Henrietta Street Conservation Plan - The Heritage Council

Fig.4.1.3 Detail from Rocque Map showing northeast of street Fig.4.1.4 View of King’s Inns from Henrietta Street
a speculative basis in the early 1740s. The first known
lease for No. 13, was to Nicholas Loftus in 1755; that
for No. 14 was to Richard Viscount Molesworth, in 1752;
and No. 15 was leased to Sir Robert King (later Baron
Kingsborough) c.1748.
On the north side of the street, the next house erected
(No. 4) was also built by Nathaniel Clements who leased
this land from Luke Gardiner in September 1744 (Reg
Deeds116.46.29251). The house was in turn leased to
John Maxwell M.P. (later Baron Maxwell) and in 1779
passed to his granddaughter, Henrietta (Harriet) Daly. She
continued as owner (although not in continued residence)
until her death in 1852. The last house to be built to the west
of Henrietta Place and Henrietta Lane was what is now No. 3
on the north side of the street. The land here was first leased
to Nathaniel Clements in the 1740s, although it appears that
a house was not built there until c.1755, some 30 years after
the construction of the first houses on the street. This house
was also let to John Baron Maxwell, who leased it in turn to
his son-in-law Owen Wynne, who was M.P. for Sligo.
Houses east of Henrietta Place and Henrietta Lane
The houses to the east of Henrietta Place and Henrietta
Lane, which have not survived, seemed somehow, never to
have formed part of the architectural ensemble of the street
of palatial houses west of the lanes. On the north side, the
houses were built on a plot, running parallel to Henrietta
Street, a plot which properly belonged to the Bolton Street
frontage (see fig.4.1.3). Consequently the only 18th-century
house to have survived here (No. 2), had a depth which was
less than half its own width, and had no garden to the rear.
Another house built here in the 19th-century, has also long
since disappeared. On the south side, to the east of Henrietta
Place, a number of smaller houses of the late 19th-century
had survived in a ruinous state until recently. It is thought that
they were built on the site of what had been No. 14 Henrietta
Street, a public house, perhaps the one known as the
“Admiral Vernon’s Head”. This was built on lands understood
to have been leased by Luke Gardiner in 1723 (Geo Soc
Records II, 24). The agreement between Gardiner and the
archbishop, not to build houses which sold ale or liquor, was
not made until the following year, but the existence of this
public house suggests that the ground to the east of the lanes
was never considered part of the architectural ensemble.
To this extent the loss of all of the historical material east
of the lane may be deemed not to have compromised the
historical integrity of the street unit to the west. The visual and
architectural effect of the recent buildings on these sites (as
discussed below) is another matter.
The King’s Inns
The physical and architectural character of Henrietta Street
was altered considerably, and took on its final appearance,
at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century, with
the introduction at the summit of the street of the large-scale,
granite, King’s Inns buildings. These provided a terminal, of
great monumental character, to the vista of the street, while
lending an air of institutional importance, which is retained by
Henrietta Street to this day (see fig.4.1.4). Removed by the
government from their riverside location, in order to facilitate
the construction of the Four Courts, the Honorable Society
of the King’s Inns secured a site in the open parkland at the
top of Henrietta Street from Lord Mountjoy in 1794, and the
foundation stone for a new dining hall and library was laid
by Lord Chancellor Fitzgibbon, on the 1st of August 1800.
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