‘Dutch Billys’

Thanks for that (and I don’t recall talking about coffee outlets :confused:)

We have of course the most famous former Dutch Billies in the city, on St. Stephen’s Green south.

They couldn’t have made it more obvious if they tried really, could they? The 1750’s equivalent of sticking a fibreglass portico onto your Corpo house.

The attic storey clearly refaced yet again at a later date.

And their delightful Dublin merchant doorcases.

And next door – in this case it’s possible the attic storey is an entirely new storey, in spite of the clustered windows.

And half way down the Green, Georgian London makes a fleeting visit to Dublin.

Suspicious goings-on here. Also note the trademark enormous (partially crudely rebuilt) shared chimney stack which literally holds the buildings up.

Something very odd with this one too – anyone care to hazard a theory?

Its development looks upside down. I suspect this is an early parapeted house, c. 1740, built with many windows across the facade originally. Then it was modernised to the lower facade later in the 18th century and the brick unified across all floors, thus leaving the old-fashioned fenestration stranded above in an otherwise late Georgian elevation…

Yes, Graham, great shots of these delightful houses. Just to the left you can see the polychrome brick entrance to the University Church – incongruent, but magnificently so. But that bellcote! Just stuck between the two gables and quietly oxydising away; an interesting rebuild project.

I’ve been waiting for CologneMike to post this photograph of ‘Dutch Billys’ in Limerick, which was published in ‘Historic Limerick’ by Laurence Walsh in 1984, (a booklet that he clearly has), but since CologneMike is in denial of Limerick’s ‘Dutch Billy’ past, I”ll post it up myself.

Together with other glimpses of ‘Dutch Billys’ in paintings and prints of Limerick, the photograph shows how thoroughly the curvilinear gabled architectural movement had penetrated the urban areas of Ireland by the first half of the 18th century. I’m trying to trace a similar photograph, or possibly a print, that I saw once of a terrace of gabled houses in Belfast, which was described in a caption as ‘Dublin style houses’.

@newgrange wrote:

Anyone any opinions on the two Parnell Street buildings with single windows on the top floor?
Apologies for the ubiquitous buses.

I think you’re right about the Parnell St. pair.

There isn’t a good vantage point to get a clear shot at the rear, but the stairs/return arrangement and the slightly arched window heads are consistent with gabled houses.

Rocque’s map shows these two as having right hand returns, but they actually have a central ‘paired’ return. The massive central chimney stack is a good indicator that the pair belong to the gabled tradition.

The most facinating thing about this pair though, is the three roofs. Peter Walsh has a note in his ‘Liberties of Dublin’ Dutch Billys in the Liberties article to the effect that there was an ‘ . . example where three gables spanned two houses . . . in Bishop Street’. I can’t find any pictures of the Bishop Street example, but I think this could be another example here on Parnell Street.

The Parnell Street houses are not in great condition, and it’s really important that they get surveyed in detail before anything bad happens to them. If we’re right about these houses being another variation in the ‘Dutch Billy’ repertoire, it shows again, not only how widespread these houses were in Dublin, by the middle of the 18th century, but also, the degree to which the architectural language had developed, either to resolve issues that had emerged, like the troublesome shared valley gutter situation, or just to intensify the rhythm of the gables on the street frontage.

If this was, in fact, a pair of houses designed to form a triple gabled composition, it’s probable that the single windows on the upper floors were more closely lined up with the left and right roof volumes and that some kind of blind window , or panel, was inserted in the central gable. Around this time, or slightly later, something similar was being done with the pair of classical ‘Georgian’ houses on Stephen’s Green, near the College of Surgeons.

On Hendrick St. I thought I had posed up this recent pic of the last surviving gabled house (less it’s gable) on Hendrick Street for comparison with the 1980s sketch, a couple of days ago, but, since it didn’t stick, here it is again.

In slightly better condition, but this time altered almost beyond recognition by our 18th and 19th century predecessors, are these three, former ‘Billys’ on the east side of Stephen’s Green, near the Merrion Row corner.

At a guess, I think the cute one with the doll’s house door may have been a twin gabled composition, with the Victorian dormers replacing the original gable windows. The frilly plaster window surrounds are another example of the Victorians not being able to keep their grubby hands off other peoples’ buildings. The interior seems to be pretty intact, as was mentioned earlier in this thread.

One of the well informed and intrepid posters on here should go down and check out No. 38 Fenian Street. It’s beside the gingerman pub. I have been intrigued by this building since this thread got a new lease of life

That was a house? It looks like some sentinel from McCaig’s Tower in Oban. 🙂

Where is it in Kerry? I might be down Tralee way this weekend.

tommyt- I have plans re your request. Pray the rain keeps off.

cheers gunter- much obliged for the info. ‘Marita’s’ house I hope will retain some layout features at the very least. IIRC when you went into the shop for a sandwich the ground floor was laid out on 2 levels behind the counter from what you could make out. I can’t recall the story behind Cumberland House from ‘The Destruction of Dublin’ but the usual shenanigans went on when it was constructed that I would presume lost buildings of a similar calibre on the streetscape.
Coincedently I got the complete Rocque 1756 Map on 4 x A2 sheets the other day , I look forward to finally going over it in proper detail…

@tommyt wrote:

Coincedently I got the complete Rocque 1756 Map on 4 x A2 sheets the other day , I look forward to finally going over it in proper detail…

Are they printed on olde worlde yellow paper? I love those maps, they are a total treasure trove. I’ve lost my south-west sheet, it must have gotten rolled up with something else, I expect it’ll turn up some day.

Here’s that photograph of 10 Mill Street!

I am totally indebted to a local resident, Michael Kavanagh, for finally turning this up. This will cost gunter many pints of Guinness over the years.

Given that Waterford’s quay still has a huge amount of old buildings standing, it’s likely that some of those gabled houses still exist behind later alterations, as you get in Dublin, eh?

Back to Dublin for a minute.

Cheers for putting up the 10 Mill St photo, gunter. See what you mean about the quality, though!!

@gunter wrote:

… the one surviving house on Hendrick Street, which lost it’s gable a long time ago, and which had a real butcher job done on it around 1990 when a developer (possibly Zoe) absorbed it into an apartment scheme.

A drawing from the mid 80s shows the same last house on Hendrick Street (looking towards Haymarket with St Michan’s tower in the background) with original flush window frames and something odd going on with the entrance door, all of which were dumped or mutilated in the renovation. Back in the 1990s this probably counted as a ‘conservation gain’,

On the subject of Hendrick Street, this proposed development lodged in December for the adjoining site to the east got a right drubbing of a refusal in February: <a href="http://195.218.114.214/swiftlg/apas/run/WPHAPPDETAIL.DisplayUrl?theApnID=6660/07&theTabNo=2&backURL=Search%20Criteria%20>%20Ref. 6660/07

Around the corner in Queen Street, this building (arrow) is another early ‘suspect’.