Re: Re: ‘Dutch Billys’

@Devin wrote:

. . . . Ok well the Newmarket house has what appears to be an early 19th century enlargement of its second floor window, in a facade with a single-gable formation of windows.

I’m not that clear as to where the links are. Maybe you could enlighten me?

You’re some tulip, I’ll give you that:)

Are we looking at the same pictures?

. . . . . whatever the Newmarket house had, it wasn’t a single gable. There is no way you can credibly reconstruct a single gable on that house, without throwing out all the evidence from the roof, which from the angle of pitch, the small module size of the slates and the general appearance of wear and tear, is perfectly consistent with a very early 18th century date.

As for Barker, this is one of the smallest house types he’s depicted, which again is perfectly consistent with it’s more marginal location, there’s no justification for claiming that it’s some kind of Mill Street mansion that he’s just forgotted to draw more windows on.

That College Green hybrid that you keep rattling on about, as though it’s multi-gabled-mess in some way diminishes the whole tradition, has almost nothing to do with the ‘Billy’ tradition proper. Some part-time Dublin plumber, with a filthy Hiace cart, tarted up the triangular gabled dormers of a mid 17th century terrace with half-assed pediments in a vague imitation of the proper Dutch Billys being erected all around, that’s all that we’re looking at here.

Tudor’s 1750s view with the 17th century terrace beyond the terrace of 4 uniform Billys on the right.

Wheatley’s painting of 1782? looking the other way showing a part of the 17th century terrace made-over with dog-rough Billy profiles.

A similar view of the same period with a slightly different interpretation of the gable profiles.

A head-on view of the Georgian 5 bay that replaced two of the original 4 uniform Billys in the Tudor image.

I would interpret Barker’s depiction of triangular twin gables as a kind of short-hand for twin curvilinear gables, I don’t think anyone is suggesting that triangular twin gables were current in the streetscapes of Dublin in the 1760s, or probably ever, for that matter.

another slightly out of focus detail of Barker’s map showing twin gabled houses.