Survey Data
Reg No
50080172
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Historical, Social
Original Use
Workhouse
In Use As
Hospital/infirmary
Date
1850 - 1870
Coordinates
313794, 233494
Date Recorded
10/05/2013
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached nineteen-bay three-storey former workhouse dormitory, built c.1860, having projecting wings to east, and full-height later extension, built c.1950, to full-width of front (east) elevation, having three-bay entrance block and three-bay projecting blocks. Now in use as hospital. Hipped slate roof, flat roof to extension. Snecked dressed calp limestone walls having quoins. Roughcast rendered walls to twentieth-century extension. Square-headed window openings having brown brick block-and-start surrounds. Patent reveals to extension window openings. Replacement uPVC windows. Glazed entrance within recent single-storey extension to rear (west) elevation. Projecting flat-roofed single-storey entrance to front having segmental-headed projecting eaves over glazed doors. Recent concrete steps and ramp.
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. In 1839 it was re-used as the South Dublin Union Workhouse, and it was during that use that this dormitory was built, designed by Dublin architect William George Murray. Its form, materials and scale echo that of the mid-nineteenth century neighbouring building to the north by the same architect, originally a school, now 'Hospital 2'. Early fabric and skilled craftsmanship are evident in the stonework. The complex has continued to expand and adapt since that time and remains in hospital use, as evidenced by the later alterations to the building.