Tallis & Rapkin’s 1851 map of Dublin includes an elegant and serene view of the Four Courts, from which we can see that the houses on Inns Quay were originally Dutch Billies, as were the houses in Church Street of this time.

The depiction omits the balustrade along the Liffey already in place by this time, creating larger area in front of the courts than was in fact the case and allowing us to visualise what the building would have looked like if set back more from the river. It looks very good. An opportunity missed?

The extract from the map below also allows us to identify the layout of the area around the Four Courts, as it was in 1851, or maybe a few years previously; 19th century maps, taking time to compile, were invariably a little out of date.

Within the Four Courts complex, the rear extension, erected a few years previously, is visible on the map but the covered passage to shelter those crossing over from the main building, added after numerous complaints by barristers, is nowhere yet in sight. A bit of the extension, not normally visible in depictions of the Courts, can be seen in the top image.

The north-east configuration of the complex is very different. Chancery Street is still called Pill Lane, and we see that long-forgotten block of buildings once upon a time called Mountrath Street, now replaced by Courts 25-27 and Chancery Park. Notorious Bull Lane lurks immediately behind.

Also visible is Christchurch over the river to the south, with the old Four Courts, in ruins by 1851 but still adjoining the cathedral on its southern side, and miniscule compared to the building which replaced them.

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