History | The Iveagh Trust | Housing Association & Approved Housing Body, Dublin, Ireland

The Trust was founded in 1890 by Edward Cecil Guinness, later 1st Lord Iveagh.
In 1903, by Act of Parliament, the Guinness Trust Dublin Fund was amalgamated with the Dublin Improvement (Bull Alley Area) Scheme to form the Iveagh Trust, thereafter managed entirely in Dublin as a separate undertaking under the name of ‘The Iveagh Trust’.
Sir Edward gave 2 endowments: £250,000 set up the Guinness Trust in London. £50,000 set up the Iveagh Trust in Dublin, but later far outstripped the London endowment.
Original buildings were funded & built entirely from founders own resources.
Dublin city had the worst housing in the British Isles.
Flight of the middle class from the inner city to new suburbs left 50% of city dwellers in tenements.
33% of families lived in just one room.
Insanitary, unhealthy conditions and extremely high mortality rates prevailed.
The Church Street tenement collapse in 1913, killing 7 and leaving over 100 homeless, typified the gravity of the situation.
Only 327 new houses built by Dublin Corporation in 1918 – 50,000 were needed.

Kevin Street & Bull Alley estates were built between 1893 –1915: 586 housing units + shops.
Iveagh Hostel: “Working Men’s Hotel” opened in 1905: 508 cubicle bedrooms.
Iveagh Baths opened in 1905 (later sold to Dublin City in 1950).
Iveagh Play Centre opened in 1913 (operated by the Trust until sold to VEC in 1976).
Iveagh Market (not part of The Trust).
Iveagh Gardens Estate, Crumlin: 137 houses built between 1927 – 1935 (later had to be sold to sitting tenants in 1970s & 1980s, due to lack of income from regulated rents).