14 Henrietta Street: 14 × 3

14 Henrietta Street: 14 × 3 is a series of history books produced for 14 Henrietta Street tenement museum. Each book in the series covers a specific period in the building’s history:

14 Henrietta Street: Georgian Beginnings, 1750–1800 by Melanie Hayes

14 Henrietta Street: Grandeur and Decline, 1800–1922 by Timothy Murtagh

14 Henrietta Street: From Tenement to Suburbia, 1922–1979 by Donal Fallon

These individual hardback editions run between 84–96 pages; format/dimensions are approximately 170 × 240mm.

The editorial team – that included Lian Bell, Melanie Wright and CEO, Iseult Byrne – wanted these books to ‘continue the visitor experience’ following guided tours of the museum.

The books are richly illustrated with diverse and contrasting visual material – artefacts, archive prints and photographs (by Bill Hastings and many others), architectural maps and drawings, and stunning contemporary images of the building’s interior by Ros Kavanagh.

The accessibility of this image-led approach extends to the typographic styles used throughout. Continuous text is typeset in a genial grotesque typeface (at an exaggerated reading size). Complementing this, chapter openings and image captions are typeset using a low contrast serif typeface.

An abundance of visual character is etched into the walls and surfaces at 14 Henrietta Street. The deep relief deboss of the title on the covers subtly references the endurance of these physical interventions. Similarly, the vibrant accent colours, used throughout each volume, reference the decorative palettes that define the distinct periods of the building’s history – grandeur, decline and new beginnings.