Overview
The half-timbered Counting House on South Main Street recalls the former Beamish & Crawford brewery in Cork. It is a building to look at from the public street rather than to go into: keep building entrances clear, and check the council for any news on public opening. The mock-Tudor front is the architectural highlight of the old brewery site.
A brewing legacy
Two Cork merchants, Richard Beamish and Richard Crawford, established the Beamish & Crawford brewery in 1792. It kept working through two centuries and several takeovers until Heineken closed the brewing here in 2009. The stout is still made in Cork and poured across the city.
The architecture
The Counting House, where the brewery’s money was counted, was designed by the Cork firm Chillingworth & Levie and completed in 1919. It is deliberate mock-Tudor: a half-timbered frontage flanked by Flemish-style staggered gables. It sits on Cork City Council’s Record of Protected Structures (ref PS330). The same firm designed the Oval Bar on the corner, so the two make a matched pair worth a glance.
The library to come
Cork City Council bought the complex in May 2026 for €35 million plus VAT. The former Counting House and adjoining buildings are intended for the new Cork City Public Library. Check the council for project updates and any opening date.
Around the building
The Counting House sits on the medieval spine of Cork, a couple of minutes from the English Market and the Triskel Christchurch. Redevelopment around the wider Brewery Quarter may mean works and changes to nearby routes, so allow extra time.
Practical information
- Address: South Main Street, Cork
- Inside: not open to visitors; view the frontage from the public street
- Getting there: the city-centre bus stops on Grand Parade and Washington Street are a short walk away, and Cork Kent Station is roughly twenty minutes on foot
- Parking: use the paid city-centre car parks
For now the best of it takes five minutes: stand on South Main Street, look up at the timber and the gables, then cut through to the English Market.