirement for continued work is still at the back of their minds. A house of this age will always need attention and keeping it alive means continually finding the balance between modern life, economic realities, and the responsibility to protect what makes the building special.

For more than 250 years, No. 11 has adapted to the city around it without losing the character that makes it unique. It has survived changing fashions, changing owners and occupants, new purposes, and years of neglect, coming remarkably close to disappearing before being rescued. John Hanley and John Aboud have without doubt given the house a new lease of life.

John Hanley adds: ‘The house is just really a remarkable haven from the city. It was a very romantic project to take on, but also very challenging.’

Its preservation has not been about reverting back to a single moment in history it has been about allowing the house to continue its story and perhaps that is the greatest achievement of all: that behind one of Dublin’s busy city centre streets, a house built in 1774 can still offer a glimpse of another world, while remaining very much alive in this one.