The Very Fabric Of Dublin's Past

Tag : Linen Fabric

THE STREET NAMES OF Linenhall Street and Yarnhall Street, offBolton Street, are the only reminders that for much of the 18thCentury, Dublin was of central importance to the country’slinen trade.
Linen weaving has been a feature of Irish life from as far back asthe late Bronze Age and it was a particularly important industryduring the 18th and 19th Centuries. In those days, linenmanufacture was a cottage industry and it provided a regular sourceof income for families in rural areas throughout Ireland.
The first Linen Board was established in 1711 to control the saleof linen, and it was originally based in a small rented room onCork Hill.
At a meeting of the Linen Board on St Patrick's Day in 1722, thequestion of building a centralised Linen Hall was addressed andseveral prospective sites around the city were considered. One ortwo sites in Drumcondra were looked at and rejected because theywere too far away from the city and more importantly from theLiffey. Another site near Ballybough was rejected for the samereason.
The board eventually decided in favour of a three-acre site, whichwas located at the top of Capel Street, which was then on theperimeter of the city. This site was chosen because of itsproximity to the inns and taverns on Church Street and Pill Lane,where many linen traders lodged while on business in Dublin. Overthe next six years, the Linen Hall gradually took shape and itopened for trade on November 14th, 1728.
The Dublin Linen Hall was modelled on the famous Cloth Hall ofHamburg and the great London market, Blackwell Hill. The Linen Hallcontained a large trading floor and 550 compartments or bays forthe storage of linen. There was also a large boardroom for the useof the trustees and what was described as "a large and elegantcoffee-room for the accommodation of factors and traders who dailycrowd its courts".
Security was tight in the Linen Hall. The market began and endedwith the ringing of a large bell and anyone still on the premisesafter closing time was liable to be kept there overnight. The wholeoperation was overseen by a chamberlain, whose main task was tolook after the hundreds of keys required for the Linen Hall'snumerous linen lockers and chambers. Other staff included auniformed gate-keeper, a clerk and several porters and during thenight, the premises were guarded by night watchmen who were issuedwith firearms.
With the opening of the Belfast Linen Hall in 1783, the Dublinindustry went into terminal decline and the Linen Board wasabolished in 1828.
During the 1870s the Linen Hall was used as a temporary barracks bythe British Army and it was taken over by the board of works in1878. One of the last events held in the Linen Hall was the DublinCivic Exhibition of 1914 and it was destroyed by fire during the1916 Rebellion.
- Frank Hopkins