The Architecture of Dublin

By Count Plunkett, M.R.I.A.

(From the ‘Handbook to the Dublin District’, British Association, 1908)

The qualities of a city’s architecture are generally the outcome of trade or of national necessities. Some cities are shaped mainly by their traditions, while others cast off the old, in a fever of progress. Dublin has a rule to itself. With few manufactures, and only irregular employment for many thousands of its artizan population, it is subject to rapid changes in its aspect. Its large leisured class of citizens, of a moderate but fixed income, might be supposed to resist novelties, which indeed result largely from the decay of our country towns, and consequent centralization in the capital.

Since old cities commonly illustrate the growth, development, and vicissitudes of a people, we can read in their streets many chapters of a country’s history. Though this general proposition applies indifferently to Dublin, our city still retains some interesting examples of architecture dating from an age of luxury and public spirit.

The natural conditions which affected its foundation continue to exercise a strong influence on the preservation, expansion, and sanitation of Dublin. The site of the city was an irregular slope towards the river and the sea, diversified with small hills. Among the drawbacks of its position were the low-lying stretches of land within the city, and the expanse of sand through which the river meandered.

Towards the river ran several water-coursurses, and even on the hillocks were many springs, and some undrained bogs. Several rivulets still run under the city. Like many of the English cathedrals, Christchurch and St. Patrick’s were built on morasses, which continue to menace these ancient buildings. The Dublin Mountains, on the south, with their wooded slopes, reflect some beauty on the city; but the low-lying sea-shore that touches it has been of necessity a neglected foil to the city’s architecture.

Indeed, the old plan of the city remains practically less direct, are not so straight in line as to sacrifice variety. We have few streets of any length that are absolutely straight. Westmoreland Street and D’Olier Street diverge from the line of Sackville Street. Thoroughfares like Grafton Street, though short, and altered in recent times, and South Great George’s Street, congested with business, are as winding as neglected back streets.

The building of a city market, and the running of tram-lines, make little change in the width and general plan of a Dublin street, owing to the penal cost of promoting Improvement Bills in the Imperial Parliament.

One of the greatest of our thoroughfares, Capel Street, though it has lost all its old-time quaintness, is as narrow as it was a hundred years ago; and Parliament Street, which continues it on the south side of the river, cramps the view of the City Hall. The Wide Street Commissioners in the eighteenth century made some bold changes, and planned reforms that are still called for.

Many of our modern buildings suffer greatly from the want of “distance,” caused mainly by the narrowness of the streets. While a house like that of the Royal Irish Academy, in Dawson Street, can be fairly seen, its neighbour, the Church of St. Ann, loses in dignity and effect by the nearness to the eye.

The most extended roadway in the residential quarter is that beginning at the east side of Merrion Square, and running in a straight line to Leeson Street. Owing to the irregular rise of the ground, the varying heights of the red-brick buildings, and the pleasant breaks made in the course by green squares and cross-streets, this affords one of the prettiest and most reposeful views in the city.

One may roughly group the leading institutions in the city. On the south side of the river are the venerable Cathedrals, the Universities, the Castle, and the principal Banks, and on the north the Four Courts, Custom House, Post Office, King’s Inns, Rotunda, and many fine churches.

College Green may be looked on as the centre of the city, and (apart from the Cathedral area) the most interesting quarter in it.

Few, if any, of the world’s capitals can show-in a little space, and in like admirable contrast-buildings so full of classic feeling, and so popular in their appeal.

Bank of Ireland1.gif (14986 bytes)The **Parliament House **(now the Bank of Ireland) underwent many changes. It is erected on the site of Chichester House; the main building was carried out under the supervision of Sir B. Lovat Pearce, about 1739, from the plans (it is thought) of Cassels, who designed Leinster House.

In 1785 James Gandon was commissioned to enlarge the east side; to bring the Lords’ Portico to the street-level, he used Corinthian columns, with an Ionic entablature to match the rest of the building.

In 1792-4, more space being required by the Commons, the West Portico (to balance the eastern, but Ionic) was added, with a screen wall and Ionic colonnade connecting the old House and the wings - improvements attributed to Robert Parkes.

After the Union, the Bank made some external additions from the plans of Francis Johnston, erecting the great gateways in Foster Place and Westmoreland Street, and altering the positions of the entrances; and within, while the House of Lords is unchanged, no trace of the Court of Requests or of the Commons remains.

The statues - Hibernia on the central apex, Fidelity on her right, Commerce on her left, and Fortitude, Justice, and Liberty over the pediment of the East Portico-were the work of Edward Smith, an Irish sculptor. The Royal Arms in the tympanum were modelled by Flaxman.

The general effect of the Parliament House, with its “confusion” of styles, is singularly beautiful and noble. It took genius to devise those great sweeping curves of the wings, to lighten the expanse of the screens with Ionic columns, to make the wide exposed portico solemn with massive Corinthian. The Parliament House covers an acre and a half with its semicircle. One of the purposes suggesting the employment of Corinthian columns on the Lords’ entrance was the harmonizing of the House with Trinity College.

TCD.gif (23009 bytes)The front of Trinity College, re-facing the Elizabethan building, was built in 1759, principally at the cost of the Irish Parliament, from the designs of Sir William Chambers. It is fortress-like and impressive, and in great contrast to its beautiful neighbour. The quadrangle contains its earliest buildings.

The Library, overlooking the quadrangle, was built in 1732; at that time it was accounted one of the principal libraries in Europe. It is an imposing building of cut stone; formerly there were cloisters at the north and south sides, but, the space being required by readers, the arches were filled in.

The Library proper is on the second story, and contains 300,000 volumes; formerly this hall had a flat ceiling, but now is open to the arched roof. This improvement was devised by Sir Thomas Drew. On the further side of the quadrangle is the Chapel, insignificant externally, but containing some good wood- carving. The Dining Hall, attributed to Cassels, is interesting and peculiar; it has a fine fireplace and panelled walls.

Adjoining the Library is the Examination Hall, a very lofty and beautiful room rather daintily decorated, and containing the remarkable monument of Dr. Baldwin by Hewitson, an Irish sculptor. This Hall and the Chapel were designed by Chambers and executed by Meyers.

Facing the Library is the new Graduates’ Memorial Building, occupied by the College Societies; and the east end of the quadrangle is closed by a terrace of Queen Anne houses (Sterling’s Buildings), now unhappily modernized.

In a further square is a little Doric Temple, the Printing Office of the University Press; and opposite this are the New Buildings, mainly used by the Engineering School - a Romanesque structure, by Woodward and Deane, with a great hall that is almost Byzantine. The string-courses and other projecting ornaments are elaborately carved; and the *ensemble *and detail of the work won the enthusiastic admiration of Ruskin.

In the quadrangle there is a graceful, and rather modern-looking Campanile, built in 1852. Its centre is said to mark the crossing of the old monastic church of All Hallows; the cloisters are supposed to have extended to what is now the Provost’s garden, and to have suggested the open treatment of the Library corridors.

To the right of Trinity College is the **Provost’s House, **a rather solemn dwelling (a duplicate of that of the famous General Wade, in Piccadilly, which is now altered beyond recognition). **

College Green, **a banking quarter, contains many fine modern buildings. In the older Dame Street are the Commercial Buildings in Irish granite, designed by Waldre about a century ago.

Further up, on the slope of Cork Hill, is the **City Hall, **originally the Royal Exchange. It is evident that this

“far-withdrawing line

Of palace fronts Palladian

should have been made visible from Dame Street. From the height on which it stands, its splendid Corinthian front, and the great dome above it, were meant to dominate the City. A** **fairly good view of it is obtainable from Parliament Street ; and it is observable to some effect from Capel Street, now that the old Essex Bridge is removed.

Formerly the colossal statue of O’Connell, by John Hogan; stood in front of the porch, but it is now in the circular hall, under the lantern and flanked by other statues. The Council Chamber, a comparatively small hall, is reached by a narrow staircase, for the building was designed for beauty rather than for convenience. It is the work of Thomas Cooley (1769), who succeeded in a competition with $Sandby and Gandon. Some injury is done to the effect of the building by recent changes; the steps were originally designed to be stylobate.

The adjoining **Municipal Buildings, **in cut stone, also do credit to the eighteenth century. Beside them a new avenue, Lord Edward Street, was made about twenty years ago, to lead directly to Christ Church.

The charm of the Dublin streets was greatly added to by the beautiful curves of our old stone bridges, of which only a couple remain; they rose too steeply for the convenience of traffic. One bridge of a later date, the Wellington-or, as it is generally called, “the Rialto” - a slim iron foot-way-arches its delicate lines against the sunset, and brings a needed grace to the river.

The old Custom House, built in 1707; far up the river, adjoining Essex Bridge, was, by the middle of the eighteenth century, found to be too remote from the docks, and otherwise unsuited for its purpose. Through the influence of the Rt. Hon. John Beresford, the new Custom House was commenced in 1781, and completed in 1791.

With the quays and docks, it is said to have cost half a million pounds; the great building is now used mainly for tax-offices. The Custom House caw hardly be seen to good effect, as the view of it is obscured from the river-entrance and from O’Connell Bridge by the Loop Line Railway.

It was planned on a scale that seems quite out of proportion to the business of the, city, for it is 875 feet long by 205 feet deep. It has four fronts, being chiefly Doric in style. Open arcades lighten the effect of the building on the river-front, and it is decorated with much beautiful carving and many allegorical statues. The lantern, with its slim pillars, crowned by a small dome, gives an unusual grace to the building.

Some distance up the river are the **Four Courts, **as they are called, begun in 1776, by Cooley, and completed, after his death, by Gandon in 1797. This building has the impressive quality aimed at by the architects of the period. The great portico, with its six Corinthian columns, and the large and lofty dome behind it, require the wings and the carved stone entrances to the courtyard to justify their proportions.

The, pediment is surmounted by the statues of Moses, Justice, and Mercy. The decorative effect of the building is very fine; the visitor is, however, greatly disappointed at the meagre accommodation of the interior. The round hall, which is of remarkable beauty, contains a few statues of eminent public men. The fine quays are here fenced with graceful balustrades.

A little further up, on the southern side of the river, stands Moira House - that famous palatial building, where, in an octagon room decorated with mother-of-pearl, John Wesley met Lady Moira. It is now transformed into a dismal institution for mendicants.

Of the main thoroughfares, the most noteworthy is Sackville Street, which extends from Foley’s beautiful O’Connell Monument to the Rotunda.

Unluckily, Nelson’s Pillar, a bold Doric column of granite, 110 feet in height, breaks the vista midway, and effectually obstructs the traffic. The Pillar likewise spoils the effect of the adjoining **General Post Office, **a classical nineteenth-century building designed by Johnston.

The **Rotunda Hospital, **founded by Dr. Mosse, was opened in 1745, being, it is said, the first maternity hospital in the British dominions. It was built by Cassels; the charming little chapel is attributed to Gandon. Pretty colonnades connect the main building with the wings.

To its right is the **Rotunda, **a lofty round hall, built in 1755, from the designs of Richard Johnson. It is charmingly decorated within and without; the exterior frieze of draped ox-skulls in white pottery is the work of Flaxman. This hall is famous as one of the meeting-places of the Irish Volunteers of 1782; for over a century it was used as an Assembly Room, for the benefit of the Hospital, and it is still in use.

In Nos. 6 and 7, Christchurch Place, adjoining Christchurch Cathedral, there are remains of the oak beams of the **Carbrie House, **the last of our wattled dwellings, demolished in 1780.

Near St. Patrick’s Cathedral is **Marsh’s Library, a **quaint little treasury of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century books.

Dublin Castle1.gif (25524 bytes)The interest of Dublin Castle is due to its history rather than its beauty. The Lower Castle Yard, though flanked on one side by Johnston’s Castle Chapel (in modern “Gothic”), is rather unattractive. The only ancient building visible from the Yard is the great round (twelfth-century) Bermingham Tower, which is entered from the roadway to Ship Street, and which seems incongruous in its latter-day surroundings. The Upper Castle Yard is more in harmony, having two handsome gateways (one disused), and the picturesque Queen Anne Bedford Tower, with its very fine cupola, and its open gallery for musicians. The Castle contains some well proportioned rooms, with florid modelling in plaster. St. Patrick’s Hall, which is 82 feet long and 41 feet broad, and nearly 40 feet in height, was decorated for the Knights of St. Patrick in 1783. Its great ceiling-paintings by Waldre, the architect, are of some merit. This Hall was very tastefully coloured and gilt about five years ago.

Many of the most important public bodies and institutions in Dublin are housed in eighteenth-century dwellings, formerly the “town-houses” of members of the Irish Parliament. **

Leinster House**, the residence of the Dukes of Leinster, in Kildare Street; was built by Cassels about the year 1745; it was for a while the home of Lord Edward FitzGerald. It is a massive and dignified structure, more beautiful within than without. The large, finely pro-portioned reading-room, on the first floor, has an Adams ceiling which is a triumph of exquisite workmanship. This house was acquired by the Royal Dublin Society, which occupies it; here also are the offices of the National Museum of Science and Art.

The adjoining modern classical renaissance building, to the right, is the **National Museum; **and facing it is the **National Library of Ireland. **These buildings, designed by the late Sir Thomas Deane, are handsome and decorative examples of their style.

The native exhibits in the Museum include models of “Irish Romanesque” architecture, and of the greater Irish crosses; of statuary by modern Irish artists; also some interesting examples of craftsmanship from Dublin interiors of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Here also is deposited the great treasury of Celtic arts, the collection of the Royal Irish Academy.

A large wing of the Museum (containing the Natural History Collection) extends through Leinster Lawn to Merrion Square. On the opposite side of the Lawn is the National **Gallery, **notable for its Old Masters and Irish portraits.

Of the private dwelling-houses whose merits have stood the test of time, the most distinctive in the city is **Powerscourt House, **in William Street, built for Lord Powerscourt in 1771-4 by Robert Mack, from the designs of Cassels (?). The work, executed in granite from the Powerscourt quarries, has remarkable dignity and grace of line. The curious square structure over the pediment was intended for an observatory. This lovely building is now a warehouse.

The first Earl of Charlemont returned home, after a long sojourn in Italy, with a taste for classical architecture. He gave a commission to Sir William Chambers, whose fine fancy produced a little square casino, a Doric temple with four porticoes, which glimmers in white marble in the wooded grounds at **Marino **(Clontarf).

In St. Stephen’s Green** **there are several interesting houses. For instance, the **Loreto Convent **(Grattan’s House), on the east side, and the house of Richard Whaley, now **University College, **on the south. The latter contains a great deal of elaborate stucco-work, which is altogether inferior to the ornament in another Jesuit College, Belvedere, north of the city.

In **Ely Place, **adjoining the Green, there are two houses, the Valuation Offices, which contain work of much delicacy. Some of the earliest and most beautiful stucco and carved work in Dublin is to be found in 10 Henrietta Street, which belonged to the Countess of Blessington.

Near by is the **King’s Inns **(designed by Gandon, who is supposed to have also planned Charlemont House in Rutland Square).

Among the more modern buildings of merit are the **Royal College of Surgeons **(1809), on St. Stephen’s Green, and the **Royal College of Physicians, **in Kildare Street.

Dublin possesses some thirty large and well-conducted hospitals. The **Royal Hospital **for Disabled Soldiers at Kilmainham is one of the oldest buildings on the city’s border. The Duke of Ormond laid its foundation in 1680; and it was completed in four years. Standing amidst beautiful grounds, it covers a square of 250 feet, round a courtyard, and presents four fronts. The splendid dining-hall, 100 feet long by 50 feet wide, contains some interesting historical portraits, and the chapel is ornate with woodcarvings.

A distant view of Dublin in the eighteenth century showed the city apparently spireless; and the first church of modern times with a spire of considerable elevation was St. George’s (in Temple Street), built by Johnston at the beginning of the nineteenth century. To-day the city’s prospect is punctuated by spires of no little beauty, for its churches are many, and mostly Gothic.

Those who planned the city-while it was still in the making-had to consider the general perspective, and to calculate on the peculiar aerial effects of a climate almost moist. Their success in building according to their environment is strikingly illustrated by Malton, who has recorded the impressionism of our streets with absolute fidelity.

In certain streets, such as Upper Fitzwilliam Street, the sky-line leads the eye directly to the Dublin Mountains, which, far front being dwarfed by their distance, loom up in the magnifying Irish atmosphere. Chromatic colouring was a thing not dreamt of by our old architects, but they had mellow-tinted bricks, and they frequently used cut stone up to the first floor.

Though a flatness of facade was the rule in private houses, many of the shops were saved from monotony of appearance by rounded fronts and the most elaborate “leading”; and entablatures decorated with tenuous festoons were until lately to be seen in some of our back streets.

Irish architecture is generally reposeful; and our Queen Anne work seldom ran into the eccentricities common to the style.

An ancient city, Dublin has no corbelled or timbered houses, and few gables. Most of its landmarks have disappeared. It has no gates; part of the old “Dame’s Gate” was turned to use for the pedestal of the statue of William III in College Green; and the castellated gate built by Johnston in 1812 was removed, in 1846, from Barrack Bridge to the Hospital at Kilmainham.

Some thirty years ago there were in the Coombe and neighbouring quarters many quaint structures of the close of the seventeenth century.

Now the type of house with Dutch gable, and sashes flush with the wall, is only a memory. Little of Queen Anne work remains.

About 1776 extensive changes began in the city - streets were opened in all directions, and the building mania lasted for nigh fifteen years. The style of architecture then common tried the gifts of the designer rather severely. The houses of this period stretch monotonously in a straight line through many of our most fashionable districts. They have suffered greatly from modernization, and the consequent sacrifice of effects relied on by the architects. The cross-line of small-paned sashes and the graceful scrolls of fan-lights are gone, leaving vacant spaces; of the striking link - and lamp-holders, and other fine iron work, there is hardly a trace.

Many of the balconies have been removed, to be sometimes replaced by the pretentious castings of the fifties. It is only in architectural detail that we discover the finer qualities of the earlier time-in the beautiful proportions of doors, windows, and porticoes. The sense of beauty, however, found free play in the interiors-in their noble spaciousness, worthily balanced by the quality of the workmanship in stucco and joinery and carving and inlaying, which made the seventeenth-century Dublin house one of the most artistic of European dwellings.

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