Re: Re: ‘Dutch Billys’

This is a detail from Jonathan Barker’s map of the proposed development of Merrion Square and Fitzwilliam Street.

apologies for fuzzy image, but gunter gets excited at times like this

It’s a graphic representation of the west side of Upper Merrion Street, rather than a literal representation, but the interesting thing is that, a substantial part of Upper Merrion Street had been developed by this time, as depicted on another Barker document, the Pemproke Estate Map of 1764. and therefore the depiction of a sprinkling of ‘Billys’ in the streetscape may not be as fanciful as it first appears.

extract from the pembroke Estate Map of 1764, by Jonathan Barker

For a start, a 1904 photograph of the same streetscape just before it was demolished for the building of what is now Government Buildings, reveals at least one house [no. 2, second from left] with a suspiciously ‘Billy’ looking window arangement on it’s upper floors.

Barker produced two versions of the Merrion Square map and the second version, re-published in McColllough’s ‘Urban History of Dublin’, has all the fabulous ‘Billys’ that he had earlier liberally sprinkled throughout the prospective new streetscapes of the future Merrion Square and Fitzwilliam Street expunged, possibly hastilly and under orders from a distressed, up-to date-with-the-Georgian-style conscious client.

Still, images of a Merrion Square with Dutch Billys has gunter’s Christmas card problem sorted out.:)

Devin might take note of the existence of twin gabled houses in the mix.