the merchant's house

No.9 Pier Road was built about 1818 for Philippe Nicolle and his family. As well as being a wealthy ship owner, Nicolle was one of the group of leading merchants in the island who paid for the land reclamation and harbour building scheme which is now Commercial Buildings (Le Quai des Marchands. In addition to his house in Pier Road, he owned a number of buildings on the newly constructed quayside. His home is a fine Georgian townhouse, in the English style, built from dressed granite in what was then the unfashionable part of St.Helier. The house had its main entrance in Pier Road although there was direct access on to the quayside (now the Weighbridge) from the ground floor.

During restoration work on the house in the early 1990s it was noted that the wooden floorboards in the bedrooms were caulked with tarred oakum just like the deck of a ship. It is more than likely that the men who built the house also worked in the island's shipyards. They may even have been Nicolle employees as we know that he had shipbuilding interests in Kensington Place and Havre des Pas.

The mahogany used in the house was brought into the island on board his ships returning from South America. As a leading member of island society Nicolle was also one of the first people to have gas lighting put into his house when it arrived in the island in the early 1830s.

Eventually we hope to restore the entire building to how it may have been in 1862 when Nicolle's daughter and her husband, Doctor Charles Ginestet, were in residence.