Research metadata

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Subject: 12 Dorset Street Upper (Upper Dorset Street), Dublin 1, D01

RPS reference: 2330

RPS protected element: House — exterior of front & side elevation only, including roof and chimneys

Local authority: Dublin City Council

Overall confidence: Medium–High (planning history and reconstruction well documented; historical attribution contested)

Status of structure: Reconstructed / reinstated — no longer derelict

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Summary

No. 12 Dorset Street Upper is a protected structure on Dublin's historic northside thoroughfare, long associated (by tradition) with the birth of playwright and politician Richard Brinsley Sheridan.[5] For several decades it stood as a semi-demolished, roofless Georgian shell — its top two floors removed in the 1980s — and was one of the more prominent dereliction cases on the street.[4] A 2007 proposal to demolish No. 12 (a protected structure) and the adjoining No. 13 for an apartment block was refused by An Bord Pleanála after multiple appeals.[4] The site was subsequently redeveloped (c. 2021) as "12–13 Dorset Street Upper", reinstating the protected house and building a mirror building at No. 13 to provide 9 apartments.[2][3] The vacancy/dereliction issue at this address appears to have been resolved through reconstruction; it is no longer a derelict structure.

Identification

• Address: 12 Dorset Street Upper (also written "Upper Dorset Street"), Dublin 1. (High)
• Building type / original use: Terraced Georgian townhouse (house). Historically a four-storey-over-basement house. (High)[4]
• Approximate date of construction: c. 1745 (early Georgian); other accounts place it in the 1740s. (Medium)[3][2]
• Street context: Dorset Street was part of Dublin's ancient road to the north; early Georgian houses are dotted along it, with much Victorian-era redevelopment. (High)[8]
• RPS protection scope: Protection is limited to the exterior of the front & side elevations, including roof and chimneys — consistent with a structure where the principal heritage value is the façade. (High — per RPS record)

History & significance

• Traditional Sheridan association: Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816), playwright (The School for Scandal, The Rivals) and Westminster MP, is traditionally recorded as having been born at 12 Dorset Street, Dublin. The Dictionary of Irish Biography gives his birthplace as 12 Dorset Street.[5] (Medium — long-standing attribution)
• Contested attribution — Unverified: 2007 historical research disputed the association, arguing that house renumbering means today's No. 12 does not correspond to the No. 12 of Sheridan's era; an early deed (1783) reportedly records the present No. 12 as "No. 10". Reported in the Irish Independent ("Richard Brinsley Sheridan wasn't born here", Sept 2007).[6] (Confidence on the dispute: Medium; the true birthplace is Unverified.)
• Decline: Formerly a fine Georgian house of four floors over basement, intact until the 1980s, when it was boarded up, its top two floors removed, and a commemorative (blue) plaque disappeared. Thereafter it became, in official descriptions, a semi-derelict shell.[4]
• Heritage advocacy: An Taisce recorded it as a protected structure and a "semi-demolished, early-19th-century redbrick house", flagging it among at-risk buildings.[1]

Current status

• Reconstructed / reinstated (c. 2021). The site was redeveloped as "12–13 Dorset Street Upper": the protected semi-demolished house at No. 12 was reinstated and a mirror building constructed at No. 13.[2] (High)
• Current use: 9 residential apartments over five floors (two apartments per floor, lift access), marketed by the developer.[3] (High that the scheme is 9 apartments; Medium on current occupancy/completion state)