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Merchants' Hall (sometimes Merchants' Arch) is a former 19th century
Wellington Quay was laid out by the Wide Street Commissioners in 1815 and, following completion of the quay, it offered a site to the Merchant's guild for the construction of a new dedicated hall. Previously, buildings in the area had backed directly on to the Liffey.
The Merchants' Guild (sometimes called Holy Trinity Guild) operated from the premises for a period of roughly 20 years from the construction of the building in 1821 until 1841, when the Municipal Reform Act saw the dissolution of the city guilds. This dissolution followed a move to directly elected Dublin Corporation members. Prior to 1821, the Merchant's Guild had operated from the Tholsel and
guildhall
A guildhall, also known as a "guild hall" or "guild house", is a historical building originally used for tax collecting by municipalities or merchants in Great Britain and the Low Countries. These buildings commonly become town halls and in som ...
, now a protected structure, on Wellington Quay in Dublin, Ireland. It is located opposite the Ha'penny Bridge
The Ha'penny Bridge ( ; , or ''Droichead na Life''), known later for a time as the ''Penny Ha'penny Bridge'', and officially the Liffey Bridge, is a pedestrian bridge built in May 1816 over the River Liffey in Dublin, Ireland. Made of cast i ...
and backs on to Temple Bar. The building was the last of the city guildhalls to be constructed and only operated as a guildhall for a period of 20 years before ceasing as the Merchants' Guild ended its main work, along with the other Guilds of the City of Dublin.
Since that time until 2021 it has had a number of uses including as a boys school, a factory, a retail unit, a fast food restaurant and a pub. As of 2021, a pub named "Merchants' Arch" operates from the premises.
History
Wellington Quay was laid out by the Wide Street Commissioners in 1815 and, following completion of the quay, it offered a site to the Merchant's guild for the construction of a new dedicated hall. Previously, buildings in the area had backed directly on to the Liffey.
The Merchants' Guild (sometimes called Holy Trinity Guild) operated from the premises for a period of roughly 20 years from the construction of the building in 1821 until 1841, when the Municipal Reform Act saw the dissolution of the city guilds. This dissolution followed a move to directly elected Dublin Corporation members. Prior to 1821, the Merchant's Guild had operated from the Tholsel and City Assembly House
A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...
on South William Street along with several other of the city guilds.
The commissioners imposed a covenant which forced the construction of the vaulted archway synonymous with the building and provided for a public right of way through the site under the arch as a means of enabling public access from the quays and Ha'penny Bridge through to Crown Alley and Temple Bar. This laneway is today also named "Merchants' Arch" and forms the main entrance to the Temple Bar area for members of the public crossing over from the Northside
Northside or North Side may refer to:
Music
* Northside (band), a musical group from Manchester, England
* NorthSide, an American record label
* NorthSide Festival (Denmark), a music festival in Aarhus, Denmark
* "Norf Norf", a 2015 song by Vinc ...
of the Liffey.
From 1873, the hall became the Merchant Tailors' Endowed School after it moved from Tailors' Hall until the school finally closed in 1910.
Later the building housed PA Noonan & Co Ltd (a shirt manufacturer) and R Atkinson & Company (poplin manufacturers).
Building
The building is a three-bay two-storey over raised basement granite-faced Georgian townhouse. There areashlar
Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...
calp
Calpe () or Calp () is a coastal municipality located in the ''comarca'' of Marina Alta, in the province of Alicante, Valencian Community, Spain, by the Mediterranean Sea. It has an area of and a population density of . The city lies at the foo ...
walls to the sides and rear of the property while the chimneystacks are constructed in brown brick. The roughly pyramidal shaped roof is partially hidden behind a parapet and there is a modern roof light to the apex of the roof.
In 2021, a hotel development proposed to be built at 1-4 Merchant's Arch laneway, was controversially granted planning permission.
See also
* Tailors' Hall *Weavers' Hall, Dublin
Weavers' Hall was a guildhall at 14 The Coombe, Dublin, Ireland, which housed the Guild of Weavers (sometimes called the Guild of St Philip and St James or the Guild of the Blessed Virgin Mary), one of the 25 Guilds of the City of Dublin. The bu ...
References
{{reflist Buildings and structures in Dublin (city) Guildhalls in Dublin (city) Pubs in Dublin (city) Georgian architecture in Ireland