History

On his death, both parts of the house passed to Sir John Banks, Regius Professor of Medicine in Trinity College, who, like his predecessor, leased the smaller portion of the divided building, by now numbered Nos. 10 and 11 Merrion Square East. Banks himself lived in No. 11, the larger part, which he maintained in high decorative order. Banks died in 1910, and both parts of the building fell vacant and remained so until 1915 when the whole property was used to accommodate the clerical offices of the National Health Insurance Company.

With single occupancy restored, the division of the building, renumbered 44 – 45 Merrion Square, began to be reversed, a process carried on in fits and starts as successive Government departments and agencies moved in and out over the decades. The last to go was the Irish Patents Office, relocated to Kilkenny in 1996.

The house was assigned to Irish Architectural Archive by Ruairí Quinn TD, Minister for Finance, in his budget of 1996. The Office of Public Works carried out an extensive programme of works to the house from 2002 to 2004, including the refurbishment of the historic fabric and the construction of new state-of-the-art archival stores to the rear.

However, the house had suffered the normal attrition to be expected from over 200 years of constant domestic and institutional occupation. In addition there were the more severe interventions caused by its division of the building two separate dwelling houses and the ad hoc nature of the subsequent reunification. The programme of repair has seen the painstaking removal of the interventions caused by that division, and the reinstatement of the original plan, which has allowed the once grand spaces of the house to re-emerge. All of the original plasterwork has been cleaned and repaired. Similarly , the original joinery has been restored, as have the glazing patterns in the windows while all of the shutters throughout the house have been repaired and are fully functional.

In tandem with the restoration of the original fabric, the services of the house have been fully up-dated. Standard elements such as new wiring and plumbing have been complemented by the careful insertion of a modern information technology backbone. The building has also been made fully accessible. A lift, encased in a deliberately modern glass and steel shaft abutting the rear of the building, provides access to all floors.

The original house now accommodates the Archive’s offices, staff facilities, archival processing areas and public areas. The public facilities in particular have been enhanced. In addition to a larger reading room, located for accessibility on the ground floor, public areas now also include lecture facilities, meeting and seminar rooms and an exhibition gallery where the Archive’s collections can be made accessible to the public at large. The fit-out for the exhibition space is that originally designed for the RIBA’s Heinz Gallery in London.