Francis Street and the antiques district

Beyond the antiques displays runs an old shopping street, and beneath the later houses lies part of the former monastic land and graveyard. Excavations here found burials, stone graves, remains of coffins, and medieval tiles, although nothing of the monastery can now be seen above ground. The Georgian house at number fifty-nine bears on its façade a trace of the street's next era, while nearby displays still hold old furniture and objects looking for a new owner.

Francis Street takes its name from a Franciscan monastery. The Franciscans were mendicant monks, followers of Francis of Assisi: they preached and lived on donations. Around twelve thirty-three, the friars settled near this road, and by thirteen thirty-seven it was already called Saint Francis Street.

The English king Henry VIII, who confiscated monastic lands, dissolved the monastery around fifteen forty. Nothing of it remains above ground. In nineteen ninety-four, archaeologists worked by houses numbers thirty-four through thirty-six and found eighty-four burials, stone graves, remains of wooden coffins, and medieval floor tiles. The name remains on the street signs, and the graveyard lies beneath later development.

The antiques district has another precise address: number fifty-nine. In the early nineteen seventies, Paul Cooke, a dealer in old furniture who needed premises for his own business, bought it. Francis Street was then a run-down local shopping street: shops were closing, but rents remained cheap. Niall Mullen, who later came to work part-time for Cooke as a student, recalled that the dealer's mother was horrified at the very idea of opening a shop here.

Cooke opened Cooke Antiques nonetheless—the first antiques shop on Francis Street. He made his living from furniture, so customers had to be brought here deliberately: there was not enough passing trade for wardrobes, tables, and sideboards. The shop grew; at one time, up to forty-five people worked for Cooke.

Chantal O'Sullivan worked for him from nineteen eighty to nineteen eighty-nine, then opened her own business on the same street. After college, Mullen moved into full-time work and later also became an independent dealer. Cooke himself moved to larger premises opposite. Number fifty-nine was turned into an antiques arcade, where twelve dealers traded under one roof. One shop gave its competitors workers, experience, and a ready-made address.

In October two thousand three, the owners of the now numerous shops and galleries joined together, called Francis Street Dublin's Art and Antiques Quarter, and published a joint guide to their establishments. The Georgian house at number fifty-nine, built around eighteen twenty, still stands. The Cooke Antiques sign is no longer on it; opposite, an Oxfam furniture shop operates in Cooke's later premises, while the surnames of dealers who started with him remain on neighboring façades.