14 Henrietta Street: Georgian Beginnings, 1750-1800

Abstract

14 Henrietta Street was built in the late 1740s, during a boom in Dublin’s building industry that followed a decade of war and economic hardship at home and abroad. It formed part of a row of three houses which Luke Gardiner built concurrently, on the south side of the street. Then in his seventies, these were Gardiner’s last works at Henrietta Street, and as he had purchased the ground almost three decades earlier he had been waiting quite some time to make a return on his investment. Despite its slow development, by the 1750s Henrietta Street had firmly established its position as Dublin’s premier address, and Gardiner’s newest tenants included a baron, a viscount and an earl.