Interesting Photo Archive by DCC Libraries

Yep – very interesting
Co-incidentally was just looking at my father’s photos from the aftermath of the Monaghan bombing from the same day in 1974

http://dublincitypubliclibraries.com/image-galleries/digital-collections/vanishing-dublin

It’d make you sick the amount of damage that has been done to this city since Independance.

@Morlan wrote:

http://dublincitypubliclibraries.com/image-galleries/digital-collections/vanishing-dublin

It’d make you sick the amount of damage that has been done to this city since Independance.

Sure what is to be expected, we have been led by jingoistic gombeen men who think cities and culture are an British invention. When I walk around here Cambridge I see a very well planned and managed city, lots of Georgian and Regency residential stock, and not a PVC in sight. Everything is enforced as it should be. I just wonder what Dublin would be like if British planners were still in charge?

At least one building has improved:

Those pictures – to me anyway – act as a counterpoint to pure nostalgia. The levels of dereliction evident in many of those photos muddy the notion that we once had a perfect city that we insisted on tearing down.

There is another great addition to the digital photo archive on Dublin City Councils public libraries website – Dublin Pubs. There are some great photos here showing some pubs that will remind you of how Dublin used to be pre Celtic tiger. No skinny lattes on offer here. I was in a fair few myself and they were as grim looking as I remember.

Well done Dublin Public Libraries. More please.

http://dublincitypubliclibraries.com/dublin-pubs

“Good puzzle would be cross Dublin without passing a pub”
James Joyce, Ulysses

This gallery consists of images of Public Houses from the Dublin City Photographic Collection. Some of these pubs are still open for business but most have vanished from our streets. It is hoped that these images will serve as ‘memory triggers’ for those Dubliners who frequented them, passed them by, or avoided them.

Some that jump out at me

Coleraine Street, North King Street

Henry Street

Queen Street

Ellis Quay

A few more….

Essex Street

Ormonde Street

One of my favourites

North King Street again

Golden Lane

Aungier Street

this is sad – same car in both shots

Yet more fantastic images in three new galleries:

http://dublincitypubliclibraries.com/image-galleries/digital-collections/commercial-dublin
http://dublincitypubliclibraries.com/image-galleries/digital-collections/derelict-dublin-1913
http://dublincitypubliclibraries.com/image-galleries/digital-collections/dublin-shops-and-shopping

Almost 400 pictures in total, well done to all concerned!

@ollaetta wrote:

Yet more fantastic images in three new galleries:

These images continue to delight, but it is a bit shocking not to be able to identify some of the locations, like this entire streetscape seen in two directions:

Any idea what street this is? It’s a very narrow street, the low Victorian[?] building at the end should be a clue, but I’m guessing nothing of this streetscape survives.

Hey Gang!

Ollaetta, thanks for posting those links, the pictures are amazing. It was strange and wonderful to see the Long Mile Road as a two lane backwater with no footpaths!

There were some interesting pics, including a supermarket called “Five Star” , my mam said they used to have a good few stores. Obviously, they went the same way as H.Williams. Anybody know what happened to 5 Star? Did the close or get taken over?

Paul thanks for singling out the pictures of the pubs, I remember a few of them to a greater or lesser extenct. Gaffneys in particular was there up to just a few years ago.

When I was perusing the album of retail establishments I was surprised not to find a photo of Seezers. This name appears in two books of mine, one was a book of water colours and shows a shop on Thomas Street I believe. The other is a pictoral of the Cork Street area. Aparently they uased to have distinctive tiled shopfronts. Having popped up in two separate books I assumed they might be included.

C

@gunter wrote:

@ollaetta wrote:

Yet more fantastic images in three new galleries:

These images continue to delight, but it is a bit shocking not to be able to identify some of the locations, like this entire streetscape seen in two directions:

Any idea what street this is? It’s a very narrow street, the low Victorian[?] building at the end should be a clue, but I’m guessing nothing of this streetscape survives.

Gunther, I could be wrong, but a very similar pic appears in Pearsons Central Dublin. It does remind me though of the buildings in York Street.

I don’t think it could be York Street, there is quite a lot of stepping forward and back in the line of the facades and just looking at the maps, there only ever seemed to be one step in the York Street frontage.

I think we have a good old fashioned Archiseek challenge on our hands.

they were derelict in 1913 so long gone I’d say

A fantastic collection of photographs as ever!

Aside from the obvious social interest, I think what these images really highlight is just how little evidence we actually have left of the remarkable variety of building typologies Dublin once had. The city’s vast pre-Georgian and early Georgian building stock has nearly been obliterated – quite an extraordinary achievement. Likewise, even many of the curious early 19th century house typologies of the likes of Clanbrassil Street and Parnell Street have not survived a much shorter time span. The tiny fraction of streetscapes that can be confidently described as ‘intact’ today is also nothing short of shocking.

In many ways, what we have left in the city – though no doubting still very extensive – is the tip of the iceberg of the stunning variety and diversity of houses we had only 50 years ago. One could almost describe our surviving building stock as all but a sanitised, selective and misleading representation of the historic city of Dublin.

It’s funny gunter posted the above photographs – they’re exactly the ones that had my head in a spin. The scale, design and detailing of the houses would suggest the early years of the Gardiner development – perhaps the northern half of Marlborough Street or Mecklenburgh Street just off it? (but presumably the latter was a post-1760 development, in which case some of the houses in shot would be too old)

haha Gunther, I said it reminded me of York Street! In other words it was clearly fair to middling in terms of its grandeur which would suggest a secondary location. I flicked through “The Heart of Dublin” but didn’t find the pic. I think I was confusing it with various photos from areas such as Longfod St and the North Inner City.

Graham H I couldn’t agree more it is really shocking how much has been lost. Very often it seems they were demolished just for the sake of it. In several European countries although older building reached a nadir from the 1930s-1980s they weren’t just buldozed aside. Meaning that although they were in poor condition the were still around to be restored. The Joordaan district in Amsterdam being a good example. It appears that although there were some losses to slum clearance in the early years of the 20th Century, alot of the fabric of Georgian/pre-Georgian Dublin survived until at least the 1960s. Ironically, if it had held on just a little longer say until the late 1980s/early 1990s it probably would have been restored to a large degree.

C