Survey Data
Reg No
50070297
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic
Previous Name
Potato Market
Original Use
Arch
Date
1760 - 1800
Coordinates
315191, 234571
Date Recorded
15/10/2012
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Carved sandstone and granite Doric doorcase, built c.1780, set in boundary wall of single-storey twentieth-century warehouse, formerly site of potato market. Doric pilasters flanking elliptical-headed arch with keystone, unadorned panel to frieze. Carved granite cornice with carved sandstone plaque to centre, having Dublin City Coat of Arms of three carved castles. Poured cement path to north.
Appraisal
The Dublin City Coats of Arms has been used in one form or another for at least four hundred years, commonly showing three burning castles. The plaque here may have been inserted in the door from another building, as the evident skill in execution is at odds with the cramped layout. The carving has lost some crispness, with the hard granite surviving better than the soft sandstone, but nonetheless indicating its considerable age. The 1907 Ordnance Survey map shows a potato market on this site with a narrow entrance in the north wall. The doorway may originate from Newgate Prison which was completed in 1781 on the site across the road, and demolished in 1893, which would explain its early character and somewhat austere form. It is an important reminder of the early development of the area, which was laid out by Sir Humphrey Jervis in the late seventeenth century, developed as a market area throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.