old illustrations of limerick
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The first illustration is a W.H. Bartlett’s nineteenth century engraving of Thomond Bridge, King John’s Castle and St Mary’s Cathedral; a composition which has frequently been used to represent the city. (C. O’Carroll)
The second illustration is also a W.H. Bartlett’s nineteenth century engraving of Limerick Custom House. The symmetry and open aspect of the Custom House made it a focus despite surrounding buildings. (Judith Hill – The building of Limerick)
I believe the Custom House engraving documents the second stage of the port of Limerick.
Fine quality images Paul, anymore on hand?
Below the same illustration as a painting. Source Limerick City Museum Online.
Limerick Customs House
One of my favourites is this view from the tower of St Mary’s Cathedral. The Court House can be seen at the base of the Tower. Here began the first port of Limerick on what is the present day Potato Market / Merchant’s Quay. It shows the Custom Quay, Arthur’s Quay and the floating dock at (Wellesley) Sarsfield’s Bridge.
Image Limerick Museum
Wellelsley Bridge in Limerick in 1840
Limerick, the Old Exchange 1797
Praxiteles, here a little background to Ferrar’s engraving of the Exchange.
The Exchange of 1673 had been pulled down by 1702 and a new one erected. It was considered to be an improvement because the corporation had succeeded in acquiring some land from the cathedral so that the new, and larger, building could be pushed back and did not project onto the street. This is an early example of the concern for straighter, more regular and well-defined streets. Streets which, as Ferrar said, were more ‘convenient’, allowing the passage of wheeled vehicles and giving unobstructed views. This thinking had penetrated the corporation fifty years before Pery built John’s Square.
The Exchange survives as a row of Tuscan columns barely distinguishable in a wall which surrounds St Mary’s graveyard. This is the ‘re-edified’ structure of 1778 which Ferrar describes:
It is supported by seven columns in the Tuscan order; the front is composed of cut stone, the windows trimmed with stone architraves and cornices, with a Tuscan entablature at the top.
(Judith Hill – The building of Limerick)
Below only remnants of the Exchange to be seen today.
Wellesley Bridge (Sarsfield) and Floating Dock
The Port of Limerick was always moving down river to meet it’s needs.
Painting, watercolour. View of Limerick taken from the North Strand showing the New Bridge and Docks. J. Jones del. c. 1835. Naive view of Wellesley Bridge (Sarsfield) from mid-river to the south, showing narrow roadway on l., part of Strand Barracks, the lie-by to r., granary style building at r., courthouse and St Mary’s Cathedral in distance. Framed.
Scale of subjects not correctly proportional.
Source Limerick City Museum Online.
Limerick, bridge, Cathedral and castle by Westell 1829
St. MAry’s Cathedral engraved by Eastgate and published by Alexander Hogg c.1800
King John’s Castle, Limerick, after J. Cousens 1840
@CologneMike wrote:
One of my favourites is this view from the tower of St Mary’s Cathedral. The Court House can be seen at the base of the Tower. Here began the first port of Limerick on what is the present day Potato Market / Merchant’s Quay. It shows the Custom Quay, Arthur’s Quay and the floating dock at (Wellesley) Sarsfield’s Bridge.
Image Limerick Museum
It really has a genuine “gothic” feel to it!
O’Connell Street/Avenue – or George’s Street as it was known:
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[ATTACH]6130[/ATTACH]@Praxiteles wrote:
It really has a genuine “gothic” feel to it!
Then a “fortified gothic†feel to it. The tower commands a great vantage point, overlooking as to who might be coming up the Shannon.
@jimg wrote:
Jesuit Church Crescent
I would love to see an earlier illustration of the Georgian Crescent before the Jesuits “planted†their church in the middle of it in 1869. They even managed to replace the last building on the corner of the Crescent with a concert hall. Thankfully the Crescent on the opposite side is fully intact.
Two further veducta of Lmerick:
The Treaty Stone in 1905
Sarsfield Bridge
That’s an idyllic photo (above) of Sarsfield’s Bridge with the sailing ship tied up in the foreground on O’Callaghan Strand.
The Port of Limerick developed on the other side of the river below the bridge. The port kept moving location, going downriver along the Quays (Harvey’s, Howley’s, Bishop’s and Steam Boat) and finally settled in the Floating / Wet Docks (Ted Russel) which was opened in 1850’s. The opening appeared in the illustrated London news.
Images Limerick Museum
Baal’s Bridge / Abbey River
(Below) W.H. Bartlett’s view of Baal’s Bridge.
A Romantic nineteenth century depiction evoking an imagined past (Limerick Museum)
With the construction of the quays and houses on the Abbey River and the loss of the walls, the English town and Irish town were given a good view of each other. Instead of joining and facing at the single point of Baal’s Bridge they now shared the length of the Abbey River. The towns had been turned inside out and, in the process, had opened up.
Frequently, in eighteenth and early nineteenth century watercolours and engravings, Limerick is represented by a view of the Abbey River from Lock Quay towards Baal’s Bridge with the Custom House in the background. This seemed to epitomise the city.
There is often an element of romanticism in the pictures; an imagined past might be reconstructed. W.H. Bartlett (1809-1854) would have seen the old bridge but he uses his imagination to depict the river before Lock Quay was built showing the rough banks and crowds of women wrapped in shawls who might have washed clothes there.
The old houses, the few that remained on the bridge, are cast in deep shadow and the stormy clouds above reflected in the river make this a dramatic evocation of the past.
(Judith Hill – The building of Limerick)
Mr. Berry in February 1775 found nothing romantic about the state of his house on the bridge! Here an account from Ferrar’s history of Limerick.
New Bridge / Abbey River (Today Mathew Bridge)
Painting, photographic print of, colour. View of New Bridge, Limerick, between Bridge St and Rutland St, attributed to Samuel Frederick Brocas, c. 1830. View looking downstream, from Charlotte’s Quay, bridge to left, County Court House in centre (built 1811), tower of St. Mary’s cathedral on extreme right beyond houses on George’s Quay, and another tower, lower, nearer, behind the houses. Masts of ships visible beyond bridge, which is a three arched humpbacked structure.
From left, woman with umbrella, barrels on edge of paved area, donkey and cart beside pile of stones, large coach and four crossing bridge, uniformed figures sitting at back. Large convertible carriage drawn by two horses in foreground in centre, two women sitting in it, crest or coat of arms on side and rear. To right of carriage, a child standing beside the river wall appears to be wearing a cast off uniform coat and hat many sizes too large. Right again, there is a standing figure (smoking clay pipe?) beside horse and cart, barrel on cart, cage with fowl under end of cart.
On George’s Quay, washerwomen on steps down to river, and on river’s edge washing clothes. Above the river, on the quay itself, there is a very large crowd which appears to be going towards the bridge, and onto the bridge. There is a banner(?) visible midway along the quay in the crowd. A ridge-roofed canopy/structure with open sides stands in the street opposite the Bridge street end of the bridge. The buildings along George’s Quay include two gablefronted structures, one in the Dutch style, also some long, low, squat buildings with steeply pitched roofs, and some large three or four storey brick 18th or 19th century buildings.
Source Limerick City Museum Online.
Richmond Place (Crescent) Jesuit Church
I did not realise that the Crescent (Richmond Place) was developed through two Tontine schemes.
The first Tontine, known as the Richmond Place West Tontine Company, was built on a vacant site at the Crescent owned by the architect Mr. Robert O’Callaghan-Newenham.
An earlier plan by a client of his, Mr. Richard pepper, to finance the construction of ‘three elegant houses’ on the same site by way of the Crescent Lottery Scheme had failed in 1806.
(The Old Private Banks of Munster) The funds for this lottery appear :rolleyes: to have been lost in the crash of Furnell’s Bank of Limerick in 1806.Undaunted by this financial setback, Mr. O’Callaghan-Newenham set about attracting new investors to finance his proposed development. The Richmond Place West Tontine Company completed the houses in 1807.
The Richmond Place West Tontine became the location for the Jesuit’s Crescent College in 1862. The three houses became a school with one main entrance in the Crescent. Reconstruction of the façade was so expertly done that no traces of the original three front doors remain except on Ordnance Survey maps and old photographs of the street.
Rev. John Hoare built the second Tontine development in the Crescent, sometime between 1805-1809. This scheme was called the Richmond Place East Tontine Company.
Tontines
Tontine schemes were widely used in the 18th and 19th centuries to fund speculative property developments in England, France and the United States.
An arrangement in which equal sums of money are contributed by a number of persons to a pot or kitty, and the total sum is awarded to the participant who outlives the others.
Eventually Tontines were banned in the United States after the untimely deaths of some subscribers.
Source Booklet “The Pery Square Tontine†by James McMahon (Limerick Civic Trust)
The Jesuits, after a period in cramped quarters in Hartstonge Street, finally purchased the central buildings of the north side of the Crescent. Here they built their church utilising the natural focus of the crescent form to give it prominence. Unfortunately the façade was of an over-wrought character unsympathetic to the plain and dignified appearance of the Crescent; its prominent position is a mixed blessing. Steps lead directly from the pavement to the entrance of this church. There are no railings and no gates. The high doors are open all day.
(Judith Hill)
Image: O’Connell Avenue and Crescent. Note no Jesuit Church (1869) to be seen then.
Map of Crescent: (1) Concert Hall (2) Jesuit Church
Aerial of Limerick 1950’s Crescent in foreground. (Limerick’s Life)Turkish Baths
These Turkish baths were located on the corner of O’Connell Avenue (Military Road) and Gerard Street. Established in 1859 and remodelled in 1872. In the background is the Redemptorist’s Church (1858) on Henry Street.
Image Limerick Museum
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