The Shaw Birthplace

‘Author of many plays’ is the simple accolade to George Bernard Shaw on the plaque outside his birthplace. His Victorian home and early life mirror this simplicity.

The first home of the Shaw family and the renowned playwright at 33 Synge Street has been restored to its Victorian elegance and charm, and has the appearance that the family has just gone out for the afternoon. The neat terraced house is as much a celebration of Victorian Dublin domestic life as of the early years of one of Dublin’s Nobel prize-winners for literature: full of the nostalgia and the atmosphere of another time.

It was in this house, opened to the public in 1993, that Shaw began to gather the store of characters who would later populate his books. The little rooms of the house, from the drawing room where Mrs. Shaw held many musical evenings, to the front parlour and children’s bedrooms, are dotted with photographs, original documents and letters that throw light on G.B. Shaw’s long and impressive career. One cannot help but soak up the atmosphere that coloured his early years. This charming residence is a wonderful insight into the everyday life of Victorian Dublin, and a pleasure to all who visit.