1957 – Proposal for St. Laurence’s Hospital, Cabra, Dublin

Designed as a replacement for the North Brunswick Street hospitals – the Richmond, Whitworth, and Hardwicke Hospitals on a new site on the Navan Road. An Oireachtas Act in 1943 cleared the way for the plan to proceed in theory, and a land acquisition order was made in 1945, but the development of the hospital was still being discussed in Dáil Éireann in 1969. Several designs were developed over a number of years by Alan Hope between 1952 and 1957, but ultimately the scheme was replaced by the Beaumont Hospital plan.

The land acquisition act described the site as “ALL THAT land at Cabra in the City of Dublin enclosed within a line commencing at the eastern point of the premises called Saint Laurence on the Navan Road and extending along the Navan Road and Old Cabra Road to the eastern fence of the field or paddock to the east of Cabra Cottage on Old Cabra Road, and south along the fence to the east of the said field or paddock, and thence west along the northern boundary of the premises on the north side of Caragh Road, and south across the western end of Caragh Road along the western boundary of the houses fronting thereon, and thence in the same direction to the corner of the boundary of the Exercise and Sports Ground in the possession of the Minister for Defence and thence west and south along the said boundary to Blackhorse Avenue, thence northwest along Blackhorse Avenue to the eastern boundary of the Military Cemetery on the said avenue, and thence north along the eastern boundary of the said Military Cemetery and northwest along the north-eastern boundary of the premises to the east of Slemish Road and thence north-east along the southern boundaries of the premises on Skreen Road and the premises called Saint Laurence and Saint Aidan’s to the starting point.”