Re: Re: well what about the developments popping up in the shannonside ?
105 Henry Street
The refurbishment of Lord Limerick’s:rolleyes: House by Murray O Laoire actually won a European conservation award back in 1987!
This project involved the renovation and extension of a Georgian Town House in Henry Street, Limerick, for commercial uses comprising offices and an Art Gallery / Restaurant. The building is of singular architectural importance in the context of Limerick and had been derelict for a number of years.
At the time, the development demonstrated the viability of conserving derelict period buildings in a city with severe problems of Urban decay.
The project received the prestigious Europa Nostra Award for Conservation and Restoration in 1987.
During the 1780’s Edmund Sexton Pery, speaker of the Irish House of Commons, and raised to the peerage as Viscount Pery, built two splendid houses on this elevated site commanding a grand panoramic view of Cratloe Woods and the Clare Hills – one house for his own family and one for his brother, William Cecil, who had been consecrated Bishop of Limerick in 1784. In 1874, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, the Duke of Rutland, during his visit to Limerick, was entertained at the house and stayed over at the Palace next door. However, following the pomp and splendour of the first half of the 19th Century, Lord Limerick’s beautiful mansion was turned into a linen store by the Russell Family who had their spinning and weaving mill right across the river at Lansdowne shipyard.
The house then became the Headquarters of the Diocesan Seminary, better known as St. Munchins College. It became vacant again nearly 50 years ago when the college moved back to its old parish, and since then its structural decline was kept in tune with the lack of interest in its preservation.
MOLA were comissioned in 1985 to totally refurbish the building. The works included total refurbishment / renovation of the house and the addition of a second bowed return.
Attached are some retro pics from the 1980s! Unfortunately the area in front of the building is still being used as a surface car park!:(
