Survey Data
Reg No
50080177
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Social
Previous Name
Foundling Hospital and Workhouse of the City of Dublin
Original Use
Workhouse
In Use As
Faculty building
Date
1710 - 1750
Coordinates
313624, 233658
Date Recorded
10/05/2013
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Attached sixteen-bay two-storey former workhouse linen factory, built c.1730, having recent full-width single-storey extension to rear (west) elevation. Attached at north end to former workhouse master's house. Now in use as third level education department. Pitched slate roof. Brown brick chimneystacks. Dressed calp limestone walls. Square-headed window openings having brown brick surrounds and granite sills. Small-pane timber casement and pivoting windows, some eight-over-eight timber sash windows to ground floor. Recent square-headed door opening to main entrance having recent glass door. Recent steps and ramp to entrance. Two square-headed door openings to front (east) elevation having timber battened door with plain overlight. Round-headed door opening to north end of front elevation, having recent timber door with plain fanlight.
Appraisal
Construction began on the Saint James's Hospital site in 1703 as the city workhouse, by 1730 it was used primarily as a foundling hospital and home for abandoned children. The linen factory was probably used for the manufacture of clothes and bedding for the workhouse. Along with its adjoining former workhouse master's house, these are the only surviving eighteenth-century buildings remaining on the campus. Early fabric remains in the stonemasonry and timber windows. The building was extended and remodelled in 1999 by Moloney O'Beirne and Partners.