General Post Office design concept

Dr Bartholomew Mosse, who instigated the building of the hospital needed as much money as he could get his hands on, and so Richard Cassel’s design for Leinster House (1745-8) was pretty much churned out again for the Rotunda (1750s) at a significantly lower price.

The pleasure gardens to the rear and of course the public function rooms (now the Ambassodor & Gate theatre) provided much needed funds to help keep the hospital afloat, & to reduce the initial cost of it’s construction.

I never saw that elevation before either. More than likely the cupola proved too expensive, like the Blue Coat School. The Catholic Church wanted to build their national cathedral on the site at the same time as the GPO, but it was considered too daring as the penal laws, although significantly relaxed by this time (1810s), still had clout.

I love the portico of the GPO, possibly above all of Dublin’s classical buildings. It has such strength, yet is beautifully adorned with an exquisite frieze, ‘flutes’ on the columns and vigourously carved ionic capitals. Johnston’s buildings all have a very solid, ‘masculine’ as they say, appearance to them, including his country house designs.

Just discovered that Cassells was a personal friend of Mosse, and that in fact, donated the design of the Rotunda to him free of charge, which certainly explains its similarity to Leinster House. Cassells really only tweaked the order of the portico and a couple of other minor changes. The curved colonades to either side of the building are derived from his most famed country house, Russbourgh.

There were grandiose plans too for the Custom House and it’s environs …..I remember seeing a sketch of it. Alas it all was’nt built.

I quite like the cupola although I think it looks a little too large for the building… or badly proportioned.

That GPO design with the cupola however would have looked more imposing on the street. Pity it was’nt built.

I agree that most of his designs are quite cumbersome, but the portico of the GPO, even looking at the pic in the first post, is much ‘truer’ to the porticos of Ancient Greece & Rome, and I think it is one of the few of Johnston’s buildings that work well.

Not all Gandon’s designs are up to scratch either, although mostly neoclassical, some esp
the Kings Inns have a destinct ‘watery’ aspect to them, a lack of features and depth. His preference for niches over windows didn’t help, creating ‘blind’ or blank facades.

I wonder if the cupola had been built would it have survived the 1916 bombing??

Nope, only the front facade remained, the entire interior of the building, decoratively and structurally was utterly destroyed.

An 18th century window can never be overated! Ever!

Oh niggle niggle niggle!

(Anyway, I was referring to Gandon’s bldgs)

The GPO could do with a good scrub, when was it last cleaned, the late 80s or something? The carved detail is particularly manky. And were the windows originally stained like the present? If not, painting them white would greatly brighten up the building.

The 3 most prominent buildings in Dublin alas were all gutted and destoyed in our troublesome past. They being the Custom House, the GPO, and the Four Courts. What one sees today is only a copy of what was once there before. There is an over emphasis on these buildings too today, considering that they are only a shell to a degree…..stunting the development of the Dublin of the future (re the Spire debacle, the loopline bridge view debacle etc……..)
These buildings should be fully restored however….instead of living an anachronistic lie.

True, confounded by the fact that the dome of City Hall is the only surviving 18th century copper dome in the city.

I suppose its a question of use as well… the GPO, Custom House and Courts have all been altered internally to suit their modern (mainly office) purpose. To restore them might look great but might not be of any use to their tenants. A perfect example is the City Hall, the restored foyer looks stunning but has yet to gain a useful purpose – civil weddings would be my suggestion.

The inside of a building is as important as the outside…..else we’ll just have superficial wallpaper. In secondary buildings and less important buildings I suppose it’s ok but in premiere buildings ….the jewels that we fanfare and hark on about as being genuine intact artifacts of our past well then that’s a lie.
The Reichstag in Germany got a new lease of life with Fosters makeover, the Germans reflect on it’s once magnificent Baroque interior and historical past I’m sure, but I’m sure too that they treat it now as a modern addition to Berlin life in the context of today and not treating it as an intact antique manifestation.

Yes. To be fair though, the interior of the Custom House, although not original, is very impressive, executed in a sophisticated Edwardian/Art Deco/Arts & Crafts style (if it can be all that) and works very well. (& Four Courts)

With regard to the manner in which these, essentially shells are flaunted as the originals etc, the reality is that nobody in this country actually visits them anyway, only appriciating their exteriors regardless of their interiors, which is a shame, esp when we have the real thing in many other structures in the form of City Hall etc.

It is one of Dublin’s greatest loss, that of the interior of the Custom House, esp the private apartments of the then Commissioner, which were regarded as amongst the most sumptuous in Europe, all records of which are utterly lost. (the surviving interior is very beautiful, & is worth a visit)

I have to say too however that City Hall looks great and they did a great rejuvenation job on it.

On the subject of shells, does anyone know whats happening to the Kildare Street Club thats recently been shrouded in scaffolding?
A good cleaning I hope…