View from Dame Street down to Crampton Court (Photo credit - Trevs Photos)
This is probably my favourite little lane or passage way in Dublin. Not least because it’s not featured on any maps, it was the site of two of Dublin’s most famous 18th century coffee houses – ‘Little Dublin Coffee House’ and ‘Royal Exchange Coffee House’ and as I’ve had some memorable personal experiences in the lane (nothing dirty!)
Crampton Court links Dame Street (entrance just under ‘BAR’ in the sign for Brogans BAR) and leads right down, past the back entrance to The Olympia Theatre, to Essex Street East (entrance just beside the Dublin Theatre Festival office)
Flora H. Mitchell in her excellent Vanishing Dublin (1966) described it as being
“… the unofficial “exchange” of Dublin until the “commercial buildings” were opened in 1799. No 20, “The Little Dublin Coffee House” provided the merchants with a meeting place prior to this. Crampton Court had been used as a short cut from the Olympia Theatre to the well known Dolphin Restaurant prior to it being demolished in 1963.”
Entrance to Crampton Court from Essex St. East (Photo credit - infomatique)
The doors in Crampton Court were famous in their own right:
Uploader credit - Jimmymac
This is how it looked in the 18th century when the court was bustling with trade and housing:
Artists interpretation of those doors (and buildings) in 18th century
Like so many beautiful and historical sites, it fell into decay in the 1950s and 1960s:
How it looked in 1959. Photo - Dublin City Library
A real pity. An anonymous letter to The Irish Times (May 23rd, 1931) described it as ‘a part of Dublin which still seems to suggest its ancient history’.
No doubt at one stage Palace Street used to run right across Dame Street and into Crampton Court:
While Palace St. is still visable on maps, Crampton Street has been lost.
So next time your heading down Dame Street, when not pop through Crampton Court and have a gawk at an old, forgotten part of Dublin.
Entrance just beside Dublin International Theatre Festival Essex St. East. Notice wooden rafter across frame (Photo credit plattbridger)
Plus see if you can spot the wooden rafter above your head, as you come from the narrow Essex St. East side, that looks especially old! Perhaps original?
Click on the book for more.
Click on the book for more.
Donal
Ciarán
Sam
Come Here To Me! 
Great post. Keep up these little gems.
There were also two lanes lost, between Ewington Lane and James’s St., when the flats were built in the 1930s, but I don’t expect there are any old photos of these.
I’m sure there were many such lanes lost in the various flats developments throughout the city.
As luck would have it, the Old Dublin Society’s Wednesday evening programme includes a talk on ‘Crampton Court & its Environs’ on Wednesday November 16th (Dublin City Library, Pearse St)
Brilliant. Are the talks available to non members? I’ve been meaning to look into membership for some time now.
Yes, I’ve been told: “Yes, anyone can attend and it’s free of charge. Meetings take place on Wednesdays at 6.30 in the Dublin City Archive building in Pearse Street. Membership of the ODS is open to anyone who is respectable and willing to pay the annual sub of 35 euro – for that, in addition to membership, they get two issues of the Dublin Historical Record (Spring and Autumn).”
An important bookseller and printer Luke White from the time opened his first book shop in Crampton Court in 1775. He went on to have premised on dame st and dawson street. A lot of the book shops at the time sold lottery tickets and he went on to amass enough fortune to buy Luttrelstown Castle. Another bookseller John Archer also started in Crampton Court and had a shop there from 1782-1787.
The recent heavy rainfall in Dublin also pales in comparison to the precipitation in 1794 when Crampton Court and Palace Street were submerged in several feet of water due to inadequate drainage in the area, in fact so much rain that Dame Street was impassable and boats had to be used on Patrick street and Dubln castle yard.
There is also reference to the “Crampton Court Theatre” in the early 1700’s run by a Widow Quinlin so an apt place for the theatre festival office to be located near!
Fascinating stuff. Cheers for the comment 39 coats.
Contemporary note: the lane has been the site of a few gay bashing attacks after the clubs close in recent years.
Sorry to hear this.
Again 🙂
http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=53.344795&lon=-6.266606&zoom=18&layers=M
[…] This is probably my second favourite little short cut in Dublin City after Crampton Court. […]
Extract from:
http://www.chaptersofdublin.com/books/06data/books/Gilbert/GilbertV2C5.htm
“At the north-western extremity of Dame-street, opposite to Castle-lane, was the station of the Horse Guard of Dublin, for which Government, in the reign of Charles II., paid John Crow, Esq., an annual rent of £110. On the removal of the military in the early part of the eighteenth century, this locality became the property of Philip Crampton, a wealthy bookseller, who continued to reside in it for many years after he had retired from business.
In 1755 his brethren of the Corporation of Stationers presented Alderman Crampton with a large silver cup as an acknowledgment of the honour done them by his vigilance as Sheriff, in suppressing gambling-houses and ball-yards in the city, at a period when, in consequence of the riots in Dublin, it was found necessary, for the protection of the citizens, to post guards of horse and foot in various parts of the town and suburbs. Crampton was elected Lord Mayor in 1758, and died [269] in Grafton-street in 1792, aged ninety-six years, having long been the “Father of the City.” Crampton-court, from its proximity to the old Custom House, early became frequented by the merchants; commercial auctions were generally held there; and several notaries and insurance companies kept their offices in the Court. The well-known Luke White, bookseller and auctioneer, resided at No. 18, from 1776 to 1782; and Thomas Armitage, a publisher, also dwelt there in the reign of George III. At the same period two of the most frequented coffee-houses in Dublin were located in Crampton-court: the “Little Dublin Coffee-house” at No. 20, and the “Exchange Coffee-house,” kept, in 1766, by John Hill, and subsequently by Clement White. The building of the Exchange produced no effect on the commercial character of this locality. “Long after its erection, the merchants were obliged to transact the wholesale business in Crampton-court, where samples were exhibited, and commodities purchased. Here the crowd was sometimes so great, and the space so confined and unwholesome, that it was deemed expedient to adopt some other mode and place.”
The opening of the Commercial Buildings in Dame-street, in 1799, having deprived Crampton-court of its mercantile frequenters, it became tenanted by jewellers and watchmakers, who have, of late years, gradually migrated to other parts of the city.”
Further along the street see Coghill’s Court – with access the size of a doorway – wherein famous Dublin printer James carsonCarson printed a new ballad……..
“An Excellent new ballad, on the modesty of the bankers of Dublin, who are content to loose three halfpence, and let the rest of the kingdom loose no more than Two Shillings and Six Pence in every Four Pound piece, by the late reduction of the coin: To the tune of the Abbot of Canterbury
Published and Printed by James Carson; in Coghill’s-court, Dame-street, 1737”
How times change!!
On Dame Lane there was a small square called Trinity Place. My grandfather was born there in 1864. I imagine it was something like Campton Court. Does anyone know anything about it? Thanks
Noel Guilfoyle
When Temple Bar was redeveloped in the 1990s there were big plans for that area which didn’t come off- including joining the Olympia and the Project Art Centre in one mega complex- which I think was to also incorporate the space used by the Communist Party HQ… More recently they mooted closing off the Laneway with gates (like at Meeting House Square) in order to inhibit junkies/ ‘anti-social’ behaviour…
[…] as contractors work on a new sign. 75 Dame Street used to be a gay bar called The Viking while Crampton Court (the lane down to the side entrance to the Olympia Theatre) is one of my favourite shortcuts in the […]
My Father Tom Malone was the shoemaker at 5 Crampton Court.
He was a master of his craft making handmade shoes and riding boots. I can still smell the leather Now as I think of those days. And the art of sewing the welts to the uppers by hand with awl and waxed hemp.
[…] Record, Vol. 58, No. 1 (2005), pp. 79. 4. Further information Crampton court can be found at: https://comeheretome.com/2011/11/07/3-crampton-court-2/ 5. Kennedy, M., ‘Book Mad: The Sale of Books by Auction in Eighteenth-Century […]
I love this posting – but then I am biased!
I am the grand daughter of S (Stephen) Jackson, who had the shop that you can see in your images – my mother (Maureen Jackson) was born there in Crampton Court – Her parents, Ellen and Stephen had a china repair and antique shop – my grandfather doing the repairs and my grand mother at the front of shop – my mother tells me that they often would lend props to the theater next door (Olympia) and she would get to stand in the wings and watch plays. When I was in college in Dublin 1990’s, I lived on Crane Lane and used to look down on the now car park where my mother and grandparents shop used to be. Tommy the shoe man was the last of the traders and was still there up to the late 1980’s and I understand he used to hand make shoes, and eventually moved to Powerscourt Townhouse.
Thank you for sharing this, it brought back wonderful memories for me.
I remember Jacksons, painted yellow and Old Mrs. Jackson (as we referred to her as). Yes Tom – the shoemaker – my Dad moved to Powerscourt and then on to 32 Bride Street.
My father was born in Crampton Court in 1930 – his grandfather Michael Byrne ran the billiard room. I have just come back from Dublin with my Aunt, my dad’s youngest sister. Her memories match the comments above. My Uncle Peter managed to get Laurel and Hardy’s autograph when they were playing at the Olympia – which he swapped with a friend for the Beano!!!!
Just spotted this incredible pic of Crampton Court in the 1940s – this FB page doesn’t say where it got the photo but it’s stunning – shows the lane leading off the courtyard; children basking in the sun and the doorway of no.18 with the shop fully occupied and residents clearly living above in the upper floors. Amazing how derelict the building became between this pic and the one above from 1959: https://www.facebook.com/dublintenements/photos/a.139612576238833.1073741828.139598866240204/281465458720210/?type=3&theater
I just recently learned my paternal great-grandfather, John White, lived at 15 Crampton Court in 1901. He was, at that time, a theatrical manager at the (then) Empire, now Olympia. This is just fascinating!
My husband recently learned that his great grandfather Henry John Tape and his family lived at 18 Crampton Court in 1859-1861, but had returned to London by the time of the 1861 Census. Did a family of Tape live there? His father, John was a carver and gilder in London. Thank you.
My father was born in crampton court in 1930 and his grandfather Michael Byrne owned and ran the snooker hall, can’t remember the house number. I visited there a couple of years ago with my aunt she remembered so much. We went to the Olympia theatre to see Once. She used to play and hide back stage as a child and recalls laurel and Hardy performing there. The temple bar was their playground