Mill Street House
| Mill Street House | |
|---|---|
-126468.jpg) Mill Street House in Blackpitts | |
 Interactive map of the Mill Street House area | |
General information | |
Architectural style | Double Dutch Billy |
| Location | 10 Mill Street, Blackpitts, The Liberties, Dublin, Ireland |
| Coordinates | 53°20′14″N 6°16′39″W / 53.337227°N 6.277472°W |
| Year built | c. 1720 |
| Design and construction | |
| Designations | Protected structure[1] |
The Mill Street House, also known as the Earl's House,[2] and the Huguenot House,[3] is on 10 Mill Street in Blackpitts, an area of The Liberties in the centre of Dublin, Ireland.
The site of the house was originally used as a mill, before being granted to William Brabazon, 1st Earl of Meath. His family built the house there c. 1720 with a "Double Dutch Billy" style. The house has been used by the Congregation of Christian Brothers, the Irish Church Missions, a Methodist Mission, Eircom, and most recently Teeling Distillery, who is using it as offices. The house, which is included in the Record of Protected Structures maintained by Dublin City Council, was restored between 2015 and 2017.
History
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The site was originally home to a 13th century double watermill that redirected water from the River Poddle. The mill was owned by Thomas's Abbey monks and was granted to William Brabazon, 1st Earl of Meath when Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries.[2]
The Mill Street House was built c. 1720 as a dower house[3] by the Brabazon family, who were Earls of Meath. The house was taken over and turned into a school by the Congregation of Christian Brothers in 1819[2] and the Irish Church Missions in 1852.[4] George Palmer Beater remodelled the house in 1894, so it could be used as a Methodist Mission and school.[5] In the 1930s, it was used as a rubber factory, before getting taken over by Eircom.[2]
Since the 1980s, the building was derelict and vandalized.[5] In 2014, a planning application proposed the restoration as part of a mixed use development and student housing. Work started on the building in 2015, with support from the Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs (now the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport) as part of their 2016 Built Heritage Investment Scheme.[6] The restoration was undertaken by Dublin-based Creedon Group and Dubai-based Global Student Accommodation.[7] The building was opened to the public as part of Open House Dublin 2017, and is being used as offices for Teeling Distillery.[4][2] The house is included in the Record of Protected Structures maintained by Dublin City Council.[1]
Design
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The entry for the house in the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage describes it as "one of the most important surviving early eighteenth-century houses in The Liberties",[4] and "of significant architectural importance".[3] The house is a type called the "Double Dutch Billy", a style of house which originated from French Huguenots fleeing mainland Europe when the Edict of Fontainebleau was revoked, and the arrival of Flemish and Dutch Protestant refugees in Dublin after the Battle of the Boyne. The building is one of few buildings of this type that still survive today.[4] The style consists of two curved linear gables on the front, diagonal chimney breasts, and a cruciform roof.[2] In 1894 when Beater renovated it, parts of it were redesigned to better fit the ongoing Gothic Revival architecture movement.[5]
Further reading
[edit]- "No. 10 Mill Street, Dublin". Carrig Conservation. Retrieved 8 August 2026.
References
[edit]- 1 2 Dublin City Development Plan 2022-2028 - Volume 4 - Record of Protected Structures (PDF), Dublin City Council, p. 168,
RPS Ref no. [..] 5247 [..] 10 Mill Street, Dublin 8 [..] House
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 Neylon, Laoise (10 May 2017). "In Blackpitts, an 18th-Century House Is Restored from Ruins". Dublin InQuirer. Retrieved 6 August 2026.
- 1 2 3 "10 Mill Street, Dublin 8, DUBLIN". buildingsofireland.ie. National Inventory of Architectural Heritage. Retrieved 7 August 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 "Building of the Month - January 2018". buildingsofireland.ie. National Inventory of Architectural Heritage. January 2018. Retrieved 6 August 2026.
- 1 2 3 Clerkin, Paul (14 July 2015). "1720s - 10 Mill Street, Blackpitts, Dublin". Archiseek. Retrieved 7 August 2026.
- ↑ Beattie, John (March 2018). "Gems of Architecture: 10 Mill Street, Dublin 8". History Ireland. Vol. 26, no. 2. Wordwell Ltd. Archived from the original on 8 July 2025. Retrieved 8 August 2026.
- ↑ Barry, Aoife (25 March 2017). "'It could have fallen into the street': How a derelict building in Dublin's Blackpitts was transformed". TheJournal.ie. Retrieved 8 August 2026.