Nostalgia: Castle Street – once the medieval key of Cork

STROLLING along Castle Street today, it’s hard to imagine that this small thoroughfare in the heart of our thriving university city was, from the 13th to the 17th century, part of the main ‘key’ of the medieval walled city of Cork where vessels from foreign parts sailed into with the help of each high tide.

Berthed against the rugged stone quay walls, the merchandise onboard was discharged and loaded amid the odour of tar and sea, and the hustle and bustle of the wealthy merchants on the dock, under the shadow of the Custom House and buildings devoted to civic law and commercial affairs.

The main entrance to the ‘key’ was secured by an enormous, wooden watergate called St Martin’s Gate, which was defended by two castles — the King’s and Queen’s.

The Queen’s Castle stood roughly on the junction of Castle Street and Cornmarket St and the King’s was situated to the rear of the Roundy (public) House.

The King’s Castle was the centre of English administration in old Cork and is mentioned in ancient charters under many different titles such as: ‘The Castle of Cork’, ‘King’s Castle’, ‘King’s Own Castle’, and ‘King’s Old Castle’.

For a time, the castle was utilised as a prison and courthouse until it was taken down in 1718.

According to tradition, these two castles which appear on the Cork coat of arms with a rigged vessel between them, represented the medieval key of Cork as a ‘Statio Bene Fida Carinis’ (Safe place for Ships).

However, this is incorrect. The motto was adopted sometime around the 1700s when Cork Harbour replaced Kinsale Harbour as the main shipping centre in the south of Ireland. Hence, the motto refers to Cork Harbour.

When the street was first built into a regular thoroughfare in the 17th century, it was much narrower than it is today.

It was called Castle Lane after the two castles which flanked each end of it — the Queen’s Castle (already mentioned) and Paradise Castle or Tower, on the south western corner of the Lane, now ‘Paradise Place’.

In the 1760s the street received its present name and width when the ‘key’ was arched or culverted.

Thus, the street became the focal point of the old town and the main link from the medieval city to the growing commercial area of the Grand Parade.

Paradise Place. This spot marks the site where some of the most important buildings devoted to municipal law and commercial affairs of old Cork stood. It was also the residence of many prominent families.

It gets its name from a three storied round tower house called ‘Parentiz’ or ‘Paradise Tower’, which stood there in the medieval times.

Within this tower, or tholsel, various activities concerning the community were administered and coins were also minted there.

According to Corporation records, the castle was leased to some of the great mercantile and mayoral families of old Cork such as the Tyrrys (Terry) in the 15th century; the Roches the following century; and from thereon, this round tower house became known as ‘Roches’ or ‘Golden Castle’.

One of the last families to reside there before it was taken down at the beginning of the 18th century were the Tuckeys.

On the foundation of Roches Castle was erected one of old Cork’s most elegant buildings – the Tholsel or Exchange.

It was built by Twiss Jones in 1708, and in its hey-day it was regarded as the finest architecture in the city, with a touch of Flemish and French influence.

For many years it was the centre of civic and commercial activity.

The building protruded inconveniently across the roadway and, because of this, the Main St was divided and from then on known as the North and South Main Street’s.

The Exchange ceased to be used for any important or commercial purposes, but functioned as a people’s hall, assembly room or auction mart.

It was taken down in 1837 to make way for the present CYMS (Catholic Young Men’s Society) building.

Some houses adjacent to the Exchange were the first erected in the city under the Tontine System and were named the Tontine Buildings.

These buildings erected on the site of the medieval ‘key’ were occupied by printers and stationers, whose flourishing business acquired for Castle Street the additional title of ‘Booksellers Row’.

During the latter half of the 18th and the early half of the 19th century, the street was amply endowed with booksellers’ shops, a circulating newspaper, publishing houses, coffee shops and taverns.

It became a popular haunt for street-traders, merchants, bakers, writers, poets, seamen, ballad singers. and the studious Corkonian with an ardent desire for learning.

An English writer once remarked: ‘The merchants of Cork go to their homes in the evening with books under their arms’.

In the early part of the 19th century, many of these buildings, being over a 100 years old and in decaying condition, were demolished making way for the present-day ones; and at the turn of the last century, business houses on the street numbered 20, and comprised of wine merchants, potato merchants, a central clothing depot, tobacconist, shirt factory, flour store, boat factory, painter and decorator and grocers.

Castle Street today is still a hive of activity and has retained its old-world charm as it had when it first became a thoroughfare almost three centuries ago.