which would have rivalled anything being developed in Dublin.

However, his
untimely death in 1801, allied to the Act of Union of 1800 meant that his estate
was broken up. Property prices crashed – a house worth £2000 before the Union
was only worth about £500 by the 1820s, and Aldborough House, still unfinished
and heavily in debt, would remain unoccupied until leased by the German
Educationalist, Gregor Von Feinaigle, whose Institute, known as the Luxembourg
or “Lux” occupied the property from 1812 to 1838.

Von Feinaigle’s teaching method involved a memory technique and

In 1792, Edward Stratford, 2nd Earl of Aldborough and Viscount Amiens, although it appeared impressive it would later give a name to a term usually
laid the foundations for what would be the last great city house of the Georgian applied to Bankers and Stockbrokers which is far from complimentary.
Era to be built in Dublin. Stratford had been bequeathed a portion of the North
Circular Road Estate of Colonel Paul, and through some judicious bargaining with In the 1839 the house was taken over by the Government and used as
Paul’s other heirs, acquired significant holdings between the North Strand and the a musketry training centre for the RIC. However, it appears that several of the
developing Gardiner Estates. Having inspected the land in May that year, Stratford policemen ended up wounding each other so the location was vacated and taken
realized that a house on this site would dominate the northern entrance to the over by the Army as a Barrack in 1843 during Daniel O’Connell’s attempt to hold
city and quickly drew up plans with the architect Richard Johnson inspired by his a monster meeting at Clontarf. Within months of the army taking over letters
London home built in the 1770s. appeared in the newspapers pointing to the appearance of prostitutes on Lower
Gloucester Street and claiming that house prices and the future development of
At the time Stratford what was still largely unused building plots would be affected. The army remained
commenced building, the in situ until the property was acquired by the Post Office. The former gardens
largely undeveloped North of Aldborough House were taken over by Dublin Corporation in 1935 for the
Circular Road had become development of Social housing.
fashionable for a walk or drive
to the coast and numerous
celebrity watchers of the era
recorded the coaches and
four, (or sometimes even six),
of the nobility to be seen in the
vicinity of what was still un-
reclaimed land around what is Urban legend recalls that Alfie Byrne, the 10 times Lord Mayor of Dublin,
now Seville Place. Summerhill while cycling through his North Dock constituency in the early 1930s came
had been developing since 1788 “with such rapidity” that one writer speculated down rather than up Killarney Street. Known somewhat cruelly by the media as
that soon it would become the “finest row of houses” in the city. That same year the “shaking hand of Dublin,” Byrne found himself stunned when confronted by
Buckingham Street was laid out for building in what was describe as a street the rear of Aldborough House rather than its more familiar Georgian façade. So
“which will be as elegant as anything in London.” Gloucester Street itself had been taken was Byrne by what he saw that he allegedly decided this was the solution
laid out in 1770 so the commencement of Aldborough House was the final piece to the then inner city’s housing crisis and immediately mounted his bicycle
of the jigsaw in developing what should potentially have been one of the most and headed towards the Corporation Headquarters to persuade them to buy
elegant quarters of Georgian Dublin. Aldborough House and turn it into a super tenement.

Between 1770 and 1776 Stratford had built Stratford House in London. Whether true or not the Corporation did buy Aldborough House
Stratford Place, in which that house is located, was, through Stratford’s influence, although their main interest was the former gardens which then largely consisted
developed in an elegant Grecian Revival Style. Given that the Dublin House was of warehouses. Aldborough House itself was returned to the Post Office, who
heavily influenced by his London residence; it is probable that Stratford would had failed to acquire alternative premises, in order to speed up access to the site
have overseen the development of Lower Gloucester Street into a thoroughfare causing one councillor to claim the city was about to fall victim to Communism.
 Tenders went out by 1936 and shortly afterwards St. Joseph’s Mansions,
built in the Dutch influenced yellow and red brick, Art Deco style, then favoured
by Architect, Herbert George Simms, was under way providing 138 homes for
inner-city tenement dwellers. Interestingly the complex included a Welfare
Clinic.

In 2003 a major rejuvenation of the

complex was undertaken. Flats were enlarged
and the number of units were reduced 106. Lifts
were installed, access balconies enclosed, in an Built in 1846 at a cost of £1800 to a design by the Scottish born architect
award-winning development. This new complex Duncan Ferguson Campbell Gloucester Street Presbyterian Church was a first
was renamed Killarney Court after the section for many things in Dublin. A contemporary report noted that the church, built
of Lower Gloucester Street which had been of Irish granite, was the first to be built in the “Grecian Doric Order” in the city.
renamed Killarney Street in 1908. Ferguson was described as a young and up and coming architect and the
reviewer noted his economic way of lighting the interiors “costing not more than
half the expense of lighting in the usual manner with pillars and brackets.”

With a growing congregation, the appointment of Dr. David Love Morrow

as minister in 1884 would have a major influence over the community’s future.
Morrow was open minded in relation to religion and was probably the inventor
of what might be termed Golf Ecumenism. In 1889 he organized a lecture by a
man named Ahmed Aziz from Hindustan, who dressed in native costume and
Unveiled by President Mary Robinson in December 2000, Home speaking in Arabic, gave recitals from the Koran in what must be the first public
by Leo Higgins, set out to provide a permanent marker to those who died reading of the that holy book in a place of worship in Ireland. The following year
either directly or indirectly as a result of Heroin use in the North Inner he organized the move of the congregation to Clontarf which was viewed as
City. The project evolved from a tradition started in 1996 of erecting a controversial at the time and which many were unhappy about. However, there
Christmas tree on which stars, each of which had a name of a member was growing frustration at the lack of a school operating under a Presbyterian
of the community lost to Drug Abuse were placed. By 2000 these ethos and with no spare land available in Gloucester Street to build one it was
numbered 126 stars. necessary to relocate.

The monument was significant for its Community involvement The moved to Clontarf in 1890 came about following an offer by the
with Higgin’s design, of a limestone doorway, encasing a bronze gilt Vernon Family of a site on the intersection of the Howth and Clontarf Roads on
flame, being chosen by a community-based panel of relatives of the provision that they build a bell tower – an unusual feature for a Presbyterian
those who had fallen victim to Drugs. Significantly, Higgins invited the Church. The expansive nature of the site meant that not only could they cater
community to incorporate jewellery and other momentous of those for their growing community but open schools for infants, boys, and girls, who
being remembered into the casting of the Bronze Flame. would be taught under a Presbyterian ethos.
 The Salvation Army operated at the old Gloucester Street property
for a number of years after which it became a grain store and later a factory
producing poultry feed. Following a fire in 1987 it was decided to demolish the
remaining structure which was both dangerous and a health hazard. The front,
which had survived the worst of the fire has a preservation order.

The cement washed façade of the building on the corner of Rutland Street
and Sean McDermott Street betrays little of its origins. Through a bequest of £71
from Summerhill resident, Viscountess Harberton, the first of three schools were
set up at this location around 1810. The first, taking its name from its benefactor,
was a live-in school for orphaned Protestant Girls. Then a school for Orphaned
Boys was opened next door and finally an infant’s school opened in a third
building. Ultimately all three buildings were linked and the school, now known as
St. Thomas or Gloucester Street School, became a regular day school, although it
Although commonly known as the Magdalene Laundry still catered for a few orphans who lived upon the premises.
or Convent the correct name for this institution on Sean McDermott
Street is the Monastery of the Sisters of Charity and of Refuge. Founded in1821 Although the school aimed to teach children to read and write, from its
by Rev. John Vincent Holmes at 106 Macklenburgh Street for “troubled homeless foundation it had a secondary purpose as a Sunday School which in 1845 was
women”, by 1836 they had moved to 19 Macklenburgh Street under the direction said to have 300 children attending each week. The school was privately financed
of Fr. John Lapham and were accommodating 45 women. In 1868 John Burke, largely through annual fundraising sermons, one of which in 1821 raised over £150.
Bricklayer/Architect, built the first phase of the current structure linking Railway By the 1880s it came under the influence of the evangelical Protestant Irish Church
Street to Gloucester Street. Five years later the Sisters of Mercy were brought in Mission and began to proselytise among neighbouring Roman Catholics.
by the Archbishop of Dublin to manage the institution. Additions were added by
Thomas Loftus Robinson and then in 1886 the Sisters of Charity and of Refuge A Parliamentary inquiry in 1883
were brought in to take over. This was a French Order founded by Saint John Eudes found that there were 130 children and 137
to assist women who had fallen into prostitution. 1886 3rd phase of development infants attending the school daily, 40 of
of a 6-bay window extension by William Henry Byrne who also builds the church. whom were Presbyterian. They claimed that
The final development was in 1924 by Ralph Henry Byrne. none of the children were Roman Catholics.
However, one enterprising Catholic boy,
By 1904 the monastery accommodated 100 women increasing to 140 in 1952. sent there by his aunt, claimed that nobody
Although closed since the 1970s its troubled history as a Magdalene laundry asked too many questions and many
continues to inspire debate up to the present day. Catholics in the area got their education at
Gloucester Street. He on the other hand,
having obviously alarmed a well-meaning
Catholic resident of the area who feared for
his soul, found himself being paid weekly
by that person to quietly move to the
Central Model School which of course he
never informed his aunt of. Later in life, as
a successful businessman, he would fondly
look back at the school as having given him
his first lessons in his future vocation.
 Although not actually part of Gloucester Terrace, the Carpenters Asylum
gives us a slight glimpse into just how elegant that development was. Believed to
Built at a time of renewed economic optimism Gloucester Terrace,
have been designed by Frederick Darley and George Papworth, both of whom
represented one of the most adventurous developments in the city since the
served as patrons to the Asylum, the institution was inaugurated in February
Act of Union. Designed by father and son team, George and John Thomas
1832 by the Operative Carpenters Trade Union to provide a home for co-workers
Papworth, the elegant terrace dated from 1832 and a contemporary writer
no longer capable of continuing with their trade. The house was completed in
claimed it was like Regents Park, London, and “far superior to houses of a much
1836 but twelve months later they were still soliciting subscriptions to finish the
higher value in Dublin.” Built as a single block with a central pediment entrance
premises. It seems the majority of those who subscribed were actually architects,
with ionic columns, the terrace encompassed six houses each containing 6
and very quickly No. 36 Gloucester Street became a type of architects’ club with
rooms. Although somewhat small, the upmarket nature of the development
little provision being made for aged Carpenters. A parliamentary report of 1861
attracted residents who used their homes to conduct business such as investors,
showed that while they claimed to accommodate up to 44 persons there was in
merchants, and lawyers.
fact only 1 Carpenter living there.

In 1856 the building became the headquarters of Buildings Trade

Association of Dublin – a type of congress of those in the carpentry, bricklaying,
and other associated trades. Subsequently the large hall became a centre of
political debate and did much to consolidate the rise of the Irish Parliamentary
Party in the North Dock Electoral Ward as well as generally politicize the area.
Today it is a Dublin Simon Community Supported Housing Centre.

In January 1916 what

affectionately became known as the
Old Tin Church was erected on derelict
However, the acquisition of Aldborough House by the Government In 1839 land near the Gloucester Diamond.
and its subsequent use as a barracks would halt further upmarket developments Borrowed from a parish at Beechwood
on the street and ultimately lead to the decline of the Terrace. As residents Avenue in Ranelagh the church served
moved away from the street in the 1860s those who remained complained of the the community up to 1954 when the
rise of prostitution in the nearby Monto district and questioned whether any of current Romanesque Church was built. In
the vacant building plots would ever be taken up. Not surprisingly much of the 1970 the Parish of Our Lady of Lourdes
housing on the street was only built in the 1890s as much of the housing stock was founded and in honour of this the
in the area declined into tenements. This was the fate of Gloucester Terrace and remains of the venerable Matt Talbot
although surviving photographs from the early 20th century are impressive, were removed from Glasnevin Cemetery
by the 1950s it was suffering from serious decline and dereliction and was and entombed in the church on Sean
demolished in 1958. McDermott Street in 1972.
 pre-cast concrete, and a single,
cheaper, type of brick. One
of the major factors involved
was the fact that rents had
to be heavily subsidized and
while those at Liberty House
The simple late Georgian shopfront of the started at 2 shillings when it
former Matt Talbot Stores betrays little of its late 19th opened, when some years
century importance in the development of the city as later there was an attempt
know it today. Running from Sean McDermott Street to raise rents to 5 shillings
along the length of Gloucester Lane, this was the there was a rent-strike as the
location of the Farrell Brothers Studios, a team of six tenants, largely unemployed claimed they couldn’t afford it. Local tenements in
sculptors, all born in Railway Street, the most import the area had an average rent of 2 shillings and 2 pence.
of whom was Thomas Farrell (1827 – 1900). Like his
contemporary, John Henry Foley (1818-1874), after Ultimately the outbreak of World War II would have a devastating effect on
whom Foley Street is named, Thomas Farrell’s work building supplies with little or no brick or steel being available. Liberty House
adorns much of the public spaces and buildings of the got across the line before the war shortages really began to affect, but St. Mary’s
city centre, with the statues of John Gey, and William Mansions, to be built beside it, wouldn’t be so lucky. Inspired by the modern
Smith O’Brian in O’Connell Street, being from his hand. Dutch apartments blocks of De Klerk of Amsterdam, Liberty House, while a much
Unlike Foley, Farrell chose to remain in Dublin and spent simpler design than Simms earlier works, curiously incorporates curved corner
life promoting both the arts and education for those of bays with recessed balconies. Its claimed that this was because tuberculosis was
an impoverished background. Because he never left the so rife among residents that these corner flats would allow affected tenants to
country, many of the major public commissions of the sleep outdoors which was seen as an important part of treating the disease.
era went to Foley, even though many felt that Farrells Whether Simms actually though of this or it was just adapted by tenants is
work was superior. Farrells brothers were competent unclear.
craftsmen but lacked his ability and after his death the
studio went into decline. Mary’s Mansions, however, was caught up in numerous delays, so much so that by
the time of the North Strand Bombings in 1941 little progress had been achieved
other than clearing the site. Up to then over 600 air raid shelters had been built
in the city but few of these could accommodate more that 50 people. With
growing fears of another raid, (Wexford was bombed in 1940, while there hade
been other incidents at Terenure, the North Circular Road, and the Phoenix Park)
it was decided it might not be possible to build blocks of flats due to material
shortages but there was no shortage of cement and so Mary’s first function was
By the late 1930s Dublin’s North Inner City had a major housing crisis. to serve as the largest air raid shelter on the North Inner City.
Tuberculosis was rampant and much of the existing tenement housing stock
was in danger of collapsing. While a program of retro-fitting some of the old Large scale exercises and re-enactments of bomb raids were staged, often
Georgian tenements where possible, from 1933 Dublin Corporation had begun using smoke bombs and phosphorous grenades to give the effect of incendiary
clearing much of the derelict housing around Railway Street. However, the bombs. So sturdy was the construction of these cement air raid shelters that
compulsory purchase order process was slow and the government’s housing they have facilitated the raising of the structure by two floors in a multi-million
agency, responsible for all new building, was growing increasingly disenchanted refurbishment of the complex currently underway.
with what they saw as the expensive and wasteful use of materials by Dublin
Corporation Architect Herbert George Simms. While Simms used his decorative
brickwork and red terracotta tiled roofs to enhance the streetscape, it was felt
unnecessary and suggested that far better uses could be got from a greater use of
 HUGO MCGUINNESS
By the late 1950s Dublin’s inner
city was once again facing a housing crisis.
Hugo McGuinness is a local
Consultants brought in by the government
historian specialising in the Dublin 3
suggested building high-rise apartment
area of the Docklands, Fairview, and
blocks. When it was found that each unit
Clontarf. His particular interest are
would be more expensive than a house
the 1916-22 period in these areas and
in the suburbs, they suggested reducing
the evolution of Mud Island in the 18th
the room size of the apartments to reduce
and 19th centuries. Just recently he
costs. Into this debate stepped the new
presented a short documentry on the
Dublin City Architect Daithi Hanly. Hanly
WW1 Dublin Dockyard War Munitions
set out to create something new and
Factory for Dublin Port.
modern which at the same time would
integrate with the surrounding Georgian
Architecture of the streets where such
complexes were likely to be located.
The result was the “Gull Winged Roof”
text
Complex, a design unique to Dublin and HUGO MCGUINNESS
which through standardizing the design and materials provided quality homes in
a cost-effective way. illustration
JOHN RUDDY
The first of these was Gardiner Street Flats opened in January 1960. For the first
development
time Social Housing in Dublin had in-built bathrooms, while the Tower Entrance ROISIN LONERGAN
featured a number of safety devices aimed at Children and the elderly.
illustration
JOHN RUDDY

design and art direction

EDUARDO NOGUEIRA

project manager
MARCELA PARDUCCI

production
FIVE LAMPS ARTS FESTIVAL
fivelampsarts.ie