I always grew up with stories about the building but it was only when we began doing our work on the building during the last few months that I became fascinated with the history of the building and the different permutation over the years, we commissioned the wonderful James Hayes to do a representation of this history. It has existed for most of its lifetime as the Globe Inn which was a designated stopping point on a stage coach from Dublin to Kilkenny. Each of the icons represent a different stage in the lifecycle of the building.

Although there were many stage coaches on the road each company had there allocated stops along the journey, The Globe Inn was one such stop, breaking up the journey between Dublin and Kilkenny.

Story has it that King James II lodged here and wrote a number of dispaches from the premises following the Battle of the Boyne.

Around 1870 Lamberts was occupied by John Core who was known locally as ‘the Apple Man’ and ‘Whistling John’. Story has it that he bought orchards of apples around the countryside. When the fruit was ripe he would bring a number of youths on drays from the town to pull the apples. John would seat himself on a box and give the signal ‘now boys start whistling’. His idea was that if the boys were whistling they could not be eating apples.

It was, according to records, one of the first stone houses to be built in Dublin Street. The old inn was remodelled in 1699 after a fire. A number of the oak beams in the building are from the original building predating 1699.

Lamberts Newsagents was opened by my grandparents JJ and Bridie Lambert in the 1960’s and continued by my parents John and Beatrice up until 2020. Something they were well know for was the early morning newspaper delivery starting at 4 and finishing in time to open the doors at 7.

The latest iteration of this historic building, a coffee shop serving quality coffee from some of the best coffee roasters across Ireland and Europe. Our coffee is complemented by small home baked treats prepared and baked in house.

Mrs Cunningham’s barber was know to do head massages well before they became fashionable, the bench in use in the coffeeshop is the waiting bench used in Cunninghams for decades.

I don’t know how long McElwees ran a newsagents from the premises the it was from them that my grandparents purchased the property in the 60’s.

Ownership of No. 16 and 17 passed to Samuel Hunt who established the ‘Carlow Saddlery warehouse’. Hunt claimed he had the “best horse saddles, carriages, gig and cart harness’s”

Other occupants that preceded Cunninghams were John Williams and the Singer Manufacturing Co.

The other end of the stagecoaches journey