The arrangement was not unusual in medieval and early modern Irish towns, where civic and judicial functions were often combined under one roof, but the location is what catches the eye: the structure formed the end of a block known as Middle Row, a terrace of houses that ran down the middle of the upper street between the West Gate and the junction of Mary Street and Bridge Street, effectively splitting the road in two.

Writing in 1907, Burke describes Middle Row occupying this central strip, with the combined county gaol and town hall standing opposite Bridge Street at the row's terminus. The phrase 'county goale and Town hall built over the same' suggests the jail occupied the lower storey and the civic chamber sat above it, a compact if uncomfortable piece of urban pragmatism. The row itself was documented as late as 1677, when 'the houses in the middle of the street' are mentioned in connection with a corporation dispute, indicating that whatever arguments were being settled in the town hall above, the very ground it stood on was also contested. The entire row, gaol and hall included, was probably cleared away sometime in the late seventeenth or eighteenth century, leaving the street to consolidate into the single carriageway it presents today.

Nothing visible marks the spot now. The street widened when Middle Row came down, and the exact footprint of the building has been absorbed into the ordinary geography of a busy town centre. Knowing where Bridge Street meets O'Connell Street, and imagining a terrace of houses running towards you down the middle of the road with a gaol at its near end, is probably the closest a visitor can get to recovering the original arrangement.