in the coloured 1798 map above, the tiny, modern-day lane-way known now as Balfe St, very near the busy central shopping thoroughfare of Grafton St. was previously “Pitt St”. Can you see it above? If you follow Anne St right to left across Grafton St you’ll spot it.
The name Pitt comes of course from the English Prime Minister and later earl of Chatham, William Pitt. There were in fact two such men, father and son. Both earls of the same title naturally but, more unusually, both were Prime Ministers. This Pitt lane, and nearby Chatham St. were named after the later man: “Pitt the Younger”- as he was always known. (Ed: After having wrote this on Friday night, a read of Michael Seeley’s super, and very first post on his excellent Wide Streets blog reminds me Pitt Younger was the PM who steered the Act of Union through. Indeed, this act of tyranny is more or less the reason why the street was renamed!)
Pitt Street, although in a very fashionable quarter of Dublin, just off the Green, is and always was very small. It was only created after Harry Street- in more recent decades home of the excellent McDaid’s pub, (a former haunt of mine) was extended and driven through to the newly- created Chatham St. Chatham Street is in turn a widened and improved version of the former tiny “Gibbs Lane”. This is how much Dublin was changing in the late 18th century. All the time. Partially because of the extraordinarily powerful Wide Streets Commission, yes. But more generally, also as it was simply a time of strong growth and development and finally, of changing tastes in architecture and thoughts on city planning.
As you see below, the old, now-vanished Gibbs Lane, directly off Grafton Street is visible in the earlier, brilliant Roque (monochrome) map from just 42 years earlier, 1756. Today a longer version of Gibbs Lane is Chatham Street.
And as for the small lane former known as Pitt? Well, it hosted the premises of the most celebrated Madame of Georgian Dublin, Mrs Leeson, sometimes known as Peg Plunket. Her famous bordello was more or less where the Westbury Hotel stands today.
Mrs Leeson was a brilliant, resourceful woman, a celebrated wit and uncommon spirit. Here she is, posing for a portrait, very much knowingly and tongue-in-cheek, as the huntress and virgin Roman Goddess Diana.
I mean to write about her soon, in another context, although I cannot improve here upon this superb description, itself written almost in Regency-ese! It is from by Lilliput Press, introducing their modern, reprinted edition of Peg’s memoirs…
Mrs Margaret Leeson (1727-97), alias Peg Plunket, of Killough, Co. Westmeath, was the best-known brothel-keeper of eighteenth-century Dublin. As well as the rich and titled (a Bank of Ireland Governor and a Lord Lieutenant were among her clients), she accommodated lawyers, conmen, journalists, theatre-folk and petty villains. Her first establishment, run in partnership with friend and fellow-courtesan Sally Hayes, was in Drogheda Street, until vandalized by the Pinking-dindies. She then moved to Wood Street, before settling, most notoriously, in Pitt Street, on the site of the present Westbury Hotel.
She led a colourful, if rackety, existence as leader of Dublin’s demi-monde, accepting early in her career 500 guineas from Lord Avonmore to discontinue her brief marriage to his gormless son. She refused service to the Earl of Westmorland because he treated his second wife ‘shabbily’, and insulted the Prince Regent twice whilst visiting London. After thirty years she decided to reform but found her cache of IOUs valueless and ended up in a debtors’ prison, run by a former client, Captain Mathews. To raise cash she decided to publish these memoirs, documenting her life as a madam and the vicissitudes of her retirement.
You can find a couple of Madame Leeson retorts and ripostes, on the excellent Women’s Museum of Ireland site.
As for the re-published memoirs of Peg herself, much like the original imprint, i fear the modern edition also may have sold out. But who knows? One can enquire. In any event it’s always worth looking at the site of the excellent Lilliput Press.
For those with a taste for 18th century Dublin style, architecture, history, and even music, Dublin Decoded leads four tours on Georgian Dublin over the next three month , three of which have lovely music attached. Educational tours, for Art History Leaving Cert are also still available, up to the Leaving Cert in late May. (There’s a question on Georgian every year on the paper) Detail of all that stuff, and an awful lot more, can be found by having a dam good thorough root about the site, starting at the home page, and then clicking lots of other links and pages. Or an easy alternative route to tour go-aheads, as always, is our monthly mailing list now. First bulletin of 2015 goes out next 5 days. So sign up, and join the demi-monde! Adieu for now.
Arran Q Henderson 
Ah Arran, you can’t leave in a reference to the Pinking – dinkies and not tell us who they were!
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Ah Aileen, delighted to see you again! And agre 100% They’re not my words of course, but quotation, from that introduction to the re-print of Peg’s memoirs. But yes, isn’t the whole 18th century tone of it fantastic. Not just the pinking-didies but the “rackety” life in the “demi-monde” and all the rest of it!
However, if you want to find out about pinking-didies, and the rest you really must come on a Georgian tour! A bumper crop coming up: 3 over the next 3 months for all Dublin Decoding loving people. So get yourself on the mailing list, and join the demi-monde! http://dublindecoded.us9.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=bc2ddce05e19404d881e3955f&id=ab52e8540b
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Have been meaning to go on one of those tours for ages, Arran
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Will sign up for email list. Any chance you could arrange some nice weather for me?:)
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Delighted you signed up. It’s the best way (only really reliable way) to get enough advance notice on tours going ahead. Good timing too, trying to get the first 2015 newsletter out next 4-5 days.
PS: We’ll do our best with the weather!
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Another nice post. Enjoyed it — as always
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Delighted and proud you enjoyed it CotS. I look forward to your interview with Scott Timburg on your blog next week. It sounds very interesting.
-Arran.
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I live in Pittsburgh, named in honor of Pitt the Younger. Peg is interesting to me because she was a contemporary of Mary Pattison who met John Irwin at the St Patrick’s Ball in Dublin Castle in 1784, when the Earl of Rutland was Viceroy. Like Peg’s client Benjamin Mathews, John Irwin had returned to Ireland. At the ball he & Mary fell in love, even though she was to marry a doctor. John was riddled with 22 bayonets wounds given to him by various Brits at the battle in Paoli. Previously he’d been a carpenter & had little money. To collect on the American government’s payment, which was acres of land in what is now western Pennsylvania, he had to convince Mary to move there. At the time it was the wild west of my country. There’s more to the story, thanks to Mary they become very wealthy & to this day her descendants are reaping the benefits of her intelligence & grit. Thanks for your Plunkett post!
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That is indeed a great story Gloria. I am guessing you are one of those descendants? If so then I’m not surprised you are proud of her. She sounds like a remarkable woman. I’m delighted you enjoyed the Peg post. Many thanks for taking the time to comment, I always love to hear from readers.
very best wishes- Arran Q Henderson.
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Hi Arran,
I was wandering the “interwebs” and just came upon your response from over a year ago. I’m sorry I didn’t respond sooner, but I never knew you’d commented. I’ve continued with Mary’s story & have met several of her descendants who were completely unaware of her life’s story.
Because John, her husband, had been so severely wounded, he wasn’t of much help with their rope making business. But Mary was a dynamo. She was the only ropemaker in Pittsburgh when Lewis & Clark were here outfitting the vessels with which they made their legendary (in the US) trip west. So I believe Mary made their rope, but all receipts from this expedition were lost, so we can’t confirm. I believe she also made the rope for Fulton’s steam engine, made in Pittsburgh, it was the best one for its era. And, lastly, just as she was about to retire, Admiral Perry (a handsome young man), came upon her in her ropewalk and convinced her to postpone her retirement, so that she could make the rope for the navy he was assembling to fight the British in Lake Erie. This fact is recorded.
You may think I’m nuts, but I believe Mary’s visiting me, little things happen that lead me to do things in aid of writing the book about her that I’ve been talking about doing for almost 3 years. It’s her, giving me a push to get busy.
For example, several months ago I woke up & listened to a radio station that I rarely listen to. They were playing a beautiful instrumental, I caught the name & “you tubed” it & found it’s a very old song and several people have written lyrics to it, its refrain is Will you go, Lassie, go? As soon as I heard Kate Busby’s version I knew that would be my inspiration for continuing work on Mary’s story.
Best wishes for happy holidays!
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Sounds like a a great, great story. Very best wishes with the book project. It’s not easy writing a book. Even tougher to make it as good as you want it to be. And tougher still to ever find a publisher. Wishing you all the best. -Arran.
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