Survey Data
Reg No
50011174
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Technical
Original Use
Store/warehouse
In Use As
Print works
Date
1920 - 1925
Coordinates
315235, 234857
Date Recorded
02/12/2011
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Corner-sited six-bay three-storey printing works, built 1923, having slightly lower three-bay three-storey addition to east end. Flat stepped roof hidden behind yellow brick parapet wall having masonry coping and cast-iron rainwater goods. Yellow brick walls in English garden wall bond to front (southwest) elevation with block-and-start yellow brick quoins having rounded corners, coursed snecked squared limestone wall to side (northwest) elevation. Yellow brick over coursed rubble limestone to other elevations. Painted timber fascia over first floor to front reading 'Ardiff Mahon Printers'. Square-headed openings to second floor to front with timber frame windows, red brick header sills and shared render lintel. Gauged square-headed window openings to front, side and rear, having red brick lintel, timber-framed windows and masonry sills. Brick block-and-start surrounds to side elevation window openings. Render lintels and red brick header sills with curved corners to ground floor windows to front. Steel grilles to all window openings. Square-headed door opening to front having rendered hood-moulding, housing double-leaf half-glazed timber panelled door with steel grilles to glazed panels. Timber and brass post box to wall beside door having inlaid lettering 'Mahon's Printing Works'. Square-headed door openings to side and rear elevations with recent steel doors.
Appraisal
Although this is a standard warehouse structure, it is significant due to its location on Yarnhall Street, adjacent to the former City Linenhall and Yarnhall, a complex built for the storage of linen and yarn, and of considerable significance to the industrial and socioeconomic history of Dublin as a consequence. The building may, indeed, have originally housed a linen printers, enhancing its close connection to the historic development of the area. Reconstructed c.1923 by G.L. O'Connor for Mahon's Printing Works, it remains in use as a printing workshop and the painted signs to the facade highlight the continuity in its use. The building’s characteristically early twentieth-century style, with rounded corners and using a mixture of brick and limestone in wall massing, forms an interesting contribution to the streetscape and adds to the character of built heritage in this area of the city.