Re: Re: ‘Dutch Billys’

What a fantastic thread this has become. And Gunter – what fantastic detective and reconstruction work on those photos from Thomas Street.

Thomas Street is a fantastic street – how more fantastic it would become if these two Dutch Billys were restored – or at the very least the one on the right which is very easy to imagine as a Dutch Billy due to Gunter’s sketch. The street is an easy match for Dame Street, with more life.

I am fascinated by the Capel Street recent reconstruction. Of course the end result isn’t great – the brick work used looks like they will be able to weather into a good match for the rest of the building – but you do have to give marks for the effort. Also, a re-rendering of the badly matched reconstruction could easily right this.

I had no idea that Dutch Billys do still exist – though of course in just a handful of numbers compared to 50 years ago.

Does anyone have a scan of Marlboro Lane in the LIberties? The past buildings from that area do seem quite interesting. I’d love to know their history.

So, how could we campaign the developers of Thomas Street for the reinstatement of these buildings? I hate the obvious retentions – of course you’d keep the old library – but its all the building on that part of Thomas Street that makes the street. Why can’t people realise that? Do the planners and developers ever visit Europe? Or what do they think when they see cities such as previously mentioned Gdansk – just a waste when they could have 20 storey glass boxes instead of heritage vernacular architecture?