old illustrations of limerick

[Paul Clerkin]

Cool Pics Mike. TSB building is still there. Closed as a bank last year or so and currently has a big SOLD sign on it like a whole load of other buildings in the city...

a lovely little building
http://ireland.archiseek.com/buildings_ireland/limerick/limerick/tsb.html

[justnotbothered]

The TSB was sold to Sarsfield Credit Union, not sure when they intend to move from beside the Belltable to there though.

[CologneMike]

Do you know where the image of the fishermen on Thomond Bridge came from?

Shane, have a look at Limerick - a stroll down Memory Lane Vol-1

Gone Fishin’

This picture, taken in 1958, shows how Limerick men whiled away what little free time they had. The picture was taken at Thomond Bridge by Donal McMonagle.

Sean Curtin

[ShaneP]

Will do. Thanks for that CologneMike

[CologneMike]

The file name of the above refers to a Country Club but I don't know which building it refers to.

There seems to be very little written about the Country Club building. It was acquired by the Augustinian’s Order and they converted it into a presbytery. They built a church next door (to the right) in the 1940’s. The entrance / porch of the old Country Club is gone.

View from Country Club 1

The roof of the entrance / porch was often used as a platform to take photographs.

Junction Bedford Row – Thomas Street / George’s Street (O’Connell Street)

Limerick Museum: Larger image

[CologneMike]

View from Country Club 2

A few years later and the junction has since received an additional street lamp. Public transport in the form of a double-decker horse-drawn coach. It’s probably making it’s way out of town in the direction of Ballinacurra. One can even make out the conductor collecting fares. Jaunting cars appear on most corners and they probably deemed as taxis?

Limerick Museum: Larger image

[CologneMike]

View from Country Club 3

Probably taken in the 1920’s / 1930’s? I wonder if the ornate street lamp on the left is gas or electric? No major changes to the street’s built landscape. The first motorised buses appear though the jaunting car is still in business (below right corner).

Limerick Museum: Larger image

[Tuborg]

Heres another view of the country club taken from the first floor of the old george hotel in the late 19th Century. The arched entrance to the old Augustinian church can be seen 2 doors to the right of the country club. The building at the Roches Street junction is also an interesting one, its certainly not the chicken hut anyway!:D

[CologneMike]

Tait's Army Clothing Factory



Also known as the Prospect Hill Clothing Factory or better known as the Limerick Clothing Factory.

Peter Tait, a Scotsman, pioneered the manufacture of ready-made clothing in an era when even army uniforms were all made by hand. In 1850 he introduced power-driven machinery and mass-production methods to the city. Within a few years his factory was producing uniforms for the entire British army. During the American Civil War, Tait supplied both North and South with military uniforms.

Sean Spellissy (The History of Limerick City)

[CologneMike]

Pery Street / Tait’s Clock – Baker Place

Sir Peter Tait was mayor three times between 1866 and 1868. He lived in South Hill House. During his mayoralty, the 65-foot high clock tower designed by William Corbett, the city surveyor, was completed at a cost of ₤750.

Sean Spellissy (The History of Limerick City)

The building on the left was a Protestant orphan hall and the Dominican Church is at the end.

Limerick Museum: Larger image

[CologneMike]

Market’s Field

This photo (circa 1930’s) was taken from the spire of St. John’s Cathedral. The Garryowen road resembled nothing more than a country boreen back then. The fields to the left were still been farmed where now the large housing estate of Garryowen now stands.

The Market’s Field was a true sports venue. The GAA started to play here in 1888. Munster played the All Blacks here in 1906 and it was the home for the then local Garryowen rugby team before they absconded to Dooradoyle in the 1960’s. The rugby goal posts can be clearly seen in the photo, as also the race track built around it by Bord na gCon for greyhound racing. It also became the home of the Limerick football team.

Below the photographer captured part of the roof of the girls’ convent and the smaller boys’ schools. Alas these cut stone buildings were replaced in the 1970’s by a concrete / grey brick building. Ruefully regretted by everyone today, the so called “new building” has just undergone a massive facelift.

The two storey building at the bottom was the home of Jim Kemmy. The Kemmy family were stone masons. The lane that ran parallel to the Garryowen road along Kemmy’s house was probably the original medieval lane leading to the John’s Gate entrance of the walled Irish town section of the city. At the top end of the Markets Field was once the site of the Garryowen Brewery, it can be seen in old Limerick maps.

Image Limerick Museum

[CologneMike]

From what I could gather, Roches Stores purchased the building previously owned by McBirneys in the early 1940s. This building was gutted by a fire in 1948 and it along with the adjacent building on Sarsfield were demolished. The current building was opened in 1951. Its considered a good example of an art deco style department store but is not a listed building.

Photo of the old Roches Stores building(McBirneys) and Cannocks from the early 1900s.

Here is another perspective below of McBirneys (left, flag pole on roof) from Brunswick (Sarsfield) Street circa 1900. It seems the original McBirneys building was not that large. The two neighbouring buildings below it, had a more interesting décor to their façades.

Any idea what these two buildings (statute on roof and shop front with large canopy) were? Could the two storey building be the Imperial Bakery (Permanent Trustee Savings Bank)?

Limerick Museum: Larger image

[Tuborg]

Any idea what these two buildings (statute on roof and shop front with large canopy) were? Could the two storey building be the Imperial Bakery (Permanent Trustee Savings Bank)?

The larger building with the statue was part of Roches Stores when it burned down, it was probably originally part of McBirneys department store. The neighbouring building used to be Cannocks furniture department and was linked to the main O Connell Street store, it would have been demolished along with the adjacent two storey structure in the 1980s to make way for the current extension to Roches Stores(Debenhams).

The building with the pitched roof beside James Atteridge is actually the Imperial bakery (now Permanent tsb). The more decorative facade that exists now was added in the early 20th Century. James Atteridges shop is now Pa Martins pub, of course the remaining buildings on that side of Sarsfield Street were levelled to facilitate the Liddy Street relief road in the early 80s.



Former Imperial Bakery

Attachment show the Henry Street/Sarsfield Street junction in the 1970s

[CologneMike]

The larger building with the statue was part of Roches Stores when it burned down, it was probably originally part of McBirneys department store.

I never realised that Roches Stores were that long in Limerick.

The neighbouring building used to be Cannocks furniture department and was linked to the main O Connell Street store, it would have been demolished along with the adjacent two storey structure in the 1980s to make way for the current extension to Roches Stores(Debenhams).

So the fire seems to have been limited to just two buildings back then. The Cannock’s furniture building must have been demolished a little earlier (1970's) as I can remember Roches having a crude loading bay to the rear of their building on Sarsfield Street.

The building with the pitched roof beside James Atteridge is actually the Imperial bakery (now Permanent tsb).

Did the Imperial bakery just lower their building by a floor or two and/or rebuilt their frontage?

The aerial image is probably from the early 1960’s. A lot of warehousing to be seen from the Arthur’s Quay era? Cannock’s furniture store is captured well.

[Tuborg]

I never realised that Roches Stores were that long in Limerick.

I wasnt aware they traded out of those buildings either until I came across a book last Christmas which had some superb, previously unpublished photographs of the city centre from the 1940s through to the late 60s, annoyingly I never got around to buying it!:( I think Roches were only in Limerick a few short years before their premises were destroyed!

So the fire seems to have been limited to just two buildings back then. The Cannock’s furniture building must have been demolished a little earlier (1970's) as I can remember Roches having a crude loading bay to the rear of their building on Sarsfield Street.

The 70s were a bit before my time so I'll take your word for it! You're right though, if you look at the aerial photo below from the 1970s you can see the building is gone, another example of a building being demolished just for the sake of it, a common occurance in Limerick around this period!.

Did the Imperial bakery just lower their building by a floor or two and/or rebuilt their frontage?

The facade was just rebuilt, the main structure of the building remains!

The aerial image is probably from the early 1960’s. A lot of warehousing to be seen from the Arthur’s Quay era? Cannock’s furniture store is captured well.

Thats a cropped version of a much larger aerial image, it was taken around 1965, not long after the facade of Cannocks and its famous clock were demolished!:mad:


Limerick City Centre 1970s (Derhur)

[CologneMike]

Tuborg, that image shows the aftermath of Cannock’s Furnitue Store very well. An ugly cavity from Sarsfield Street was cut right through to Honan’s Quay for deliveries and a tiny customer car park.

One can see the first phase of Sarsfield House (left) was just completed as also the former Norwich Union building site at the corner of Patrick Street / Denmark Street (crane) using the same concrete building technique (i.e. factory made).

The Arthur’s Quay car park was a real crude job, probably used the demolished rubble from Sarsfield House, Norwich Union and Cannocks Furniture Store to fill it in.

Still though the orginal cut stone quay walls must be still lying under there. Could be worth digging them up and re-using them for say the canal or Abbey river (Groove island), when the big regeneration project takes place.

[CologneMike]

King John’s Castle, Thomond Bridge and Toll House

King John’s Castle was erected by the Normans in the early years of the thirteenth century.
The bridge and it’s toll house were designed (1840) by the brothers James and George Richard Pain.
The buildings within the castle were a former British military barracks.
In the background is St Mary’s Cathedral (12th century)

The image also shows that the road from the Island field (Verdant Place) had no direct access to the bridge at the corner with the Toll House, as it seems that there were a flight of steps at the junction?

I wonder are these steps still there under the road? Maybe an opportunity to extend a pedestrianised river walk around the back of St.Munchin’s Church by restoring the former steps? The junction as it is today, is definitely not the best location for road safety reasons. Access to St. Mary’s park is now better served at the roundabout 200 yards further on?

Limerick Museum: Larger image

[PoxyShamrock]

Looking at that aeriel photo of 1970's Limerick, it just shows how much better off we would have been without Liddy St.

[CologneMike]

Lock Quay and Canal

The 1.5 Kilometre stretch of canal from Lock Quay (Abbey River) to the Shannon was built in 1758. It connected Limerick and Dublin via the Grand Canal. The buildings on the left were used for milling corn. The buildings on the right beyond the Shannon Navigation Gate were used by the Guinness brewery. The last barge leaving Limerick for Dublin had a cargo of two tons of empty Guinness barrels (18th May 1960).

Source: Limerick in old Postcards Jim Kemmy / Larry Walsh

Limerick Museum: Larger image

[CologneMike]

City Exchange

The Exchange from a painting of 1820. It was the headquarters of Limerick Corporation from 1673 to 1846.

Limerick Corporation itself financed the construction of its own headquarters. In 1702, the exchange, which had been severely damaged during the sieges of 1690-91, was rebuilt during the mayoralty of William Davis. After this initial project was completed, little more was done fro sixty years. During the period of the Corporation Roches, all of the Limerick civic buildings were allowed to decay.

In 1761, the Committee of the Irish House of Commons which investigated abuses in the Limerick Corporation reported that ‘the thosel’ and market house (i.e. the Exchange) of the said city are in a ruinous condition, that the courthouse is pulled down and the gaol not fit for the reception of prisoners.

Thomas Smyth MP (1776-85) took control of the Corporation in 1776, Smyth had the Exchange entirely rebuilt in 1777-78. The Corporation met the total cost, amounting to £1500. The dean and chapter of St. Mary’s Cathedral had donated a part of the churchyard to the Corporation, so the new Exchange was larger than the old, and unlike the latter, it did not project onto the street.

(History of Limerick Corporation by Mathew Potter)

Image from Limerick Library (Historic Limerick: The City and its Treasures by Laurence Walsh, the Exchange)

Previous post with present day image.

[CologneMike]

Commercial Building (Later Town Hall) Rutland Street

The Commercial buildings were built in 1805 for the Limerick Chamber of Commerce. They later moved to 96 O’Connell Street in 1833.

Thomas Spring Rice MP 1820 (Painting Limerick Chamber of Commerce)

Limerick Library Historic Limerick The City and its Treasures by Laurence Walsh, the Chairing of Spring Rice

[CologneMike]

The Acquisition of a new Town Hall (Rutland Street)

One of the most striking differences between municipal authorities in Britain and Ireland in the nineteenth century was the proliferation of magnificent new city and town halls in the former as compared to the latter. Many British cities expanded rapidly in both wealth and population as a result of the Industrial Revolution and expressed their confidence and civic pride in the construction of vast new civic headquarters.

Amongst the most striking examples were the city halls in Manchester, Leeds and Glasgow. Significantly, the most grandiose city hall built in Ireland in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries was that of the industrial city of Belfast.

By contrast, the economically depressed cities and towns of southern Ireland built no such fine civic headquarters. In 1852, Dublin Corporation had to be content with taking over the former Royal Exchange (a comparatively small, though beautiful building which had been used by the Dublin Guild of Merchants as a business centre) and converting it into the new City Hall.

A similar development had occurred in Limerick in the 1840s. One of the most symbolic acts of the Reformed Corporation was the removal of the civic headquarters from the old city to Newtown Pery. By this time the old Exchange was considered to be to small, and to be situated in too peripheral a location for a municipal authority that now aspired to establish its control over Newtown Pery.

The Commercial Buildings had housed both the Chamber of Commerce and the Commissioners of St Michaels Parish. After they both relocated the building was purchased by the Corporation in 1846 and became the new Town Hall.

The fate of the old Exchange was to be a sad one. It was abandoned by the Corporation and gradually fell into ruins. In 1884, it was purchased from the local authority by a wealthy member of the Church of Ireland named Robert Hunt who then presented it free of charge to St. Mary’s Cathedral. It was immediately demolished and the site used to extend the burial ground surrounding the Cathedral. However, the colonnade at the front of the Exchange was salvaged and was incorporated into the wall of the burial ground.

(History of Limerick Corporation by Mathew Potter)

The Town Hall on Rutland Street, headquarters of Limerick Corporation from 1846-1990

Jim Kemmy Municipal Museum Limerick: Larger image and image of Corporation meeting in session.

[CologneMike]

Patrick Street – Rutland Street

On the left hand side of the Patrick Street image below (Arthur’s Quay Shopping Centre) there are today only six Georgian buildings remaining. The other side of the street has fared a bit better, however with the proposed “Opera Shopping Centre” to the rear of the façades on the right hand side there are major changes in store. Some of the Georgian buildings will be demolished, others will be integrated into the centre and one will be restored to its original state.

Restoration of No. 4 Patrick Street (Limerick Civic Trust Project)




As the principal part of the Catherine Hayes project Limerick Civic Trust are embarking on the complete restoration Catherine’s birthplace, No. 4 Patrick Street. Built in the early 1700’s this shop fronted building, four storeys over basement does not have any ornate plasterwork or fancy woodwork but it does represent an important example of early Georgian architecture being part of the earliest developments in Newtown Pery.

Trade directories, census records and so forth record that No. 4 was a busy place, at various times selling confectionary, straw hats, tobacco, toys and fancy goods on the first floor. The earliest lease found dates to 1754. The interior of the shop is possibly the oldest surviving in the city. Its quaint charm is unique and something special. No. 4 Patrick Street holds an important social history by the very fact that it was the birthplace of Catherine Hayes.

No. 4 Patrick Street was generously donated to Limerick Civic Trust by Mr. Suneil Sharma of Regeneration Developments Ltd. Mr. Sharma is developing a new retail facility aptly name The Opera Centre after Catherine Hayes. Once No. 4 has been made structurally sound by Regeneration Developments Ltd, Limerick Civic Trust will fundraise actively invest a further €2 million to cover the costs of a faithful restoration of Catherine’s birthplace.

The restored building will include a shop and accommodation with a museum honouring the life of Catherine Hayes. The house will also become a civic amenity, similar to Limerick Civic Trusts Georgian House at No. 2 Pery Square. Once fully restored No. 4 Patrick Street will be available for visitors, small events, meetings and private functions.

Currently the building is in a ruinous state of disrepair.

Source Limerick Civic Trust

Images above from Buildings of Ireland

Limerick Museum: Larger image

[CologneMike]

Artillery Barracks – Mulgrave Street

The 9th Field Battery, Royal Artillery, 1898, at the Artillery Barracks in Mulgrave Street. The parade ground now houses many small businesses under the auspices of Costelloe’s Yard. Some of the buildings are still identifiable today more than a hundred years later.

Limerick – a stroll down Memory Lane Vol 3 by Sean Curtin

See also Buildings of Ireland

Limerick Museum: Larger image

[KeepAnEyeOnBob]

I hope this isn't too tangental to the thread. Having seen the above photos, it's interesting to the see streetlighting with the ornate poles as in Dublin. Would it be an improvement for O'Connell St. etc. to have the repro-heritage style columns used in Dublin installed on-street instead of the building-mounted floods as at present? I think it's pretty ugly the way the current lighting has cabling attached to the building facades (although I think there's other cabling as well as for the lighting). Someone mentioned for another photo that the old street scene (from early motoring days) was nice and uncluttered, maybe the clutter problem would be worsened by having lighting standards? Personally I think the biggest "clutter" is on-street parking. It's a gross indulgence really to have such valuable public thoroughfare clogged up with stationary vehicles.

Some interesting photos here. I think I'll have to put those Limerick historical photo books on my wishlist.