Dublin Civic Trust is seeking the immediate protection of the Sisters of Charity Convent on Gardiner Street, one of the first religious complexes built in the city after Catholic Emancipation.
The late-Georgian convent, immediately to the south of St Francis Xavier Church, is not listed on Dublin city’s Record of Protected Structures (RPS), despite being almost 200 years old and retaining many original features according the trust.
The convent, with an adjoining Victorian chapel, has been put on the market in recent weeks and it is understood offers in excess of €1.5 million are being sought.
The zoning for the site would allow it to be used for housing, a hotel, bed and breakfast, or hostel, as well as for childcare or a school, while up to 40 per cent could be used as offices. A church, restaurant or nightclub could also be considered at the site.
Conservation director with the trust Graham Hickey said it was an anomaly the convent was not included on the RPS, given the presbytery building immediately to the north of the church "mirrors" the convent building.
“St Francis Xavier Church and the presbytery are both protected structures, but the matching convent, which is a key component of the architectural composition, and was consciously designed as a whole, is not. It is remarkable such a major public building has escaped protection, but it seems to have just slipped through the net.”
19th century
Built between 1828 and 1840 the convent, presbytery and church are older than most Victorian religious complexes in the city, Mr Hickey said.
“After the era of aristocratic building ended following the Act of Union, the church became the next major developers of the city. This is a rare early example of convent building from the early-19th century and as such represents the first tentative steps in church and institutional building following Catholic Emancipation.”
The convent was designed as a matching pair of Regency-style mansions with “exceptionally handsome doorcases, railings and granite stonework” and collectively the complex represents a “wonderfully brooding” termination to Upper Gardiner Street, Mr Hickey said.
“The interiors almost entirely retain their original floor plan, with good historic door joinery, cast-iron, marble and stone chimneypieces, original historic glass fanlights, and many examples of robust early 19th-century plasterwork,” said Mr Hickey.
The Victorian chapel located to the rear, dating from about 1880, is an “excellent example of its type”, he said , and retains most of its original features including roof trusses, marble screens, mosaic floors, stained glass and joinery.
Independent councillor Nial Ring will propose an emergency motion at a council meeting next week to have the buildings added to the RPS.
“The future of this historic complex is particular concern in the context of the extent of unauthorised, substandard and inappropriate development presently taking place across the north Georgian core,” he said.
Vulnerable properties
The area suffered from an over-intensification of student hostels and unauthorised conversions to bedsits, and short-term or temporary accommodation, many of which were occupying vulnerable, protected Georgian properties with no recourse to planning or building regulations, Mr Ring said.
Once the process of adding a building to the RPS has started, any future planning application must have regard to the building as a potential protected structure. However a spokesman for the council said architectural and heritage assessments of the buildings would be required to be submitted with a planning application, even if the building was not on the RPS.
