1805 – Design for Ormonde Bridge, Dublin

Intended to replace a five-span simple arch bridge built in 1684, which was destroyed by a flood in 1802. A public competition was held to find an architect to design a replacement, and William Hurst Ashpitel of London was deemed the winner. The inscription on the drawing reads: “Design for Ormond Bridge over the River Liffey, Dublin, submitted to the Corporation agreeably to public advertisement approv’d by them and honor’d with the premium of sixty guineas” Never constructed.

Ashpitel was a pupil of John Rennie the Elder, he later went into partnership with James Savage, and eventually set up in practice on his own account. In 1813 construction started on a replacement bridge – the current structure – a little further west to the 1809mdesigns of James Savage and was opened in 1816