Great Strand Street

I vaguely remember it being mentioned on here before, possibly by GrahamH, and possibly in a discussion on steel windows. I’ve long had a soft spot for it, and always make a point of walking past it on the way to Capel Street, but I don’t know any details. Is the Kevin Kavanagh Gallery in it?

On the subject of Strand Street, the place is about to be turned upside-down for a long time to come by the ridiculous decision of Dublin Bus to propose a bus interchange on their vacant site there (the location is such a joke when you consider their route patterns- now, and into the future), and the ridiculous decision of DCC to grant it (the sole appeal was withdrawn; it’s now under construction), effectively destroying the possibility of providing a good, traffic-free (or traffic-suppressed) cycling and walking environment in the north inner city, away from the general vehicular traffic madness.

Nice work, everybody.

I’ve been in it once or twice in my courier days, had one or two rag trade tenants and a short lived Dublin indie music/fashion magazine called ‘D’ as far a s I remember c.1999/2000, seemed to be concrete built with very large floorplates. In fact it had the feeling of being originally a fabric/clothing manufacturing facility.

Re: the bus interchange idea, I don’t have a problem with it in principle but I doubt it will bring much relief to the City centre regarding parked buses taking up all the streetspace. I would say that dreadful accident of Welly Quay a few years back was a big influence in the decision to use that site as proposed. I remember CIE using it for years as an improvised depot when it was your standard, inner city vacant lot.

What number on the street is it?

I think it was a school for travellers

@phil wrote:

What number on the street is it?

The business address of Coral Fashions (see the banner in the photo) is 65 Great Strand Street, Dublin 1.

Thanks Ctesiphon. I had thought that the Architectural Archive’s new database might be of help, I suppose it all depends on how old the building is. I would guess late 40s/50s, but could be way off the mark. There is reference to a building from 1949 in the archive. Doesn’t give a street number though:

http://www.dia.ie/works/view/38701

Promising find. The date would be right, I’d wager.

Now, to inspect the remains of the oeuvre of WS Keatinge!

Passing this today, I noticed a date stone (slightly tricky to photograph). You can see it in Paul’s photo above, on the right hand edge at ground/first floor string course level.

(1950)

No corresponding architect’s name plaque, alas.

holy year 1950? that plaque doesn’t look nearly 60 years old to me – new addition?

http://www.dublincity.ie/swiftlg/apas/run/WPHAPPDETAIL.DisplayUrl?theApnID=2357/98&backURL=Search%20Criteria%20>%20<a%20href='wphappsearchres.displayResultsURL?ResultID=1147707%26StartIndex=1%26SortOrder=APNID:asc%26DispResultsAs=WPHAPPSEARCHRES%26BackURL=Search%20Criteria‘>Search%20Results

planning application in 1998 for change of use from warehouse to “christian meeting place” – might explain the plaque

I wondered about that- though the stone doesn’t seem quite so pristine from another angle. And it looks pretty well integrated into the brickwork, which might suggest it’s original to the building. (Most date stones added later tend to show the scars of insertion a bit more than this one, in my experience.)

Also, what was so ‘sanctus’ about MCML? Not the Eucharistic Congress; not the Marian Year; not the Pope’s visit; therefore, what?

Edit: interesting find re the change of use. More uncertain now than I was before…

From Time Magazine June 1949

Pope Pius XII’s step was springy and he mounted his throne with more than usual vigor. To thin, 87-year-old Msgr. Alfonso Carinci, Deacon of Protonotaries, he handed a brilliantly illuminated parchment manuscript—the papal bull* which proclaimed 1950 a Holy Year of pilgrimage to Rome. Then, with his face almost constantly lighted by smiles, he spoke to the mauve-robed Apostolic Protonotaries assembled before him, in the most optimistic terms he had used since before war’s end.

“Let our humble thanks go to divine Providence, which, after formidable events which shattered the earth during the second world conflict and in postwar years, has granted humanity some improvement in general conditions.”

Thus in Rome last week, the Holy Year of 1950 was officially proclaimed. The tradition is 650 years old. Originally planned to take place every 100 years, the intervals were shortened first to 50, finally to 25 years—though popes may declare a special Holy Year at any time, as Pius XI did in 1933 to commemorate the 1900th anniversary of the Crucifixion

Learn something new every day – this downturn’s great

Keatinge was also an architect for the Church of Ireland around 1950

I think further clues to as to who the architect of this building is might be found in an examination of some of the other buildings listed as being by WS Keatinge on the Architectural Archive webpage, with particular note being made of stylistic similarities (ie, surviving buildings of a similar age, and listed as being by same architect)

http://www.dia.ie/architects/view/2913#tab_works

Well I took a spin just now to have a look at 289 Harold’s Cross Road (had to go out anyway for milk), and the 1952 Garage as listed on the IAA site isn’t exactly a motor showroom- it’s a domestic garage in a back garden, I think. 289 is on the corner of Harold’s Cross Road and Brighton Square, and is a pretty standard three-bay, two-storey redbrick affair with a ground floor shopfront, with a single-storey garage occupying over half of the garden. Looking at the aerial photo now, it appears the garage might be entered from Brighton Avenue? I didn’t spot this in the dark and drizzle. Perhaps it has a ‘front’?

Stylistic similarities? Hard to tell, though there were some small square windows below the eaves… 😉

http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&FORM=LMLTCP&cp=swkhfdgg8zt7&style=b&lvl=2&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&scene=29510882&phx=0&phy=0&phscl=1&encType=1

Then again, could it be the boarded up brick building to the north (Nos. 285-287?)…? Unlikely, I think.

Okay, who’s next?