djasmith

The roads in 1930’s Crumlin are called after monastic related ‘stuff’ for want of a better explination. All except for Captains Road.

Drimnagh are named after Mountains.

My own Ravensdale Drive is named after one of the many mills which once lined the banks of the poddle river, along with Larkfield Road….

The estates up in Templeogue are named after local houses eg Orwell, Rossmore, Kennington, Osprey, all of which can be traced back a long way according to Handcocks history of Templeogue / Tallaght.

Wellington Lane (templeogue) is named after the Duke of wellington, however Willington was a variation on that due to some of the locals being very anti british… Similar to the case of part of Exchequar street being renamed to Wicklow street to increase rents…. (correct me on that please Ive only half heard the story)…

The liberties comes from Henry the 8th granting the people from this area the LIBERTY to trade both inside and outside the pale, while not paying the taxes of the pale…

A very interesting one is whitehall road in Terenure…. The irish on the road is ‘Bóthar na Racadair’ (recorders road),,,,, a small little extension to the road into the old kimmage manor was then named ‘The Recorders’…

There are so so many more around my area its a list i muct compile!

Not exactly O Connell Street – but quite a nice view of the spire! Anyone know where it was taken from?? apologies for the quality of the picture it was taken on my phone.

Mount Argus which I’ve mentioned abouve is another one of those amazing buildings which I’ve been fortunate enough to grouw up with on my doorstep, and I’m no stranger to the place. There is far far too much to say on it in one posting. If people are really intrested in it I can start a new thread on it. It has a fascinating history, and anybody who has a chance I would highly recommend a visit to the church and the fantastic exehibition which is on display around the back of the sanctuary (you’ll see it when you go in). The monastary / college is also an amazing building. It contains some amazing examples of original 1850’s woodwork in both the choir room, and the library. I haven’t got photo’s of these right now but i will get some some fine day. For now ill just throw up a few general pictures of the church.

Interior now…..

Interior then….

Church and monastary looking from the north east

Ah it’s a while since I’ve been on here! A search on Richmond Barricks (part of my research into how the council houses came about in Inchicore in 1929) showed up the fantastic thread on Collins Barricks just below.

Just a couple of interesting points on the above..

The ‘new’ st mary’s church just above was the last building to be built from ‘Dolphin Brick’ which came out of the quarry at Dolphins Barn. Thus it was one of the few building projects which ran on through the war in Crumlin (the war put a stop to the 1930’s scheme as mentioned above). I dont know a whole lot about Dolphin brick but I know that its hard to come by now and it can fetch nice proces when buildings are dismantled that contain it.

The old St Mary’s church is also very interesting… there was a fás programme a few years ago which did some restoration work on the building. Not sure what exactly went on, but that front door was put in, and up on top of the steeple you can see the modern section was constructed…. i still can’t see why this was put up other than as a training excerise.

Maybe somebody else from the area might know??

As for the quarries around Crumlin, there were lots of them! In more recent years there were lots of problems constructing the Manortown community centre (just east of the Crumlin Cross). It took something like 3 or 4 go’s to get a solid enough foundation on what we know as the 8 acres park (dont know the real name). This was due to the fact that all that land is just filled in quarries, and is very vrey soft ground, and very liable to flooding. St. Damians school had similar problems much earlier.

is the bottom pictures you have taken not just a convent?? I was always under the impression that it was, St. Colombus house or something like that… The third school on armagh road is in off behind the redbrick school It can barely be seen from the road. Ive been at many a feis in that school! There’s a 4th school then around the corner on captains road. I was nearly sure that building was a convent, but I could be wrong. ill check it out.

Scoil Colm which you also have pictures of is a lovely building, but Ive often looked at those columns and I still reckon there’s something missing from the tops of them, they’re just not finished or something…. look at them.

Anyway Scoil Colm is the Christian Brothers boys school, and on the opposite side of the road are the girls schools. Ive heard many many stories about those schools, but one in particular comes to mind when you mention the windows of the building.. It was that of a young boy in communion class, who was being taught the ‘old fashioned way’, this unfortunately proved too much for him and he jumped out the top floor window and broke both of his legs.

One of the schools (not sure which) wasn’t built until the mid to late 40’s, due to building supplies shortages during the war. The village end of Armagh road from the schools up to the church was orinally planned just like the rest of crumlin, but in 1939 when the war broke out, Watchorn & Company (one of the main building companies in crumlin, and a very old family from the village) had to stop work due to the shortages. It was only after the war that building resumed with houses of a more modern style on that road.

Another interesting point about Crumlin is that it also had 2 other schools in its day. There was the National school on St. Agnes Road, which was where the ‘country children’ from Crumlin, in the days before the 1930’s scheme all went to school. Much later on Greenhills college was based in the old school in Crumlin for a couple of months until the building of what is now greenhills college was finished. This was only ever a temporary thing though.

Gawd I could waffle for hours about Crumlin……but I wont! Hope the above is of some interest to somebody, and please do correct me on any points, as all the above is learned from word of mouth, Im still only 17 and remember not a lot about the area personally!

Can you not see the shape of the sword above within the red shape?? Landen and Decies roads form the ‘blade’, with Lally road acting as the ‘point’. To the left of the image you can see Thomond road and Muskerry road forming a handle….. It takes imagination but it is certainly there!

Here’s those corner houses on the corner of Captains Road and Stannaway Road. They’re in quite a few different locations around the estates and link the roads together quiet nicely. Were they built at the same time??

Here’s one on the opposite corner, one of few which is pretty much in original condition, apart from the front door etc.

Further up captains road just after the right turn onto armagh road, are these houses. There’s a few terraces of the scattered around, but not to many. They’re similar in style to the bigger corner houses above, but not identical. Again I dont know a whole lot about them only where they are.

At the very end of Captains Road, just before Windmill Road, we have one of these prized corner houses. As pointed out by graham above, these houses were given ‘special treatment’ from day one. Being on a corner they had bigger gardens, and often decorated that little bit better with that maroon coloured brick. Also most fo the corner houses were Mk3’s, the biggest of the houses, (although this one isn’t) even on a road of Mk1’s on one side and Mk2’s on the other, these bigger houses will be plonked on the corners. Unfortunately not all of these houses are receiving ‘special treatment’ anymore……

And finally in this batch of captains road photos, directly across the road from the above house, there’s a beautiful Mk2 (I think, can’t see the chimney forgot to look).

Well Im heading out on a little expedition in a while around Crumlin on the rothar and ill take a few photos of those corner houses see what ye make of them. Yes the health clinic is a lovely little building, and unfortunately it does suffer a lot of negligance.

Just a couple of interesting little note about the map you have posted above. Im sure its quite obvious to most people, but ill metion it anyway. Crumlin was beautifully designed to depict a celtic cross, and the majority of the roads from the 1930’s sceme are named after monastary associations…. The one that stands out like a sore thumb that isn’t is Captains road. The name of captains road derives from the original captains lane, where the ‘captain’ of a grand house around where brookfield estate was murdered one night. The lane was used to join windmill road to the mills along the poddle, at the current Lower Kimmage Road. The lane ran pretty uch in the direction of Captains road, but towards the kimmage end took the path of the current Ravensdale Drive…

Which leads me to another point… On most maps, including you map above, there is ‘Rathland road’ in the area where cashel road and captains road meet. This road has been called Ravensdale Drive for the last 20 years or so, yet is still referred to as Rathland Road on many maps and on all post to our house from the government offices etc. The name ravensdale comes from one of the many flour mills that were along the poddle. Some others included Loder Park Mills, and Larkfield Mills.

However Im straying from the 1930’s scheme now… lets go back.

I mentioned above that Crumlin is built in the shape of a celtic cross. 2 other areas with similar design thoughts were Ballyfermot, and Cabra.

Lets look at Ballyfermot first. The stone on the roundabout has 3 names for Ballyfermot in irish, one of which translates as ‘The Town of Conflict’…. people from Ballyfermot dont like to admit this translation. Now if we look at the map of ballyfermot, we’ll discover a very deliberate design feature…. It’s built in the shape of a sword…. Town of Conflict…. Sword…. Have a look for yourself:

Yes original windows and doors are a missing feature now around crumlin. Ive often been temped to call into an ‘original’ house when its just been sold on and ask for all the windows and doors if the house was being gutted, which more often than not it is. but ive never done it.

Speaking of walls they are an amazing asset to the estates. Not sure if anyone noticed over the past few months, but a house on the corner of Sundrive Road and Clogher Road had its curved original front wall damaged very badly in a traffic accident. The owners have done a most amazing job on restoring the wall to almost original condition and it really does look fantastic. Although one would know on looking at it that the quality just isn’t the same. In Crumlin all those lines are perfectly straight and level in the walls, the border where the bit of dashing crosses onto render is perfectly straight, and the curves leading up to the pillars are all perfectly formed. In this day and age with all our technology 70 years later, out builders just cannot seem to get this right. and It shows. none the less it’s a pretty good job. ill try and get a photo.

dAve.