Pearse Station
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Does anyone know when the existing Pearse Station was built?
I know that it was constructed as the original terminus for the Dublin-Kingstown Railway around 1832-34, but the current interior brickwork and windows would appear to date from around the 1880s, maybe 1890s, which would coincide with the station’s adaption to take the Westland Row Bridge in 1890.
I’m told that the facade on Westland Row was ‘punched through’ to make way for the bridge, which would suggest that the magnificent barrel vaulted ceiling was already there at this time.
The long lengths of glass in the roof however would suggest that it wasn’t built until at least 1860.
The windows inside (office windows) would also suggest that an English architect executed the work.
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Helpful, anymore?
There just appears to be a complete blackout of information on this station.Poor old Pearse, its never been cared for.
Its always Heuston this, Heuston that, even Connolly gets the odd mention, but poor old Pearse, once a major terminus, now just a quick stop-off point, it never even gets a look-in.
Which is a pity, not just because of the amount of people who use it, but unlike other Dublin stations where one is rushed from a modern terminal onto a train, in Pearse you actually wait in the original building and are able to appreciate it’s architecture, not least the barrel vaulted ceiling which appears to be the only one in Dublin if not in the country.It’s just a shame the appalling state of the place, esp considering it was supposedly ‘redeveloped’ in 1996.
Indeed such is the dated state of the place that RTE purposely shot part of their ‘No Tears’ drama here, which was part set in 1976, because it hasn’t changed since then!The worst part is it’s entrance with all that ghastly orange and cream plastic cladding, and those horrible plasticy metally strips on the ceiling, broken up with floresent tubes.
And yet there are cast iron columns reaching up to the ceiling in places, and in one area you can just see the tail end of a wonderful Victorian decorative bracket peeking through, imagine how magnificent this place could look with all the tat stripped back, the original structure revealed and contrasted with some snazzy, hardwearing modern furniture and ticket machines etc.The lighting inside the main station is appalling, the usual Iarnrod murky orange lights casting their gloominess everywhere, and the outside facade should also be illuminated, along with Spar’s flat roof removed.
The whole interior needs to be gutted, platforms relaid, new layout and facilities hugely improved. This has been proposed since the mid 90s and there’s been no movement on it.
But at the same time I don’t want to see anything done – there’s so much potential here for fantastic redesigning and restoration, yet judging by the mess of Connolly, I don’t want Iarnrod Eireann to touch it with a bargepole!
They’re sure to make a bags of it – with nasty low maintance silver cladding, unfinished looking walls, tarnishing steel furniture, intrusive unsightly floolights etc.It needs expert attention from experts of restoration and development, not experts in the field of delayed, manky trains, surly staff and overcrowded services.
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If that grandiose Trinity Plan had gone ahead, what would have happened to the vaulted ceiling? It is something I worried about at the time. Still, there was never so much danger of IR and TCD cooperating, they couldn’t even agree on relatively minor adjustments to the line crossing TCD.
You don’t hear so much talk of all of that now, the only current plan is to put a gym on the corner of the actual Trinity site.
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Originally posted by Paul Clerkin
Built by Charles Vignoles, extended in 1861 and then transformed from a terminus into a through station c.1884Bridge by Courtney, Stephens and Bailey
I thought it was 1879 that it was transformed into a terminus (i.e, prior to that date, the tracks were at ground level and were raised in anticipation of a connection to Amiens Street).
Shepherd’s work on the Dublin and South Eastern Railway and Murray’s on the Dublin & Kingstown Railway would have the definitive answer.
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Originally posted by emf
I see that O’ Reilly’s Bar under Tara St Station is closing pending renovations to the station. Tenders are being sought for all the fixtures and fittings. Does this mean. I wonder, if the full redevelopment is going ahead???I think so – there is a lot of work that is being done to the station for the DASH plan, and I believe this has to be carried out before they start work on the main bulk of the building programme. I lookforward to the reopening of O’Reillys (planned to go on the top floor of the new building)
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Originally posted by Graham Hickey
Does anyone know when the existing Pearse Station was built?Original station built by Dargan for £1700, less an allowance of £600 in light of the fact that he would have less of an embankment to build (i.e., the station site). Murray describes this as “neat Georgian frontage in two storeys, with architraves of doors and windows in tooled granite from Seapoint, accorded well with neighbouring buildingsâ€. Bradleys of Stourbridge had the contract for the ironwork of the roof. In 1868, a section of cornice fell, killing a passenger in the process. The DW&WR as lessee’s of the line decided on reconstruction.
An Act of Parliament was obtained in 1875 for this purpose and the new station with walls of Dublin limestone and red brick. The new station was complete in 1878. The roof copied that of Richard Turner’s Lime Street station in Liverpool. The tracks into the station were sloped in order to obtain siufficient headroom for onward connection (the modern day Loop Line).
Changes were carried out to the station in 1982 in anticipation of the DART, when the ticket office was moved from platform to ground level. Further changes were made in the mid 1990s.
Source: Ireland’s First Railway – Kevin Murray.
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Very informative, thanks.
Presumably the street facade was built in 1890 as the Loop Line was going in.And as far as I can make out, the mess of the front & back of the platforms being at different levels was caused by the increasing of height of all platforms in the country to a standard level. Usually the tracks were excavated to allow for this, but was’nt possible in Pearse because of the Loop Line bridge coming in.
At the back of the Station in the usual railway wastelands there are some wonderful Victorian lampposts just rusting away on the ground that could be put to use.
And in the roof of the station inside, I see IR are already replacing the original wooden ceiling slats with low maintainance plasticy sheets which are slid in under the ironwork.
Its a slippery slope. -
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