1931 – Wiggins Teape, East Wall Road, Dublin

The architect was John Stevenson (1890-1950) of Samuel Stevenson & Sons, Belfast. Originally built in 1931 for the Gallaher Tobacco Company, for whom the architectural firm had worked in Belfast. It was originally named Virginia House, but the changing economic conditions of the 1930s meant a transfer of ownership to Fry-Cadbury, who renamed it Alexanda House. The building was acquired by Wiggins Teape in 1965 and renamed Gateway House.

The facade to East Wall Road included one of the earliest known uses in Ireland of reconstituted stone. Stevenson was comfortable in working with classical architecture, and this shows in his handling of the facade in the massing, composition and detail.

In 2001 Gateway house was demolished in controversial circumstances. In 2000, Dublin Corporation had given Collen Group the go-ahead to redevelop the site for offices with the exception of the central portico. After an appeal, An Bord Pleanála agreed that the factory was of architectural and historical significance and thus should be retained. Just three days after An Bord Pleanála’s ruling, bulldozers destroyed the building early one morning.