The foundations, forming a large L-shaped block squeezed between the river and a north-south lane, were uncovered during archaeological monitoring by Patrick Neary in 2007. What makes them quietly striking is that they can be cross-referenced against John Rocque's 1758 map of Kilkenny, one of the most detailed urban surveys of eighteenth-century Ireland, which shows exactly this arrangement of buildings fronting their plot at the street's end.

The story of their disappearance runs through a medieval crossing point and a natural disaster. Green Street once led directly onto the medieval Green's Bridge, and Green's Gate stood at the street's eastern end to fortify that river crossing. In 1764, a flood severe enough to be recorded simply as the Great Flood damaged the medieval bridge beyond practical use, and two years later a replacement was built some forty metres downstream to the south-east. To connect Green Street to the new bridge, a road had to be driven sharply southward at the street's end, and the buildings occupying the south side of that corner were most likely demolished to clear the way. The gate, the old bridge, and the houses all effectively vanished from the living city within a few years of one another, leaving only foundations sealed beneath later ground levels. Archaeological monitoring did not extend across the full footprint of the site, so further structural remains are likely still in place beyond the excavated area.