O’ Connell Street, Dublin

Yes – lovely pictures Morlan, you manage to capture floodlighting very well which can be quite difficult.

The seahorse ones are original Victorians from around 1875-80ish, though their lanterns are later – probably early 20th century resulting from an electric conversion.

Fleet St is a repro.

South Anne St are repros (though possibly original bases from elsewhere)

St. Stephen’s Green are repros – dating from circa 2005 :); though their grand columns are very much so Victorian – they originally featured American-style kind of collegiate-like globes atop, not unlike the OPW lamps on Green East.

South King St – repros too. Though I think they look really magnificent. They were recently painted black and the central shamrock in the head painted gold – very unusual and they give the street a unique identity.

Ah the Bread Building – how did you never see that before weehamster?! It’s pictured in every first class history book in the ‘what your street looked like in 1900’ section, or on the ‘O’Connell St in days gone by’ page 🙂

What is the name of this street?
Do you recognise the building with the pillars in the centre of the street? What is it called? What flag is flying overhead?
Ask your parents about the pillar in the middle of the street. Is it still there today?
Write a short account of your visit to the street in 1900 😀

There’s two things that I find very interesting about the lampposts of O’Cll St.
One – that the swan-neck c1903 ones survived both 1916 and 1922 – extraordinary!
Presumably after 1922 is when the weird new black lamps were attached as some of the globes and fittings must have been blasted out of it – so the city overall was also done at the same time.

Secondly, the fact that contrary to what is perhaps common belief, O’Connell St never had grand Victorian lampposts! It was a very simple, basic affair with just the small columns.
The trademark tall silver columns all over the city were never erected by the Victorians here – quite startling considering they went up pretty much everywhere else, yet the main street was left out!

I’ve always wondered when most of these posts around the city date from – the 1870s? There’s never a word said in any books or articles as to their date – just the usual focus on their decoration, and loosely describing them as ’19th century’ etc.

The loss of the late 30s posts on College St is a disgrace. Whereas I’d support the installation of the (excellent) repro posts in areas where their effect is reinforced, and in places that they contribute to the image of the city such as around Christchurch etc as they have become such an institution, much more than just heritage pieces they’re now one of the foremost representations of the city – but to put them in in place of other historic pieces of street furniture is nothing short of a joke, whatever about the loss of the original fabric itself.
This small area of posts should have been consolidated rather than undermined 😡
A close eye will be kept on the remaining ones…

😀

That’s where I’d seen it before!

Here it is before and after 1916 as pictured in the IAP – it was literally the only building left standing out of that entire terrace:

By the time 1916 come along, the Hibernian Bank was already come into possession of the building – I think they used it as their HQ – wouldn’t you?!

Also just a pic below of O’Connell Monument at its most magnificent, without its railings, but surrounded by the four splendid lamp standards. Interesting that the railings weren’t totally original to the monument, but arrived a couple of years later.

The disappearance of the four lamps was a terrible loss to the stature of the monument – they gave it a dignity and power that just isn’t there anymore. Here, in its original state, the mounument completely dominates with the lamps helping to spread its power out into the street, while now the median curtails it in a most unfortunate way.
The lamps disappeared in around 1930.

Also the insert in the picture depicts a small turreted building that can be seen to the right at the juction with Sackville Place.

A correction regarding the O’Connell Bridge lamps needs to be made – their alteration did not happen in 1919 as stated, as can be seen not least in the 1916 picture above where they’re already altered! It occured somewhere between 1900 and 1916.
The 1919 date is from an official City Council document, but is clearly incorrect 😮