SDS performed the roles of architect, engineer and assigned certifier on this retail store modernisation. This new
state-of-the-art store revitalised local history through the preservation of several one-of-a-kind archaeological
remains.

The remains of an 11th-century house are clearly visible beneath a glass section of the floor of the store which allows
shoppers to look at the ruins below. The structure was built by the Hiberno-Norse inhabitants of Dublin who were ancestors of the Vikings and had a mixture of Gaelic and Scandinavian heritage.

Built around 1070 AD, the structure was found during the excavations at the Scape development and provides a remarkable insight into how people once lived. It was built by digging a pit in the ground and lining it with blocks of local calp limestone, before laying a floor of planks and building an overarching structure of post and wattle, roofed with thatch. For about one hundred years, different generations used the sunken-floored structure in multiple ways and it burned to the ground at least once. Undeterred, its inhabitants rebuilt, raising the floor level with clay, realigned the entrance passage, constructed a new doorway and installed a stone-lined cistern fed with water from outside by a gully.

A similar glass panel, near the store’s checkouts, showcases an 18th century ‘pit trap’ associated with the stage
workings of the former Aungier Street Theatre. The sunken-floored structure was discovered during excavations of the site, close to Dublin Castle.

The foundations of the medieval parish church of Saint Peter which served Dublin parishioners from c.1050 to c.1650 are also preserved beneath working areas of the new building.