1878 – Design proposal for Great Western Square, Dublin

“In our present number we illustrate the design submitted in competition by Mr. John L. Robinson of 198 Great Brunswick-street. In laying out the ground, he formed an ornamental square or pleasure-ground, with houses ranged round three sides, the fourth being open to the North Circular-road, with gardens in front and the two sides of the square are faced by two terraces of thirty-one houses each. At the end of the square is a workmen’s club or reading room which may be used as a lecture-hall when occasion offers. There is also a site for a co-operative store and a shop, There are 91 houses shown on the plan, and, if considered desirable, the site of the workmens’s club would be available for none more, making a total of 100 houses, the maximum number in instructions in which case on the the site of the shop, a workmen’s club might be built. All houses have 18ft. frontage, and each plit a depth of 75ft. Three plans of houses were submitted containing respectively, four, five, and six rooms each, with sculleries, pantries, coats stores, and closets. The estimated cost of houses, ornamental grounds, roads, and drainage was 21,230.”