Pictured in banner and below — extracts from John Roque’s various maps and plans of Dublin in 1756 and 1757 showing Blackmore Yard and Turnstile Alley, later to become Foster Place.

5 Foster Place, Dublin 2, a brief history

"The most sustainable building is the one which already exists"

Celebrating its 200^th anniversary in 2021, 5 Foster Place was constructed as a unified terrace of houses along with number 6 around 1821 to a design by the noted architect Francis Johnston for the Bank of Ireland, which had begun to occupy the old Parliament House at College Green from 1803. The Bank of Ireland Act (1781), creating the institution was passed at what coincidentally was later to become its dedicated headquarters. The Bank of Ireland still occupies the same building to the present day and is likely one of the longest truly continuously occupied commercial premises in the UK and Ireland. The houses appear to have originally been constructed for residential use for persons in some way associated with the bank, likely senior clerks and their families.

Daly's Clubhouse at 1-5 College Green was also designed by Johnston and constructed around 1789 while the adjacent grand portland stone Armoury bookending Foster Place was designed by Johnston and constructed around 1811. The armoury was later to become the Currency Commission and the offices of the Irish Stock Exchange in more recent years. The two houses were the final buildings to be completed in Foster Place and by a degree the most modest structures on the street designed to fit in appropriately and fill the last remaining gap.

The structure on the other side at 3 and 4 Foster Place in its earliest guise, appears to have also been designed by Johnston to form the side facade of Daly's Club fronting onto Foster Place, but had become surplus to requirements following the downturn in business following the Acts of the Union. After the retirement of the proprietor around 1813, 3 and 4 were sold on to the Hibernian United Services Club. The projecting granite neoclassical porch was later added around 1840 to a design by George Papworth. With the Hibernian United Services Club moving to its new premises at St Stephen's Green around 1845, the building was bought by the Royal Bank which later became the present day AIB Bank. It remained in AIB ownership as a branch with a spectacular banking hall until 2001 when it was sold onto "The Provost, Fellows, Foundation Scholars and the other members of Board, of the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin" - more commonly known as Trinity College.

Pictured: view down Foster Place during Queen Victoria’s visit to Ireland in 1900.

The last notable and high-quality architectural incursion on the street was the Liverpool, London and Globe insurance offices which were constructed on a site of the Eastern wing of Daly's club at the corner of College Green and which was demolished around 1867. This building was itself demolished in the 1960s to make way for the current clunky replacement office block.

The street itself had been created in the 1780s with the widening and renaming of Turnstile lane. Until 1928, pedestrians could access Temple Bar via the rear of the Bank of Ireland through Parliament Row which had been earlier called Turnstile Alley. A separate lane named Blackmore lane had earlier connected Anglesea Street with Turnstile Alley and it is likely on the site of this junction that number 5 and 6 were constructed.

Foster Place itself is named for John Foster 1st Baron Oriel (1740 – 23 August 1828), the last speaker of the Irish House of Commons before the Acts of the Union in 1800 and a former Chancellor of the Exchequer of Ireland.

In the early 20^th century a number of London Plane trees were planted on the street by Dublin Corporation and a number of these remain to the current day although in recent years some have been unnecessarily removed or over pollarded.

In medieval times the area had earlier been close to the site of the Priory of All Hallows which was later to become the site of Trinity College following the dissolution of the monasteries. Hoggen or Hogges Green (now College Green) and the Viking meeting place, the Thingmote or Thingmount appears to have also been nearby with the Liffey estuary coming close to the site of the current buildings at high tide. The nearby Viking Steine (a circa 15 foot high granite standing stone) and landing point was also located nearby until it was removed sometime in the 18^th century.

From the early 1600s, the site of Parliament House appears to have been occupied by a large house owned by Sir George Carew, President of Munster. Originally constructed as hospital but never used as such, it was later bought by Sir Arthur Chichester and is now more commonly referred to as Chichester House in historical accounts. On the 8th of May 1661, the first parliament convened in Ireland after the Stuart Restoration was held at the house and for a few decades thereafter until eventually the new dedicated bicameral parliament was constructed on the site around 1729 to a design by Sir Edward Lovett Pearce with later additions by James Gandon.

In the later 19^th century, Thom's almanac of 1862 records number 5 and 6 as being occupied by various solicitors including Joseph Hone and Richard J Hone as well as John L. Dickinson and John Ormsby Jones while number 6 appears also to have been in use by solicitors by the name of Fletcher and Meade at this time.

By Thom's directory of 1870, the offices are also occupied by insurance brokers and stock brokers along with many  of the other buildings on the street. The Eastern end of Temple Bar and the area around Foster Place and College Green had become Dublin and Ireland's financial district which it remained to some extent up until the recent years with the eventual departure of the Central Bank of Ireland to North Wall Quay (2017) and the closure of Ireland’s last independent stockbroker, Campbell O’Connor in Temple Bar (2019).

By the census of 1911, the houses at 5 and 6 appear to have been in mixed usage as small offices as well as residential use. Thomas Ryan (rooms, 1^st floor) and Alexander Orr (house and small yard) at number 5 are rated occupiers.

Pictured: 5 Foster Place in 2023

The building itself is a two-bay, three storey over basement structure with an M profile roof behind a granite parapet, chimneystacks are stepped and rendered with granite coping and clay pots. The ground floor façade is faced in ashlar granite with a corresponding granite arch over the ground floor window to match the door. There are replacement Victorian plate glass windows at 1^st floor level (on what were likely originally 9 over 9 pane sashes) while the other windows appear to be the original 6 over 6 sashes. The walls are red brick and laid in Flemish bond. The fanlights are plain and without ornament while the coal holes and cast-iron covers remain in situ. Outside the pavement is the original Leinster granite paving while the street itself is covered with Dublin limestone setts which are typical of Dublin city. The streetscape remains one of the most intact and finest examples of Georgian architecture in the city.

 John Conroy

15 August 2023