Old pictures of Dublin

[GrahamH]

It's interesting to note the original Butt Bridge had pedestrian walkways approaching the mechanised section with balustrading and lamp standards of a similar design to the contemporaneously reconstructed O'Connell Bridge. The lamps and their chamfered stone plinths are identical, with the exception of them seemingly being dual-armed, of which there are strangely no other examples in the city. A shame, indeed quite odd, they weren't reused in the 1930s reconstruction.

Curious little lamps atop the piers of the Loop Line Bridge too.

[lostexpectation]

1 of 4 picks of the wood quay site at rebuild 1977
http://www.flickr.com/photos/catb/sets/72157600197787349/

[alonso]

forgive me if i have this arse over tit, but are those people standing on Fishamble street? Is that Handels Arch to the left? If so, bloody hell!!! What was on that site immediately before it was cleared?

[kinsella]

Take a look at the other photo with Christchurch in the background, provided in the link, also look at RHK - bloody hell!

[rashers]

forgive me if i have this arse over tit, but are those people standing on Fishamble street? Is that Handels Arch to the left? If so, bloody hell!!! What was on that site immediately before it was cleared?

Yes, Fishamble St. The site as you see it before it was cleared was Dublin Corporation Waterworks Department yard. The people in the photo are standing in front of the Turncocks office, which is visible in the photo. Across the street (behind the people in the photo) were the Waterworks offices.

[alonso]

how was there so much overgrowth? Is that due to the length of time the site was exposed after clearance and then excavation? it looks like a site that had been vacant for decades. Anyone got any pics of the site with the yard in situ?

[nneligan]

Thanks Morlan. Can't make out what it is but it looks apetising :-)

The ground floor arcading helped identify it.

Ctesiphon, Miriam Place wasn't too far off!

Fair play to hutton too for narrowing down the location by electoral jurisdiction and getting the year (1948)!

Nother pic here of the buildings. Sorry about the quality. It's a photograph of a picture hanging in the reception of the Central Hotel, Exchequer Street:

]

http://tbn0.google.com/hosted/images/c?q=8d3247e5df5775e5_large



And ta Morlan for all the pics. The slightly different views of old photos we're familiar with are great.

Fantastic photo, this is fabulous I was told by a colleague in the Four Courts recently that there was a hotel where Aras Ui Dalaigh stands now.

Aras Ui Dalaigh is a desperate building .

[Paul Clerkin]

Those Wood Quay shots are great

[Pot Noodle]

Tara Street and Butt Bridge, the second and third are taken from where Apollo house is now I think, anymore would be great

McFerran must have joined Heitons last pic

[poukai]

Wow, amazing pics, fascinating to see all those old views and try to recognize stuff...

[Morlan]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gentlemanofletters/

"Kevin was a proud father and loving husband who's family meant everything to him, but this profile is here firstly to showcase and remember his work and secondly because he himself would have been a Flickr member, because of his love of photography and gadgetry.

"We (Kevin's family) do sometimes come across his work that we had not known about, but as time goes on and Dublin changes it happens less and less.
Kevin loved his city passionately and I believe it would break his heart to see it now changed beyond recognition and not for the better either."







Signwriting by Kevin Freeney.
Late 1950's or early 1960's. Dawson Street.




Taken in the 1970's at Jervis Street & Parnell Street junction where Penny's is now.
Opposite this pub (where the cinema is now) was the factory where they made Silvermints, Williams & Woods (there was always a smell of Peppermint in the air of Parnell St from it), a fine big granite building it was and I believe it was the intended destination of the rebels in 1916 when they escaped the burning GPO and tried to make their way up Moore Street.




1981 Stephens Green showing what was there before the Shopping Centre.
R.O. Jones (the facade on the right hand side of this picture) is the Decorating Company that Kevin served his apprenticeship to painting and decorating with.



The corner of Grantham Street and Camden Street



Signwriting by Kevin Freeney



Signwriting by Kevin Freeney. This shop was at the corner of Liffey Street and Abbey Street.



Signwriting by Kevin Freeney. Nassau Street pre 1968




Junction of Russell Street & North Circular Road


Plenty more over at http://www.flickr.com/photos/gentlemanofletters/

[poukai]

Wow, what a gorgeous collection of photos! And although I'm only an adoptive Dubliner, it's great fun trying to recognize the spots... Thank you!

[alonso]

Brilliant stuff. I'm fairly certain a family member worked in that building at Abbey St/Liffey st. It was condemned in the 1960's sometime and the Corpo used to visit regularly to assess how dangerous it was and how long it could be inhabited and in use until it fell down. It still stands to this day. (if i've got the right building) http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&FORM=LMLTCC&cp=swr5qmggb6hx&style=o&lvl=2&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&phx=0&phy=0&phscl=1&scene=29508143&encType=1

[gunter]

Fantastic photographs!

'The Commodore' on Parnell Street will bring back memories to the Bolton St. architectural community of a certain era!

[reddy]

Great photos all round. The big thing that strikes me from all these is how badly we now do corners. Dublin certainly is a changed city.

[Paul Clerkin]

Fantastic photographs!

'The Commodore' on Parnell Street will bring back memories to the Bolton St. architectural community of a certain era!

Looked a damn fine pub.
Awesome shots indeed.

[GregF]

Dublin used to be such a pretty City..

Indeed, I agree. Looking at the early photos (circa 1930s, 40's) compared to the later ones (circa 1970', 80's), the place looked so uniform and intact overall. Nothing jarring.

Little did the folk know what the city was to suffer with the brutal treatment in the coming years. The scars are everywhere now, even if they are patched up a bit. And unlike other European cities, the Luftwaffe or the RAF are not to blame for the damage.


Great early photos of a Dublin lost forever.

[Paul Clerkin]

Someone's due to mention the grinding poverty of the city anytime now.

[LOB]

Fantastic photographs!

'The Commodore' on Parnell Street will bring back memories to the Bolton St. architectural community of a certain era!

I'm of a certain era.......just about.
Commodore was sold & the former owner I believe bought Ashtons beside Richview.....Treachery!

[goneill]

The Commodore was CPO'd, eventually, by the corpo who intended to build the "Inner Tangent" from the Five Lamps through Summerhill and through the top end of Capel Street. For decades Parnell Street west was largely derelict as the corpo refused permission to owners to do anything , (while also not actually going though with the CPOs). They were just about to break though Capel Street when Ciaran Cuffe and Co arrived on the City Council (c1991?) and put an overdue stop to the whole thing. That's why Parnell Street is about double its original width. The Commodore was sited at the central reservation. I guess that is also why the bit of the Royal Dublin Hotel has a facade at a funny angle where it sticks out onto Parnell. I was there today - what a shambles!

[GrahamH]

How interesting that the building line went out that far. The famous former staggered outline of Jervis Street is also visible with the Commodore and its neighbour. It's notable how few run-of-the-mill Victorian buildings such as these are now left in the city core with plain walls of glossy red brick and simple two-over-two windows. And they're still vanishing (Chamber Street pub anyone?). Glad the Abbey Street/Liffey Street corner survived (spot on alonso) - one of the handsomest shopfronts in the city.

It's eerie how you can 'sense' the location of buildings simply by their style and form. The Nassau Street terrace just looks like Nassau Street, presumably on account of its curious similarity with the surviving terrace at the corner with Grafton Street, which also features some grand shopfronts and an odd projection in the building line. I can't quite place the photo though - the site of the recently-built Trinity Point office building by Shay Cleary? It seems to be that corner with the rendered building opposite still intact.

Such skill Kevin Freeney had - a lost art. Fabulous use of text and fonts. Of course I'd be apoplectic over untainted upper facades being embellished in such a fashion, but we'll gloss over that in the interests of nostalgia.

[lauder]

Anyone know what the last (stone) statue is and where it is know? Also where are the other two bronze statues behind Queen Victoria gone? There were four originally I think, and i know one is in the Millennium wing of Leinster House.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/catb/494843993/in/set-72157600197787349/

[ctesiphon]

I can't quite place the photo though - the site of the recently-built Trinity Point office building by Shay Cleary? It seems to be that corner with the rendered building opposite still intact.

There are few enough candidates on that stretch- it's not the Kevin & Howlin corner, it's not the Alliance Francaise... Your guess seems plausible. (Unless there was something on the site of the Setanta that I don't know about?)

Also, would the street numbers (9 - 11) have changed since then? Quite possibly not.

EDIT: It's hardly Knobs & Knockers, is it? I don't think that has a breakfront end-of-terrace house.
EDIT 2: Is the Shay Cleary building not on South Leinster Street? Now I'm confused.

[Paul Clerkin]

What was on the site of Setanta House?

[tommyt]

It's either knobs and knockers or the author is wrong and it's actually on sth Leinster ,where the new building w/ the garden table bolt- ons on the corner w Leinster lane.