The house was designed by Robert Mack and dates from between 1771 and 1774, and has been characterised as the "last-gasp Palladianism on a grand scale on a narrow street". The court at the rear of the building was created with the addition of three brown-brick office buildings from 1809 to 1811.[2]
Within a couple of years of the abolition of the Parliament of Ireland, the viscount sold this Dublin residence since he received his seat now at the House of Lords in London. Many other peers also sold their palatial Dublin residences, which led to an economic and cultural decline of the city.[citation needed]
The government bought the property for £15,000[3] and between 1811 and 1835 the Stamp Office, where impressed stamp duty newspaper stamps, a form of revenue stamp were applied to newspapers, journals and periodicals, was located in Powerscourt House.[4]
Shopping centre
Powerscourt House was purchased and redeveloped as a shopping centre between 1978 and 1981[2] by Robin Power. The journalist Frank McDonald described the conversion of the building as "imaginative" and "the city's smartest shopping centre".[5][1]
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