14 Henrietta Street — Attraction in Dublin

An absolutely excellent experience going back and forward in time as you pass from one room to another.

Our guide Declan met us at reception before leading us all up the grand staircase, designed to wow your posh guests in Georgian times! After getting the house rules, you get to watch a video detailing the original owner Viscount Molesworth. Our guide Declan did an excellent job of setting the scene, it was easy to imagine the aristocrats swanning around! From here you enter the bedchambers and watch a video projected onto a bed. It must be said the AV work in this museum is all excellent. From here you change eras, and descend to the basement to view a tenement apartment. The contrast could not be more stark, from rich aristocrats to a cold dark cellar apartment. Again Declan really set the scene and the mood as we watched a video projected on the wall and learned about the 17 families that lived in 14 Henrietta Street at its peak! The trip ends in a fully decorated/furnished apartment, donated by some of the last tennants. An incredible experience that had some of the guests genuinely moved as they remembered growing up around Dominick Street. 10 out of 10 thank you Declan for an excellent...

Truly the MOST AMAZING time I’ve spent in Ireland.

We were greeted by genuinely kind ladies. It felt like they had been expecting us even though it could not be true. I did not realize a tour is required and that independently walking through the house was not permitted. Fortunately I arrived ten minutes before the next tour which was just myself and a lovely couple. It was very quiet and peaceful as we waited for the tour to begin.

The tour was absolutely fabulous because the guide is brilliant, he loves the subject of Dublin’s history, he has a very in-depth and personal relationship with the city which was revealed when he offered his own personal experiences which truly enhanced the depth of the history. He was so enthusiastic with questions and answers. This is the opposite of a bull-horn tourist guide on a bus. No gimmicks - just real life in a magical city. The house is alive on every floor. I could have stayed for days and never wanted to leave.

I learned things in 90 minutes that would not be found in volumes of history books. I loved EVERYTHING about this house and...

I learned so much about Irish tenement history from 1800-2000. Our tour guide, a small, slight man, was a marvelous teacher. He was knowledgeable and entertaining and he had a wonderful way of explaining the extreme poverty of the tenements while also pointing out that people were happy there and that’s where their homes were in spite of the squalor, but because of the love for their families and their community. He explained the importance of the women’s lying in hospital, the first maternity hospital in the world and really helped me appreciate how much the Irish and Dubliners in particular lived with incredible social challenges far more recently than I would have really appreciated. I later went tu the little museum of Dublin and would encourage anyone who is serious about history to travel a bit further out of the city center to visit this amazing museum. It’s less light and fun that the little museum but really worth the extra walk if you are eager to contextualize both the architecture of Georgian Dublin and the anthropology of...