old illustrations of limerick
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Ok. I knew I had a lot more of these.
In no particular order – vaguely chronological.
A couple of illustrations:
Georges Street (O’Connell Street) at Bedford Row:
[ATTACH]6190[/ATTACH]Thomond Bridge and Wesley (Sarsfield) Bridge:
[ATTACH]6198[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH]6202[/ATTACH]Some photo’s next. Presumably late 19th century.
Interesting building called Havergal Hall (long gone – replaced by the Lyric cinema – see below). Is the TSB bank still there and operating as such?
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Interesting snippet of history regarding this building:At his Inaugural Address as President to the Limerick Literary and Scientific Society held at the Leamy School in November 1852, William Lane Joynt proposed the establishment of an Athenaeum for Limerick. In his speech, he referred to the difficulties facing all cultural societies in the city in that they lacked a permanent venue or concert hall in which to conduct their activities. The Limerick Philosophical Society founded in 1840 had raised funds to construct the Philosophical Rooms at Havergal Hall (later the Lyric Cinema) as their headquarters. However, the construction costs of Havergal Hall exceeded the budget and the society were forced, under threats of bankrupcy, to hand over the building to a creditor, Francis Spaight, who immediately leased it out to a company manufacturing Limerick Lace. A new non-sectarian body, the Limerick Literary and Scientific Society emerged from this disaster in 1847. William Lane Joynt addressed the difficulty of different cultural societies working together in harmony. He concluded his speech saying “I know full well that Irish undertakings are said to begin with many signs of promise, but die before they reach maturity. but with the failure of the Philosophical society to warn us, the literary wants of the city to impel us on, and the dignity of the cause to inspire us, I have little doubt of our success”. The proposal for an Athenaeum received wide support at the meeting. In 1853 William Lane Joynt wrote four articles in the Limerick Chronicle to elaborate on his ideas as to how an Athenaeum might function. His writings are a model of clear-thinking analysis and offer a fascinating insight into post-Famine Limerick.
This was pulled from what looked liked being an interesting website on this society which unfortunately only exists in fragments in Google’s cache.
Next a few photo’s which show better times for retail in Limerick. I think this one of Cannock’s has appeared before:
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An alternative view of the same distinctive canopy:
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Further up O’Connell Street, another bustling scene:
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The file name of the above refers to a Country Club but I don’t know which building it refers to.One of the dock road, Wesley bridge in the background. The crane on the dockside suggests it was still being used as a dock:
[ATTACH]6189[/ATTACH]Now some more modern photos. For some reason, to me Limerick actually looks better in a lot of these than it does these days simply due to the lack of clutter (signs, railings, bins, etc.) in the streets despite the electricity poles. There’s a film noirish feel to them:
Henry Street
[ATTACH]6192[/ATTACH]Mallow Street
[ATTACH]6194[/ATTACH]O’Connell Street – with Cruises Hotel but Todd’s hasn’t been built/rebuilt
[ATTACH]6188[/ATTACH]The Lyric cinema (which replaced Havergal Hall above). What a strange mixture of architectural styles – it looks like an art deco building with bits attached:
[ATTACH]6193[/ATTACH]A more recent one of O’Connell Street from the cresent:
[ATTACH]6196[/ATTACH]I hadn’t realised that this was called O’Dwyers Bridge – I remember it as Athlunkard Bridge.
[ATTACH]6197[/ATTACH]The newly build Regional Hospital. I love these modernist buildings from this era:
[ATTACH]6199[/ATTACH]Finally a scene of Thomond bridge. Probably a Sunday:
[ATTACH]6201[/ATTACH]Leamy’s School
The Leamy Free Schools in Hartstonge Street, were established by will of William Leamy, who in 1814 left £13,300 for the education of the children of the poor, especially in the neighbourhood of Limerick. William Leamy, a native of Limerick spent his life at sea. He made a large fortune, possibly from piracy 😎 on the high seas; and died on the island of Maderia.
“The History of Limerick City” Sean Spellissy
Image Limerick Museum
Frank McCourt is a past pupil. I wonder did he know that the school’s benefactor was a Robin Hood figure?
@jimg wrote:
Is the TSB bank still there and operating as such?
Cool Pics Mike. TSB building is still there. Closed as a bank last year or so and currently has a big SOLD sign on it like a whole load of other buildings in the city…and like the rest God only knows what the plans are..apart from the Opera Centre. There really is so much property in the city centre with a sold/acquired for client/short term lease sign tacked on the sideI really wish they would get a move on..at least on some of them
Institutions: The Limerick Workhouse
The splendour of the new Georgian town (Newtown Pery) was in stark contrast to the wretched poverty endured by the “Gaelic†citizens of the city. The Great Famine probably ended the Georgian building era in Limerick? The Limerick Workhouse replaced the House of Industry on Clancy Strand. Today it is still in operation as St. Camillus’s Hospital.
The favoured nineteenth century solution to the problems of unemployment, sickness and extreme poverty was the institution. Institutions came under various names, they were housed in similar looking buildings. Many of them were also located in the same area.
Limerick had one of each by the 1840s. In 1811 the county Infirmary was built on Mulgrave Street. It was joined in 1817 by the County Gaol, financed by the grand jury. By the early 1820s the Lunatic Asylum, built by the board of Works, stood next to the jail.
The Workhouse was set apart at a further distance from the city on the other side of the river in Co. Clare. It was built in 1841 under the administration of the Poor Law which attempted to by-pass traditional interests and the building had a wider catchment area.
All were free standing and surrounded by walls. Some stood within park-like grounds. These custodial buildings were built to briefs that specified self-containment, isolation and control. This influenced their design and their location outside the centre.
Judith Hill Building of Limerick
Image Workhouses.org.uk
Hi CologneMike, Do you know where the image of the fishermen on Thomond Bridge came from? I came accross it a few years ago – perhaps in an edition of the, ‘The Old Limerck Journal’ but have never been able to find it since. Do you know if it is possible to get a copy, somewhere? Thanks. Also as far as I am aware the last Georgian housing to be built in Limerick was the terrace of six houses on Pery Square, overlooking the park – finished in c.1836.
@vkid wrote:
Cool Pics Mike. TSB building is still there. Closed as a bank last year or so and currently has a big SOLD sign on it like a whole load of other buildings in the city…
a lovely little building
http://ireland.archiseek.com/buildings_ireland/limerick/limerick/tsb.htmlThe TSB was sold to Sarsfield Credit Union, not sure when they intend to move from beside the Belltable to there though.
@ShaneP wrote:
Do you know where the image of the fishermen on Thomond Bridge came from?
Shane, have a look at Limerick – a stroll down Memory Lane Vol-1
Gone Fishin’
This picture, taken in 1958, shows how Limerick men whiled away what little free time they had. The picture was taken at Thomond Bridge by Donal McMonagle.
Sean Curtin
Will do. Thanks for that CologneMike
@jimg wrote:
The file name of the above refers to a Country Club but I don’t know which building it refers to.There seems to be very little written about the Country Club building. It was acquired by the Augustinian’s Order and they converted it into a presbytery. They built a church next door (to the right) in the 1940’s. The entrance / porch of the old Country Club is gone.
View from Country Club 1
The roof of the entrance / porch was often used as a platform to take photographs.
Junction Bedford Row – Thomas Street / George’s Street (O’Connell Street)
Limerick Museum: Larger image
View from Country Club 2
A few years later and the junction has since received an additional street lamp. Public transport in the form of a double-decker horse-drawn coach. It’s probably making it’s way out of town in the direction of Ballinacurra. One can even make out the conductor collecting fares. Jaunting cars appear on most corners and they probably deemed as taxis?
Limerick Museum: Larger image
View from Country Club 3
Probably taken in the 1920’s / 1930’s? I wonder if the ornate street lamp on the left is gas or electric? No major changes to the street’s built landscape. The first motorised buses appear though the jaunting car is still in business (below right corner).
Limerick Museum: Larger image
Heres another view of the country club taken from the first floor of the old george hotel in the late 19th Century. The arched entrance to the old Augustinian church can be seen 2 doors to the right of the country club. The building at the Roches Street junction is also an interesting one, its certainly not the chicken hut anyway!:D
Also known as the Prospect Hill Clothing Factory or better known as the Limerick Clothing Factory.
Peter Tait, a Scotsman, pioneered the manufacture of ready-made clothing in an era when even army uniforms were all made by hand. In 1850 he introduced power-driven machinery and mass-production methods to the city. Within a few years his factory was producing uniforms for the entire British army. During the American Civil War, Tait supplied both North and South with military uniforms.
Sean Spellissy (The History of Limerick City)
Pery Street / Tait’s Clock – Baker Place
Sir Peter Tait was mayor three times between 1866 and 1868. He lived in South Hill House. During his mayoralty, the 65-foot high clock tower designed by William Corbett, the city surveyor, was completed at a cost of ₤750.
Sean Spellissy (The History of Limerick City)
The building on the left was a Protestant orphan hall and the Dominican Church is at the end.
Limerick Museum: Larger image
Market’s Field
This photo (circa 1930’s) was taken from the spire of St. John’s Cathedral. The Garryowen road resembled nothing more than a country boreen back then. The fields to the left were still been farmed where now the large housing estate of Garryowen now stands.
The Market’s Field was a true sports venue. The GAA started to play here in 1888. Munster played the All Blacks here in 1906 and it was the home for the then local Garryowen rugby team before they absconded to Dooradoyle in the 1960’s. The rugby goal posts can be clearly seen in the photo, as also the race track built around it by Bord na gCon for greyhound racing. It also became the home of the Limerick football team.
Below the photographer captured part of the roof of the girls’ convent and the smaller boys’ schools. Alas these cut stone buildings were replaced in the 1970’s by a concrete / grey brick building. Ruefully regretted by everyone today, the so called “new building†has just undergone a massive facelift.
The two storey building at the bottom was the home of Jim Kemmy. The Kemmy family were stone masons. The lane that ran parallel to the Garryowen road along Kemmy’s house was probably the original medieval lane leading to the John’s Gate entrance of the walled Irish town section of the city. At the top end of the Markets Field was once the site of the Garryowen Brewery, it can be seen in old Limerick maps.
Image Limerick Museum
@Tuborg wrote:
From what I could gather, Roches Stores purchased the building previously owned by McBirneys in the early 1940s. This building was gutted by a fire in 1948 and it along with the adjacent building on Sarsfield were demolished. The current building was opened in 1951. Its considered a good example of an art deco style department store but is not a listed building.
Photo of the old Roches Stores building(McBirneys) and Cannocks from the early 1900s.
Here is another perspective below of McBirneys (left, flag pole on roof) from Brunswick (Sarsfield) Street circa 1900. It seems the original McBirneys building was not that large. The two neighbouring buildings below it, had a more interesting décor to their façades.
Any idea what these two buildings (statute on roof and shop front with large canopy) were? Could the two storey building be the Imperial Bakery (Permanent Trustee Savings Bank)?
Limerick Museum: Larger image
@CologneMike wrote:
Any idea what these two buildings (statute on roof and shop front with large canopy) were? Could the two storey building be the Imperial Bakery (Permanent Trustee Savings Bank)?
The larger building with the statue was part of Roches Stores when it burned down, it was probably originally part of McBirneys department store. The neighbouring building used to be Cannocks furniture department and was linked to the main O Connell Street store, it would have been demolished along with the adjacent two storey structure in the 1980s to make way for the current extension to Roches Stores(Debenhams).
The building with the pitched roof beside James Atteridge is actually the Imperial bakery (now Permanent tsb). The more decorative facade that exists now was added in the early 20th Century. James Atteridges shop is now Pa Martins pub, of course the remaining buildings on that side of Sarsfield Street were levelled to facilitate the Liddy Street relief road in the early 80s.
Former Imperial Bakery
Attachment show the Henry Street/Sarsfield Street junction in the 1970s
@Tuborg wrote:
The larger building with the statue was part of Roches Stores when it burned down, it was probably originally part of McBirneys department store.
I never realised that Roches Stores were that long in Limerick.
The neighbouring building used to be Cannocks furniture department and was linked to the main O Connell Street store, it would have been demolished along with the adjacent two storey structure in the 1980s to make way for the current extension to Roches Stores(Debenhams).
So the fire seems to have been limited to just two buildings back then. The Cannock’s furniture building must have been demolished a little earlier (1970’s) as I can remember Roches having a crude loading bay 😡 to the rear of their building on Sarsfield Street.
The building with the pitched roof beside James Atteridge is actually the Imperial bakery (now Permanent tsb).
Did the Imperial bakery just lower their building by a floor or two and/or rebuilt their frontage?
The aerial image is probably from the early 1960’s. A lot of warehousing to be seen from the Arthur’s Quay era? Cannock’s furniture store is captured well.
@CologneMike wrote:
I never realised that Roches Stores were that long in Limerick.
I wasnt aware they traded out of those buildings either until I came across a book last Christmas which had some superb, previously unpublished photographs of the city centre from the 1940s through to the late 60s, annoyingly I never got around to buying it!:( I think Roches were only in Limerick a few short years before their premises were destroyed!
So the fire seems to have been limited to just two buildings back then. The Cannock’s furniture building must have been demolished a little earlier (1970’s) as I can remember Roches having a crude loading bay 😡 to the rear of their building on Sarsfield Street.
The 70s were a bit before my time so I’ll take your word for it! You’re right though, if you look at the aerial photo below from the 1970s you can see the building is gone, another example of a building being demolished just for the sake of it, a common occurance in Limerick around this period!.:rolleyes:
Did the Imperial bakery just lower their building by a floor or two and/or rebuilt their frontage?
The facade was just rebuilt, the main structure of the building remains!
The aerial image is probably from the early 1960’s. A lot of warehousing to be seen from the Arthur’s Quay era? Cannock’s furniture store is captured well.
Thats a cropped version of a much larger aerial image, it was taken around 1965, not long after the facade of Cannocks and its famous clock were demolished!:mad:
Limerick City Centre 1970s (Derhur)
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