New Archives

The location selected for the new Archives at Gardiner Street Upper has been associated with the Jesuit Order since 1829, when the Church of St. Francis Xavier, described by Christine Casey as “the most elegant church of its period in Dublin” was built. The new building, set inside the protected limestone wall of the Presbytery garden, will be modest in its massing, bookending the corner at Upper Gardiner Street and Sherrard Street. It will contain an environmentally tempered archive for records and artefacts of the Jesuit Order going back to the 18th century, as well as a Reading Room, which will be open to the public by appointment.

In plan, the building takes a clue from the bow-ended room of the adjacent Presbytery, and develops that idea into two reducing bow-ended volumes, set in a compact pinwheel to hold reading room and entrance. A curved corner to the street on the archive volume completes this geometric sequence. It will be clad in brick to closely match the surrounding buildings, with a series of blind windows to the archive for reasons of environmental control. A pattern of recessed and advanced headers in Flemish bond brickwork will create a band of textured appearance to the crown of the building.

The material in the Jesuit collections includes many objects of significant cultural value relating back to Penal times in Ireland when the Jesuits, along with other religious orders, played a highly significant role in maintaining Irish cultural life in the face of severe threat from English occupation and Plantation. This new building will ensure the survival of the collection, and facilitate the potential digitisation of archival material, for years to come.