It was designed by the architects Sir Edward Lovett Pearce and Alessandro Galilei and was built around 1726 for Marmaduke Coghill, who had originally lived in Belvidere House, which now forms part of DCU's St Patrick's Campus.

The lands on which the house were built formed part of the holdings of the Priory of All Hallows until the dissolution of the monasteries.

[3] Close by Drumcondra Church (formerly Clonturk parish) was built by Mary Coghill and contains a statue to her brother Marmaduke by the Flemish sculptor Peter Scheemakers.

[4] The house was then leased from Hester, Countess of Charleville to Alexander Kirkpatrick, a Scottish linen merchant, a former Sheriff of Dublin City in 1783 and governor of the Bank of Ireland.

In the early 1800s, John Claudius Beresford lived for a period at the house following his financial difficulties which resulted in a move from his property at 9 Buckingham Street.