George Boole’s House, Grenville Place

i saw it briefly today from the mercy side.
i didnt hear about the internal damage
there was a small amount of plaster on the road from the gable on the right hand side of that photograph.
i couldnt see it from the front to see if any plaster had fallen from the front.
i didn’t see any slates on the ground either, so hopefully the roof is ok

it is quite close to the collapsed (and still unrepaired) quay wall.
potential for legal proceedings against the city council? though i fail to see a direct link myself

tried unsuccessfully to upload a photo from today
there appears to be little external damage, but i heard today that the building was to be demolished today. the damaged area is basically the part of the front aspect covered by the tree leaves in the OP photo
however the demolision did not proceed today.
i’ll try to upload a photo again later

Images of Boole’s House taken on Thursday (via http://www.brianclayton.ie)

rofbp: How certain are you that demolition is due to happen? Reliable source?
If this is demolished it will be (yet another) sad day for Cork and it’s history. Shame, shame, shame!

well, i work in the area, and management forwarded around an email on thursday evening saying that st. vincent’s bridge would be closed until the building was demolished and it said friday was the day it would happen. (so my info was second hand, but i would have thought we would have to have authoritative information on any road closures)

obviously, it hasn’t yet. i had a look on friday evening and to be honest, i couldn’t see any big cracks or big areas of movement on the outside. the damage looked pretty superficial, as you can see in the pics above ( i still can’t attach mine for some reason!).

however, i can’t speak about the inside or the rear.
hopefully the information i was given was incorrect

Thanks for the info. rofbp. Like you, I hope that information is incorrect.
More pics of the building as it stands this morning:
http://on.fb.me/csm5Hx

On a recent visit to Cork, I stumbled upon this house and was initially shocked and then when I saw the plaque declaring that George Boole had lived there, I was doubly shocked! Just thought I would add this photo for good measure of the various bits of rubbish in the small garden at the front.

Oh, I can’t actually get the photo to attach…

Almost certainly there is no reason why a house in this state requires demolition. I would imagine the road closure simply sparked such rumours – the reality more likely being the Council’s Dangerous Buildings Section moving in to carry out consolodation works.

A fabulous house, as with the wider terrace. As far as I remember being told at the time, the timber floors and joists of the ground floors of these houses were badly damaged during last winter’s flooding.

:mad:An absolute disgrace that city council allowed such a historic house to get to this stage.
Why is Cork City Council so afraid to use their considerable powers under the Derelict Site Act in cases such as this?

article on this in today’s IT – can’t post a copy though sorry

@wearnicehats wrote:

article on this in today’s IT – can’t post a copy though sorry

Here you go..

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/1028/1224282143684.html

unfortunately the demolition has started.
parts of the roof has been removed
a large crane is in situ on the quay
the pedestrian bridge has reopened
more photos in next post

sad day

From people’s experience, does this look like a precursor to complete demolition or are they just making safe the roof to secure the rest of the building?

More pictures from today:

photos from http://www.communicatescience.eu

:mad:Absolutely disgraceful; the former city manager and the 31 councillors in the city should hang their heads in shame.

Hopefully these works are simply about making the building safe, though the past doesnt instill much confidence. This has to be one of the cities most significant array of georgian buildings. Maybe , seeing as the authorities appear to take little interest in our decaying built heritage, the new UCC school of architecture should be highlighting the plight of the cities built heritage. The city car park saga is particularly infuriating , I am venting now so I shall stop.

:mad::mad: 😡 I hope that we do not end up seeing the demolition of this building. It is one of my favourite buildings of this period in the city. The whole terrace has a unique form, which is a pleasure to look at. It addresses the bend of the river really well, and it would leave a gapping hole in the streetscape of this area if removed.

It would be an absolute shame if this is demolished without all possible efforts taken to preserve it!

Speaking of the Citi Car Park, I should imagine this site would suffer a similar fate if it were demolished today. Nobody would construct a new building on a site such as this in a desolate market, right next to an open quay wall! It just doesn’t add up (maths joke :o)

more roof removed today i think.
hopefully radioactiveman, the second part of your question comes true and they are just removing the roof to allow stabilisation work

Roof seems to have been removed from one ‘wing’ of this house. Two of the top floors of this wing seems to have collapsed. Building still fenced off and cherrypickers still in place. NIce slide show of images from today here.

Also, just noticed, that if you compare the image by rofbp above to images in the slideshow, it seems that the ceiling of the 2nd floor seems to have collapsed/been demolished after the roof was taken off.

Does anyone know who owns or is responsible for this building?

And does anyone know why there is is such ignorance towards the architectural heritage in Cork? Mount Vernon, Winthrop arcade now this… So sad.

@PTB wrote:

Does anyone know who owns or is responsible for this building?

And does anyone know why there is is such ignorance towards the architectural heritage in Cork? Mount Vernon, Winthrop arcade now this… So sad.

I does not matter who the owner is. It is the responsibility of a local authority to ensure that any site or building within their functional area does not become (or continue to be) derelict.

And the definition of a derelict site is very clear in the Act;

..a derelict area means any land (in this section derelict site. referred to as “the land in question”) which detracts, or is likely to detract, to a material degree from the amenity, character or appearance of land in the neighbourhood of the land in question because of;
( b ) the neglected, unsightly or objectionable condition of the land or any structures on the land in question

Petition now established to show support for saving this house:
Visit here and sign

Close to 700 names at the moment.

passed it yesterday, entire roof was gone and it looked like the inside was totally fooked too

Currently builders have cleared the inside of No. 5 Grenville place, and are making the building safe for construction. The remaining rot from the inside was taken out by crane from the top of the building. A Health and Safety Approved Form AF2 is on display at the site.

Thanks for the updated pictures Ping Pong.
Anybody have more plans on what the plans are here?

I got in touch with the city council and they notified me that Contractors have been appointed to clear out the debris from the collapsed section, and to insert an internal steel frame to tie the walls back to and to support a new slate roof. This steel frame can then be used to support new floors / stairs etc once a new use has been decided for the building.

Thanks PingPong.

Tried CCC during the week and didn’t get anywhere with them. Are they in control of the building? Or are the owners dealing with the building work now going on?

According to the AF2 Cork City Council are the clients, so they would be dealing with the building work. The city council are also looking for funding for the building and its new use.

Thanks PingPong. City Hall had no idea what I was talking about when I contacted them earlier in the week!

Any further news on this? What’s the status of the house now, has it been weatherproofed?

Latest news on this:
http://www.communicatescience.eu/2011/04/boole-update.html

Not much has changed since this information was posted.

[attachment=0:1srmz9ls]IMG_1902.jpg[/attachment:1srmz9ls]

This was taken today.
apologies that it isn’t zoomed in, but was taken on a phone. Bigger version was too big a file to upload
Shows rear of the building and the exposed roof

Pretty depressing

Now for sale as a site sadly – http://www.myhome.ie/residential/brochure/5-grenville-place-city-centre-sth-cork-city/1280575

http://www.communicatescience.eu/2012/02/for-sale-irelands-scientific-heritage.html?tw_p=twt