Re: Re: Thomas Street & James Street, Dublin!

It’s official then, ”Thomas Street is special”, announces Shane O’Toole!

. . . and people doubted gunter 😡

There’s a snippet of a view of no. 31 Thomas street (the 1960s Gilna premises) in this RSAI photograph (published in the new version of McCullough) showing window proportions that more closely match it’s neighbour no. 32 on the east, rather than no. 30 on the west.

No. 30 Thomas Street is, almost certainly, a standard ‘Dutch Billy’, based on the evidence of the steeply pitched cruciform roof, the evidence of the surviving rear gable and characteristic rear return, and on the implied internal layout with corner fireplaces. No. 32 is the probable ‘twin Billy’ based on the same general characteristics, but with a twin axial roof structure in place of the cruciform roof at no. 30.

I’ve always been tempted to speculate that no. 31 was a pair to no. 32, but there’s a grainy 1950s aerial photograph that appears to show the house with a single axial roof volume (possible cruciform) more like no. 30.

It’s hard to make out, but I think the first three houses after St. Catherine’s Church have simple, single
volume, hipped roofs to the street before the lower twin volume of no. 32 can be made out (sort of).

Actually, based on the fact that neither neighbour has a chimney stack located on the party wall with no. 31, it’s unlikely that no. 31 was a mirror image of either neighbour and it’s more likely that it was always a separate structure, probably a standard ‘Billy’ similar to no. 30.

In the glimpse we have, there is some severe settlement of the window heads and cracking in the brickwork evident, which would go towards explaining why no. 31 was subsequently knocked down.

At least we know that no. 31 ended up with a similar facade and parapet level to the adjoining structures and that the brickwork to no. 30 was in pretty good condition around 1900. Remember that no. 30 has been vacant for about a year now and is shown in the Frawleys planning application documents to be in the ownership of Liam Carroll/Danninger Ltd.