St Nicholas Within

Standing at the top of St Nicholas Street (and of course outside The Liberties – in that part of the Dublin called ‘the city’!) lies the curious little ruin of St Nicholas Within. Its namesake ‘St Nicholas Without’ originally lay within the precincts of St Patrick’s Cathedral, before its parish merged in the 18th century with the adjoining parish of St Luke’s on The Coombe (ironically, which itself had been originally carved out of the old parish of St Nicholas Without).

The posher Catholic version – St Nicholas de Myra – lies on Francis Street and is one of the area’s finest churches, built in the great wave of church-building that followed Catholic Emancipation in 1829. That church regales in a stunning classical interior, Harry Clarke windows and its celebrated ‘Pieta’ altarpiece sculpted by John Foley.

But how long has this St Nick’s stood as a ruin on the street?

It seems a church of St Nicholas was first built here in the 12thC, however this building dates from 1707 (interestingly also the date of the nearby Tailors’ Hall). The architect was Sir William Robinson, although the church was completed by Thomas Burgh – prolific in the city at the time, given that he was Surveyor General. The church was never considered particularly fine or elegant, nor was it well used, and its small congregation diminished as the area’s fortunes waned.

The steeple was removed in 1825 and the church fell into disuse shortly afterwards. It was closed and in 1867 the parish merged into nearby St Audoen’s.  By the end of the early 1900s it was enough of a ruin to be considered for removal as part of Lord Iveagh’s major works to improve housing in the area and widen Nicholas Street. It seems that Lord Iveagh’s aesthetic sensibilities got the better of calls for its removal, and he instead had the ruin taken down and rebuilt but set back from its original location to facilitate a widened street.

And here it sits today. A shell of a space. Wouldn’t it be interesting to see what else could be done with it?