old illustrations of cork

And some further views of Cork:

The Cork river at Blackrock, Bartlett (?) c. 1840:

A rare view of the old St. Fin Barre’s and the Fort of Cork seen from below the South Gate Bridge c.1860

Old St. Patrick’s Bridge (swept away in the flood of 1852) from Mrs. Hall’s Tours of Ireland 1840.

Two views of a nely built Blackrock Castle by Bartlett published in 1834

Bartlett again showing a busy Merchants’ Quay in Cork 1834

And a small piece of social history, “A Cork Lane” published by Harper’s Weekly in March 1888.

Note, that the tower of St. Mary’s Shandon still has it urns.

Th ingenious clothes lines are a feature in themselves.

this is not an illustration but it is a fantastic picture of Merchants Quay.

i hope this works.

my first post

Here we have St Patrick’s Bridge, looking towards Camden Quay

And the Grand Parade

And another piece of Cork Social History; Fr. Mathew administering the pledge.

His efforts in Cork caused a 25% fall in whiskey distilling in the City.

@alandotts wrote:

this is not an illustration but it is a fantastic picture of Merchants Quay.

i hope this works.

my first post

Lovely shot…. think I remember it like that…..:o

That is an interesting montage of the old Merchant’s Quay. I remember it as a kid….the surface car park for Roches Stores was just behind those buildings and there was an elaborate entry and exit (using the two lanes in the picture).
The St. Vincent’s Hostel was in use towards the end, but the quay lost any sparkle as it was bought up in advance of the construction of the ugly monolithic Merchants Quay shopping center. At the very least, the old quay had character.

the pic i have is much better quality than what came out when i hosted it.
anyone who wants it pm me your email address.

ps i am an engineer and architects have been a pain in my arse this week…..:)

Does it not say “St Vincent’s Hostel” over the door?

Camden Quay, then and now!

Camden Quay then and now.

The spud market -northern end of the Coal Quay. The lane in the background leads on to the North Main Street just opposite St. Peter’s. Painted by Nathaniel Grogan c. 1800.

Here we have another picture by Nathaniel grogan painted c. 1800 and entitled Whipping the herring out of town. The events are situated against the background of the North gate into the City -alas no longer. The custom commemorated here refers to the tradition of the meat butchers ceremonously to dump herring out of the city at the end of Lent are welcome the arrival of Easter (and the eating of meat) by hoisting the leg of mutton!

A drawing by John Mahoney of 19 June 1852 in which St. May’s, Pope’s Quay, before the addition of the Portico, is visible.

George Atkinson’s picture (about 1836/37) of emigrants on Anderson’s Quay with the newly built St. Patrick’s Church in Glanmire Road on the left. It was consecrated on 19 October 1836 by the smae group of prelates who had consecrated St. MAry’s in Buttevant a week earlier.

Charles Cooke’s picture of emigrants on the quays at Anglesea Bridge with the Corn Exchange in the background dating from 1867

Cork, more Blackrock this tyime by T.Creswick 1834

@Praxiteles wrote:

Camden Quay then and now.

Pity that there wasn’t more wide streets work done in Cork

The COrk Exchange building of 1711

Patrick’s Brodge looking towards Draw-bridge Street c. end of 19th century

Was Anglesea Bridge the old name for Parnell Bridge? And if so was the Corn Exchange on the site of City Hall?

Looking at the last photo of Patrick’s Bridge, not much has changed in that picture since then…

Jungle!

The Cork CIty Library has this to say:

Anglesea Bridge
The old Anglesea Bridge, built in the 1830s, could not cope with the volume of traffic using the bridge by the 1870s. Cork Corporation decided to replace the old bridge in 1875. It chose a swing bridge designed by T. Claxton Fiddler in 1877. The building of the new bridge was dogged by delays due to contractual and legal disputes. It was finally opened on 18 November 1882 and named Parnell Bridge. The swing bridge, which allowed schooners and small crafts access to the south channel of the Lee, was replaced by present-day Parnell Bridge on 24 May 1971. (Image from: Irish Builder, Vol.22, 1 April 1880, p.97)

Cork City Libraries

An icon of Cork – Fr. Mathew, the Apostle of Temperance

I must say that the nbuilding on the corner of Mecrchants Quay is good deal better than the rubbish built on to of it by Dunnes Store

This picture may be of interest to Kite!

The Custom House Sheds

@Praxiteles wrote:

This picture may be of interest to Kite!

The Custom House Sheds

It is, thanks Praxiteles, i have a lot of photos, prints, old plans etc of this histotic, listed but sadly now derelict part of Cork. (thats a new photo for my collection, did not see that one before)

The flood of 1853 shown here at the Court House, The same flood carried off old St . Patrick’s Bridge.

The statue of George II at the entrance to the Grand parade

Frenche’s Quay with St. FinBarre’s in the distance.

The same view in 1860.

The Huguenot Church, Carey’s Lane, Cork

The Huguenot Cemetery, Cork

The Huguenot Church from French Church Street

Batchelors Quay and the North Mall

Dunscombs Fountain, Cork

Nathaniel Grogan’s picture of c. 1795 depicting boats on the River Lee at Tivoli. I wonder can anyone identify the house in the background?

Jonathan Butt’s general View of Cork from Audley Place c. 1760

I think the big house in the picture of Tivoli is the Curran House, Sarah Curran fiance of Robert Emmet hanged herself after he was executed…

@Brian O Brien wrote:

I think the big house in the picture of Tivoli is the Curran House, Sarah Curran fiance of Robert Emmet hanged herself after he was executed…

Are we talking of two different Sarahs?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Curran

The Attachhed image of Cork appears on the dust cover of a roman pubished in Cork in 1889 by E. H. Wright entitled André Besnard: A Tale of Old Cork.

While the literary merits of the piece of no interest to us the illustrations are for many of them are taken from drawings by Nathaniel Grogan and depict the city at the end of the 18th century.

The cover illustration: can anyone identify it? Is it perhaps the North Gate Bridge which also appears in Grogan’s Whipping the Herring ?

Looking at Whipping the Herring again, clearly, this is not the North Gate Bridge.

According to the Cork Past and Present site (of the City Library), this seems to be the South Gate Bridge and Prison by Nathaniel Grogan. 18th century.

@lawyer wrote:

According to the Cork Past and Present site (of the City Library), this seems to be the South Gate Bridge and Prison by Nathaniel Grogan. 18th century.

You are right! I must get hold of a copy of this publication for the sake of the prints. Thanks for that.

Here are shots of Nathaniel Grogan’s

a. South Gate Bridge

b. North Gate Bridge -which features in the Whipping of the Herring. I am wondering if this is not the Grogan drawing depicting the carriage of the Earl of Barrymore about to toe enter the City?

Some further views of Cork:

http://www.lynesandlynes.com/index_files/Page766.htm

Here is an engraving of Anglesea St. Bridge, the second one, as it appeared in the Scientific America Supplement of 14 July 1884. the bridge was begun in 1877, opened in 1882 and demolished in 1971.

The Cork Exchange Building of 1711

@alandotts wrote:

ps i am an engineer and architects have been a pain in my arse this week…..:)

You lucky devil!

@alandotts wrote:

this is not an illustration but it is a fantastic picture of Merchants Quay.

i hope this works.

my first post

Really like that photo. Here’s another of the same quay now from a different angle 😮

@alandotts wrote:

this is not an illustration but it is a fantastic picture of Merchants Quay.

i hope this works.

my first post

Really like that photo. Here’s another of the same quay now from a different angle 😮

Tis great to see those lovely public toilets have stood the test of time! 😉

@Leesider wrote:

Tis great to see those lovely public toilets have stood the test of time! 😉

Yeah but I’d say the last time they were cleaned was back around the time the first photo was taken 🙂

Poor old Merchants Quay… Has to be a contender for the ugliest monstrosity in Ireland, particularly given what it replaced… Is there any sort of vision for something to be done about it? I don’t mean a reclad or whatever, the whole thing needs the bulldozers in urgently!

@BTH wrote:

Poor old Merchants Quay… Has to be a contender for the ugliest monstrosity in Ireland, particularly given what it replaced… Is there any sort of vision for something to be done about it? I don’t mean a reclad or whatever, the whole thing needs the bulldozers in urgently!

As a newcomer to Cork I must agree with all of you – the Merchants Quay shopping centre is one of the worst, if not the worst building in Cork in every aspect.

But, judging by the photo, I can’t agree that what was there before was of any real value. What a wasted chance.

And, to contribute to the thread, a postcard of – then – King Street:

Thanks to Gunter for adverting to this view of Cork by Anthony Charnley whihc appeared as a long fold-out in Charles Smith’s History of Cork published in 1750.

Super photo of merchants quay, never saw it before. There were some great old Cork pubs along here. Lots of happy memories. Looks a lot better than the monstrosity from the DUNNESTOREShaus school of architecture.

Can somebody clear this up for me:

Is this painting by John Butts circa 1755 (possibly otherwise Jonathan Butt, with a date of circa 1760), or is it by Nathaniel Grogan circa 1780?

The Crawford website lists it as View of Cork by John Butts, but when you click on the picture itself, the identification code includes the name Nathaniel Grogan!

Web searches on Nathaniel Grogan turn up what appears to be the same painting with some biography notes that suggest that Grogan studied under ‘local painter’, John Butts.

I’ve previously posted details of the painting on the ‘Billy’ thread but these were taken from extracts reproduced in recent publications which attributed the painting to Butts, I can’t locate a copy of the full painting which has enough resolution to to be sure that we’re not looking at two different, but very similar, paintings.

The date is obviously important for any discussion on the comparisons with the great Chearnley view posted above by Praxiteles.

The painting was originally atributed to Nathaniel Grogan but is now regarded as being by Butts.

JOHN BUTTS (C.1728-1764) T
The short-lived John Butts was one of the pioneering artists of the generation before William Ashford and Thomas Roberts.He was born in Cork and he was to immortalise his native city in the important View of Cork recently acquired by the Crawford Art Gallery. In addition, Butts taught the two greatest Irish artists of the century, Thomas Roberts and James Barry. The latter on his hearing of Butts’s death gave a poignant eulogy, in which he clearly identified many of his own frustrations with his fellow Corkonian.

I am indeed sensibly touched with the fate of poor Butts… who with all his merit never met with anything but cares and misery, which I may say hunted him into the very grave…His being bred in Cork excluded him from many advantages; this he made evident by the surprising change of his manner on his going to Dublin; his fancy which was luxuriant, he confined to its just bounds, his tone of colouring grew more variegated and concordant, and his pencilling, which was always spirited, assumed a tenderness and vivacity.

Butts moved to Dublin in 1757 finding employment as a scene painter in Crow Street Theatre. In this he followed the example of William van der Hagen, Joseph Tudor, John Lewis and Robert Carver. However, if Pasquin is to be believed, his intemperate habits and irregular lifestyle forced him to take on menial jobs such as painting coach panels to support himself and his young family – and ultimately led to his early death.

Butts’s work is extremely rare and his small oeuvre is still being refined, a process made difficult by the variety of styles in which he worked – as noted by Barry in the quote above. Recently on the art market was his important work Into the Hands of the Shades, a highly personal take on Poussin’s Et in Arcadia Ego, and which seemingly prefigures his own early death. The normally critical Pasquin, recognised Butts’s worth describing him as ‘one of the most brilliant artists that Ireland ever brought forth’ while Thomas Campbell rated his work even as superior to that of Roberts and Ashford: ‘I have seen a picture by Butts; whose fame here is above that of all the others, though his death was premature’.

The picture shows Cork ante 1764

I could have saved myself a lot of bother if I’d just asked you that question six hours ago 🙂

Would you like another challenge?

A few years before Charles Smith published his History of Cork in 1750, he produced a History of Waterford and again it appears that he enlisted the services of Anthony Chearnley to provide the topographical views.

The question is, where might one obtain a high resolution copy of Chearnley’s view of Waterford City, from that publication? . . the National Library were a bit reluctant to let me whip out my digital camera 😡

. . . as with his view of Cork, the Chearnley view of Waterford City is from the north bank of the river and is laden with Billys

Much fun could be had in trying to match the quay front houses with those shown in the van der Hagen view.

For a start, try the digital online library of the University of Villanova, USA.

Praxiteles posted this print earlier in the thread:

The view is of the north side of Northgate with a carriage entering the city. I think there is a suggestion that this view may be by Grogan.

Below is a photocopy of a similar view, this time with a carriage leaving the city and there are a number of details in this image which might suggest that, even though it is a bit child-like in it’s execution, that it may be the earlier of the two images and the one on which the other is based. There is fuller range of houses shown in the distance in the second image, but unfortunately the clarity of the copy is too poor to discuss them in detail.

Has anyone come across a better copy of this image, or know who the artist is? Is there a third view of the Northgate on which both may be based?