Henrietta Street Conservation Plan - The Heritage Council

6.4 Use
6.4.1 Changes of Use
Fig.6.3.1 Henrietta House
architecture of the time. Henrietta House is generally well
maintained with a settled community. Planned repair and
refurbishment works will be carried out shortly.
The two large educational establishments in the area,
namely DIT Bolton Street and The Kings Inns, have
development plans which will impact significantly on
the street. DIT’s plans to move to a new campus at
Grangegorman will result in a change of use for many of
their properties in the area. The Kings Inns have plans to
develop partially the open grounds onto Constitution Hill.
The latter institution has, however, in a submission to this
study, expressed a commitment to remain on Henrietta
Street. The implications of both these developments, taken
in conjunction with Dublin City Council’s own proposals
for a Framework Development Area at Broadstone/
Grangegorman, to the west of Henrietta Street, suggest
that the Henrietta Street area will continue to change
both in its functional and physical character into the near
future. The concern here is that the historic opportunities
which now present themselves, to consolidate and
enhance Henrietta Street, are taken on board as part of
this development and renewal. The potential alternative
scenario with Henrietta Street engulfed in poor quality,
insensitive building and sidelined as an urban backwater,
needs to be resisted emphatically.
The rich diversity of uses which the houses presently
accommodate has been identified above as one of the more
significant aspects of the street (fig.5.7.1). And, relatively
speaking, the Henrietta Street ‘community’ is quite settled.
However, at a time when this part of the city is experiencing
profound and rapid change, the future stability of the street
in terms of its functional and social character is in question.
At present there are three houses in their original use – Nos.
4, 12 and 13 – namely single occupancy houses and lived
in by their owners. The other buildings accommodate
institutional uses, including the Daughters of Charity (Nos. 8
– 10), and the Kings Inns (the Law Library and No 11), both
of which have been present on the street for a considerable
time (the Kings Inns arrived at Henrietta Street in 1800
and purchased the present Law Library site in 1823; the
Daughters of Charity came to the street in 1899) and, Na
Píobairí Uileann, No. 15, which was granted a lease from
Dublin City Council in 1982, as well as the flats and studios
in Nos. 5, 6 and 7. The remaining houses - Nos. 3 and 14
- are vacant.
The above occupancy is by no means secure into the future.
There is only one family on the street with an obvious future
generation which might continue to live here; the Daughters
of Charity are experiencing the same declining numbers
as other religious orders and, the houses at Nos. 5, 6, and
7 require repair and upgrading works which may make it
difficult to maintain the current low rents which are affordable
to the current artist tenants. Indeed, the availability of funds
to carry out repairs and maintenance to the appropriate
standard is an issue for all the street’s owners and could be
one which forces some to leave the street.
The future of Nos. 3 and 14 however, is much more
uncertain and insecure, pending the outcome of the legal
proceedings associated with the Compulsory Purchase
Order action by Dublin City Council.
It is highly likely, therefore, that the future will bring changes
to the street, both to its present community and the general
uses it accommodates. With a renewed interest in the
housing stock of Georgian Dublin by the wealthier in society,
there is a strong prospect that the street may become
gentrified. Indeed, the implementation of many of the
policies in the Conservation Plan may in themselves lead to
some gentrification.
43