The Dutch Billy is a vernacular house form characterised by a stepped or curved gabled roofline facing the street, a style that came to Dublin largely through the influence of Dutch and Flemish trade connections and the influx of Huguenot weavers who settled in the Liberties from the late seventeenth century onwards. The Coombe was central to that community; it sat at the edge of the weaving districts where silk and wool trades shaped the social and physical fabric of the area for generations. At their peak, Dutch Billies were the dominant urban house type across much of old Dublin, filling the streets of the Liberties, the Coombe, and the surrounding parishes. By the twentieth century, most had been demolished, altered beyond recognition, or simply allowed to collapse. The date of construction for number 120 is not precisely recorded, which in itself is not unusual for a building of this type; many were put up speculatively or by craftsmen who left no documentary trail.

The Coombe runs roughly east to west through the Liberties and is straightforwardly accessible on foot from Thomas Street or Patrick Street. Number 120 does not announce itself dramatically, and that is rather the point: the gabled profile, if it survives in legible form, is best read by stepping back and looking at the roofline rather than the ground-floor frontage, which may have been altered over time. The surrounding streetscape rewards slow attention, as the Liberties retains traces of its layered past in unexpected corners despite extensive twentieth-century clearances.