Re: Re: ‘Dutch Billys’

@cravings wrote:

i read this whole thread a while ago.

. . . they make you do community service?

@cravings wrote:

. . . . . is that corner chimney visible in the derelict house in line with what’s been described in this thread?

Absolutely right there cravings, corner chimneys are synonymous with Dutch Billys, however, they emerged as a feature slightly before the true ‘Billy’ period [in the 1660s] and they also outlasted the movement by another twenty or so years. Where we find corner fireplaces being built later in the 18th century, I think we’re entitly to regard these house as a separate ‘transitional’ category, distinct from both the ‘Billy’ and the ‘Georgian’ traditions.

The construction of ‘transitional’ houses in the 1770s and 80s is strongly suggestive that many of the builder/developers operating in the city at this time were men schooled in the ‘Billy’ tradition who simply chose to adapt their existing building practices to conform to emerging ‘Georgian’ taste, by omitting the gables from the familiar design package. Eventually as we know, everyone adopted ‘Georgian’ building practices, but this process may not have been complete until the 1790s.

This is an example of a ‘transitional’ house not far from the Bleeding Horse, on the Ranelagh Road which has the corner firplaces and steeply pitched, axial, roof of the ‘Billy’ tradition, but the flat parapet and general outward appearance of the ‘Georgian’ tradition.

There’s actually a whole series of houses in the Ranelagh area that exhibit these ‘transitional’ features and I’d even have suspicions that some of them may be actual altered ‘Billys’, but you’d have people questioning your sanity if you were to come out and say stuff like that.

@StephenC wrote:

Interestingly the new Draft Dublin Development Plan for Dublin makes reference to the Dutch Billies with a new proposed objective:

This is potentially a huge breakthrough 🙂