vitrolite shopfronts
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Well there’s the stuff used in the Pembroke Restaurant posted by paddyinthehouse on the previous page which seems to be a modern form of vitrolite. Something similar is used on the River Island shopfront on Grafton Street and on the Pen Corner opposite the Central Bank.
The picture of the Dunville Pharmacy was taken a few months ago. I’ve forgotten exactly what the black material looked like – matt or shiny – and I can’t tell by viewing the picture at full size either.
No Vitrolite is long out of production, it was also relatively expensive to make when new.
There is a person in the USA who has a large supply of Vitrolite, which he bought up from stocks held by suppliers. The main source now would be architectural salvage, but as it is easy to damage when being removed, there may be little in those places too!
This is a shot of D. O’ Mahony’s shop on 6 Parliment Street in Cork City. Am no expert, but seems like vitrolite to me. Not too many other examples left in Cork as far as I can see, although West Cork still has quite a few (although quickly disappearing).
And here is another one (again, I think!). This is the relatively new frontage for a restaurant attached to The Imperial Hotel but fronting onto Pembroke Street.
Yes a rare modern-day equivalent that looks pretty impressive in all its glory – I think we had another view of that premises here before. Extraordinary that such expense is lavished on the ground floor, while the upper facade left as a sea of mediocrity, with plastic windows, typical yellow paint and surface-mounted drainage.
Nice, well proportioned, probably original teak shopfront in pic one too 🙂
@corcaighboy wrote:
Not too many other examples left … although West Cork still has quite a few (although quickly disappearing).
I know somebody who is doing a nationwide study of vitrolite shopfronts, rounding up all the surviving examples. A most worthwhile project. I think she will make it available to the public as well, when it’s done.
Great! One of those ‘One day I’d like to…’ ideas that crossed my mind a while back. Glad to see someone’s already on it. Is it far advanced? Should we be reporting sightings of Vitrolite in out-of-the-way locations to her/you?:)
Sounds fascinating indeed! A very worthwhile project.
Well as dc3 mentioned earlier, here’s the second of the vitrolites on Upper Leeson Street in Dublin, now vacant:
Lovely transparent, light quality to it, and as typical is sited on standard Victorian stock:
The vents:
Some detail:
Interestingly the original mint green vitrolite has been covered over in this sticky-backed almost An Post green plastic material. You can see the original colour peeping over the vent in the previous image. I could pick at it fairly easily, so it should come off.
Attractive chamfered corners too:
Some damage there.
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