GrahamH

Indeed! Thanks for the clarifications and info. Of course now I remember the National School on St. Agnes Road – it’s an imposing stock brick affair with red brick dressings, dated 1916 or 1918, can’t remember which.
Apologies for mixing up Road and Park – spend my life getting corrected on it :o. So do you mean that the church was actually built to align with the former Captain’s Lane, and not in fact St. Agnes Park which didn’t even exist at the time? As far as I know, its early red brick houses are post-war, c.1947-50, which would tie in with your thesis.

Yes isn’t the old village of Crumlin just wonderful. It’s amazing the country character it still has. The part closest to the church is as you say the ‘modern’ village, essentially purpose-built roundabout 1950. Sounds like the residents of the Crumlin Scheme had to suffer with no facilities, just like today, for over a decade.

Lovely crisp, simple lines.

While the old village merges directly into it.

No Dave you’re probably right about the convent – I’ve always just assumed it was a school, but it’d make sense for it to be a convent, not least beacuse it looks like one, but also as there’d hardly be three primary schools clustered right beside each other. It seems the one behind on Captain’s Road is the post-war school – it has a later air to it. Yes I too have heard stories of what went on the the CBS on Armagh Road – apparently you could hear the roaring of brothers from passing outside on the street :eek:. Its columns are not unfinished though – they’re just modernist in style.

Where was the school on St. Agnes Park do you know? On the site of the row of shops perhaps? This road has always fascinated me, because as you say you can see very clearly the interrruption of the War in terms of the style of house built. The transition from an essentially Edwardian design to much more modern house styles is clearly evident.

Yeiks – that miniature yellow statue looks like it was intended for a store further down the street…

@Morlan wrote:

Has anybody here sent a formal complaint to DCC regarding these ‘temporary’ signs?

DCC are very aware of what’s going on Morlan. Some cases are being investigated, but nothing short of a wholescale crackdown is in order at this point. The message really needs to get out there.
Essentially it’s only the banks and major stakeholders that do things by the book.

As for the statue, Frank sums up all the pros very well. It’s a piece of urban street history that has a unique connection with the street (assuming it actually is the 1922 statue). Were it not a relic of that troubled time, or a freak, ad hoc development from a few decades ago when Ireland was a very different place, I’d say ditch it. But it is, and it is.
Fair point kefu – only there’s commercial tat and social tat 😉

Indeed the statue looks so preposterous inside the sleek granite and glass case that it’s really quite funny – it looks like O’Connell Street has swallowed it: engulfed by the trademark ubiquity of the IAP refurbishment. So much so that it’s actually quite easy just to see the case and not the content itself, unless you want to go to the effort of seeing it. So top marks all round.

I can’t see it either lol. More a dagger perhaps? A slashhook maybe? 😮

Ah the schools – thanks for the pics Dave. Yes they’re three very interesting buildings – two stripped classical and one wine-bricked modernist, the latter finished in 1939 I think. Is either of the two former boys schools in use anymore? One is in pretty poor condition, with the other used by the health board I think – decked out in all-singing PVC a few years ago :rolleyes:. All combined, the schools form an oddly mounmental air to what is an otherwise modest residential suburb.

I’d imagine the big corner houses with brick dressings are a little later than the stocky all-render houses, though it’s hard to say. I think there’s similar ones around Stannaway Avenue too, near the park. Lots of great front doors around here too, esp on private houses. If there’s a single good thing to be said about aluminium infill porches, it’s that they usually saved the front door itself from being replaced, so many have survived thus far. Alas the lure of the heritage stained glass brigade is proving increasingly strong of late. Hope to get some more pics soon.

Agreed about Marino alonso. Generally nicer than Crumlin – it’s amazing what a few trees and more intimate road widths can achieve. There’s much more of a garden suburb feel there.

It’s weird in a quirky way – it’d remind you of Mr Burns’ body being preserved in that incubator, or Krang in the Turtles in his goldfish bowl…

It’s symbolic really – the Church curbed by and subservient to modern Ireland.

My, how the tables have turned since this was first erected.

Hello Dave. I’ve enjoyed your posts, and your obvious passion for these houses! It’s great to see such commitment and interest in something that most people just turn a blind eye to.

I’m very surprised the houses of Cashel Road were only built with an outside toilet as late as c. 1930 – presumably they had interior washrooms at least? I must check out the corner houses you refer to.

Thanks for the link you posted in your other thread – fantastic interiors!

Property websites are increasing helpful for allowing sneaky views of original interiors!

There is such little appreciation for the original joinery in these sturdy little houses: simple, elegant and pleasing to the eye. I recently spent about eight hours stripping back years of paint from a 1950’s handrail similar to that above, and in spite of the gruelling process, it came up beaufifully once sanded and stained as original. The difference these small improvements can make is enromous – the same regarding Bakelite handles, light switches, architraving, steel windows etc.

Unfortunately more of this is still happening as we speak.

Surely works of this scale require planning permission, in which case why is DCC permitting such unashamedly insensitive and inappropriate alterations to residential stock? And the original boundary walls swept clean away – now what monstrous tack can we expect in their place?

Contrast the lop-sided disaster on the above corner house with its colleague opposite.

What even remote connection does tan brick have to 1930’s pebble-dashed housing?! This coloured material in particular is bizarrely popular in Crumlin, and is destroying the place by stealth. Obviously there’s no objection to people extending their homes, but the ham-fisted manner of the vast majority of jobs leaves a lot to be desired. Not even a more considerate wine brick is ever used to tie in with existing string courses and dressings.

And speaking of wine brick (you probably know this one Dave), there is the most delightful little gem of a building on Cashel Road in Crumlin, a stone’s throw from the three-school ‘campus’ in the area. Seemingly once built as a health centre or community hall, today it stands apparently idle or at best underused as a modern-day health centre for the South Western Area Health Board (which unfortunatly on first glance somes across as SWAB)

A delightful neo-Palladian design, it features little curved wings (seemingly since heightened to stop people sitting on them), an imposing Lutyens slated roof, and crowned with crisp and elegantly austere chimneys.

As is typical, the only steel windows to survive are those not being used or otherwise inaccessible – in this case in the charming central gable.

It does indeed. Great pics hutton – all the aul favourites cropping up, incl Morlan 🙂
Although I cannot actually think where No. 13 is. Think I only recognise it from photographs.

Well done Phil on Trinity: I suspected only you’d get that – as usual 😉

A virtually unknown tiny little commemorative – and indeed ash burial – plot to the rear of the chapel.

And with the most spectacular crown glass looking down on it!

Fantastic stuff.