The place is 7 Eccles street, the three -storey-over-basement
home of the Blooms.
7 Eccles street was once the residence of Joyce"s friend J.F. Byrne
(who was portrayed as Cranly of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man,
published in 1916).
The house at 7 Eccles Street no longer exists. It was situated on the right-hand
side as you approach from Dorset Street, opposite number 76. The front door
was more or less exactly where the name of the Mater Private Hospital is
displayed. The houses opposite give some idea of what 7 Eccles Street would
have looked like.
Today, the current owner of number 78 incorrectly claims his house to be
Bloom’s home. When 7 Eccles Street was demolished, the original front door
was rescued. It was initially kept in the Bailey Restaurant in Duke Street,
but then moved to the James Joyce Centre, where it has been on view ever
since.
Today, visitors stare at a door of a demolished house of a make-believe
character from a scarcely read book. Deprived of its function, this door
remains forever closed.
