Henrietta Street
Encyclopedia
Luke Gardiner
Luke Gardiner was an Irish property developer and politician.In the Irish House of Commons he represented Tralee from 1725 until 1727 and Thomastown from 1727 until his death in 1755 . He was appointed to the Irish Privy Council on 2 August 1737.In 1711 he married Anne Stewart, daughter of the Hon...
during the 1720s. A very wide street relative to streets in other 18th-century cities, it includes a number of very large red-brick city palaces of Georgian design. The street is generally held to be named after Henrietta, the wife of Charles FitzRoy, 2nd Duke of Grafton
Charles FitzRoy, 2nd Duke of Grafton
Charles FitzRoy, 2nd Duke of Grafton KG PC was an Irish and English politician.He was born the only child of Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Grafton and Isabella Bennet, 2nd Countess of Arlington...
., although an alternative candidate is Henrietta, the wife of Charles Paulet, 2nd Duke of Bolton
Charles Paulet, 2nd Duke of Bolton
Charles Paulet, 2nd Duke of Bolton KG PC was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Member of Parliament for Hampshire and a supporter of William III of Orange....
. The nearby Bolton Street is named after Paulet.
Henrietta Street is the earliest Georgian Street in Dublin – it is the model from which Dublin’s Georgian identity is derived. Construction on the street started in the mid 1720's, on land bought by the Gardiner family in 1721. Construction was still taking place in the 1750s. Gardiner had a mansion, designed by Richard Cassels
Richard Cassels
Richard Cassels , who anglicised his name to Richard Castle, ranks with Edward Lovett Pearce as one of the greatest architects working in Ireland in the 18th century. Cassels was born in 1690 in Kassel, Germany. Although German, his family were of French origin, descended from the...
, built for his own use around 1730.
The street was popularly referred to as Primate's Hill, as one of the houses was owned by the Archbishop of Armagh
Archbishop of Armagh (Church of Ireland)
The Anglican Archbishop of Armagh is the ecclesiastical head of the Church of Ireland, the metropolitan of the Province of Armagh and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Armagh....
, although this house, along with two others, was demolished to make way for the Law Library of King's Inns
King's Inns
The Honorable Society of King's Inns , is the institution which controls the entry of barristers-at-law into the justice system of Ireland...
.
The street fell into disrepair during the 19th and 20th centuries, with the houses being used as tenements, but has been the subject of restoration efforts in recent years.
There are currently 13 houses on the street. The street is a cul-de-sac
Cul-de-sac
A cul-de-sac is a word of French origin referring to a dead end, close, no through road or court meaning dead-end street with only one inlet/outlet...
, with the Law Library of King's Inns facing onto its western end.