This photograph dates from May 2017 but it was published in September 2022.
When I first photographed this building about ten years ago a waiter in a nearby restaurant told me that it was to be converted into a hotel but this proved to be untrue. It would appear that it has been incorporated into a larger 17-storey office complex. The historic building and the new build structure will be linked at first and second floor, grouped around a central courtyard.
The same waiter also told me that the Ewart building was originally a box factory but further investigation leads me to believe that the business in question was located at 35 Bedford street which is now the Bridge House JD Wetherspoon [a superpub].
The good news is that this building has not been demolished.
When I first photographed this building about ten years ago a waiter in a nearby restaurant told me that it was to be converted into a hotel but this proved to be untrue. It would appear that it has been incorporated into a larger 17-storey office complex. The historic building and the new build structure will be linked at first and second floor, grouped around a central courtyard.
The same waiter also told me that the Ewart building was originally a box factory but further investigation leads me to believe that the business in question was located at 35 Bedford street which is now the Bridge House JD Wetherspoon [a superpub].
Because of its size and location it is/was not easy to photograph this four-storey sandstone building, which as lain empty for about twenty years. It was designed by James Hamilton, also the architect of the Waring Street Ulster Bank, now the Merchant Hotel.
The building is/was described as follows “A large prestigious Victorian style building situated on the corner of Bedford Street and Franklin Street constructed in 1869 with further extensions in 1883 and 1937. A former linen mill the building has lay vacant for several decades which has resulted in the building falling into heavy disrepair. The three storey corner site has been provided with an impressive brown/grey Scottish sandstone façade including architectural sandstone detailing including circular columns, decorative arched window openings and a sandstone parapet wall detail at roof level. A dual pitched natural slate roof incorporating Georgian wire glazed roof light has been provided over the majority of the building whilst a dome roof structure finished in lead has been provided over the corner elevation.”
Note: In November 2015 it was announced that this former linen warehouse was to be transformed into a 21st century office development. The front of the building was to be retained [does front mean exterior?] but the rest was to be demolished if everything went according to plan. At the time the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society (UAHS) lodged an objection to the planning proposal, claiming the planned new build behind the remnant facade “appears unsympathetic to remaining characteristics in design, form, materials, techniques and detailing”.
I was standing on James Larkin Road at St Anne’s Park and noticed that it was still raining across the water and it looked ghostly so I made a few attempts to capture the scene as I saw it.
The Poolbeg power station is situated adjacent to the now-decommissioned Pigeon House generating station, where electricity was first generated in 1903 (with the distinction of being the first in the world to generate three phase power).
The thermal station chimneys completed in 1971 are among the tallest structures in Ireland and are visible from most of Dublin city. Number 1 chimney is 207.48m (680 ft 9in) high. Number 2 chimney is 207.8m (681 ft 9in) high. The chimneys are featured prominently in the video for the song “Pride (In The Name Of Love)” by U2. Dublin City Councillor and historian Dermot Lacey began a process to list the chimneys for preservation to safeguard their future after the Station was to close in 2010. This was later refused by the Council Planning Department.
They were subsequently listed as protected structures in July 2014.
The name “Pigeon House” comes from a caretaker’s lodge built there in 1760. At the time the site was a wooden platform known pragmatically as “The Piles”, at the seaward end of the Ballast Office Wall embankment. The lodge was intended to provide rest and storage facilities for workers as they built the Great South Wall, a massive sea wall project that began in 1761 and would take three decades to complete.
The first caretaker, John Pidgeon, was appointed in 1761. Pidgeon opened an eatery to provide refreshments for the workers and the growing number of travelers arriving into Dublin Bay. “Pigeon’s House” as it was known became one of the most popular restaurants in Dublin.
Around 1793, as the Great South Wall was nearing completion, a hotel opened at the site, the Pigeon House Hotel.
The hotel did not last long for after the 1798 Rebellion, the area was transformed into a military fort, the Pigeon House Fort. The hotel building was converted into the officers’ accommodation within the fort, which then grew over the next hundred years to include an armoury, a hospital, and trenches crossed by drawbridges.
Between 1878 and 1881, a sewage pipe was installed along the former Ballast Office Wall (now the landward half of the Great South Wall). In 1897, the military complex was sold to the Dublin Corporation and developed into a sewage processing facility, as well as the city’s first major electrical power generating station. It was used for power generation until it was decommissioned in 1976, and the Poolbeg plant is still known locally as the Pigeon House.
The modern Poolbeg station was named after the Poolbeg lighthouse which formed the outer end of the Great South Wall. The lighthouse, completed in 1767 when construction of the Great South Wall was just beginning, stood originally at the edge of a natural tidal pool at the entrance to Dublin Harbor known as “Poole Begge”, which was surrounded at low tide with sand bars.
The Poolbeg power station was constructed in two separate phases, beginning in the 1960s. The ESB decided to construct the station in 1965 and the initial development was completed in 1971 with the construction of Units 1 and 2 at a cost of 20 million Irish pounds. The original Pigeon House generators remained on standby duty until 1976. Unit 3 was completed in 1978 at a cost of 40 million pounds.
The combined cycle station was constructed in the 1990s. CG14 was commissioned in 1994, CG15 in 1998 and ST16 in 2001.
The Kodak Building is one of two listed Art Deco buildings in Dublin. It was designed by Architects Donnelly, Moore and Keatinge in 1930.
A complete refurbishment was undertaken in 1998 to convert the building into modern office space by Paul Keogh Architects . The project received an RIAI Award and won a prestigious Glen Dimplex Design Award in 2002. It was short listed for the RIAI Silver Medal for Conservation and has featured in international publications on the design principles of remodelling existing buildings for contemporary use.
Kodak began selling its original camera, created by George Eastman, in 1888 in the US for $25. It was a leather-covered box camera that came pre-loaded with 100-exposure roll film. When used up, the entire camera could be sent to the Kodak factory, after which it would be returned loaded with fresh film along with the negatives and mounted prints, for a cost of $10. It was advertised with the slogan “You Press the Button, We Do the Rest”. Replacement film was sold for $2 for customers who had access to photographic processing. The ease of use and relatively low cost made photography widely accessible to the general public rather than only professional photographers, beginning the modern era of consumer photography.
The Eastman Kodak Company (referred to simply as Kodak is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in analogue photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorporated in New Jersey. Kodak provides packaging, functional printing, graphic communications, and professional services for businesses around the world. Its main business segments are Print Systems, Enterprise Inkjet Systems, Micro 3D Printing and Packaging, Software and Solutions, and Consumer and Film. It is best known for photographic film products.
Bathing was very popular from the eighteenth century onwards. For example, Blackrock is mentioned in a number of books of the time as being an attractive bathing area for many Dublin inhabitants.
Two separate bathing areas in old Dun Laoghaire have been noted in maps dating from the 1790s. Sources mention baths in Kingstown being built by the Royal Hotel in 1828. They were probably removed to make way for the construction of the railway in 1836.
In 1843, John Croswaithe built baths on the corner of Scotsman’s Bay. Originally known as the Royal Victorian Baths, they were only used by those who had the means to afford them. This is the site of today’s Dun Laoghaire baths.
Crosthwaite lived in Victoria Cottage, which is now long demolished. It stood where the road now runs, in front of the present-day Dun Laoghaire Baths. Croswaithe Park in Dun Laoghaire immortalises his name.
Kingstown Urban District Council bought the baths in the late 1890s and renovated them between 1905 and 1911 at a cost of £12,000. This is when they became known as Kingstown Baths, and later Dun Laoghaire Baths. The current derelict Edwardian entrance dates from this time. Crosthwaite also built baths at Seapoint, which were privately owned.
Dun Laoghaire beach was also a popular bathing area. The beach was pebbly, but set up with terraces and sun loungers. Many old photographs and postcards show this to be a very popular area for bathing and recreation.
Works at the Dun Laoghaire Baths continue and when complete will provide for the continuing public use of the area. Works include the retention and securing of the existing Baths Pavilion and the removal of dilapidated structures to the rear of the Pavilion to create a new route between Newtownsmith and the East Pier. This walkway will be at a level that will create a safe and secure walk offering panoramic views over Scotsman’s Bay. The form of this walk will reflect the original rocky shoreline and the historic alignment of the old gun battery that was originally located on this site. The walkway will incorporate sitting and viewing points and the land adjoining this walk will be re-graded to create sloping grassed areas. The scheme also proposes the refurbishment of the small gazebo situated along this route.
The existing Baths Pavilion together with a smaller outbuilding will be retained, weathered and secured while the remaining dilapidated outbuildings to the rear and side of the Pavilion will be removed. It is proposed to fit out the Pavilion to accommodate studio space for artists and to provide gallery and café facilities. The studios will be managed by the Arts Department. The original Baths entrance along Windsor Terrace will be restored to provide access. An outdoor ‘café terrace’ linked to the new café will provide an attractive sitting area for viewing eating and relaxing. It is also proposed to create new public toilets facilities at street level which will also be accessible for wheelchair users. Footpaths along Windsor Terrace will be upgraded, and new street trees planted.
These uses and improvements will create new life and provide enhanced public facilities which will complement and link the area to the adjoining Peoples Park, the completed Metals Project Phases 1 and 2 and the recently completed DLR Lexicon Environs project.
Project Update
The project is divided into several work zones. These zones include work to the new jetty, works to the new sea walls, works to the Pavilion and works to tie into the existing walkway at Newtownsmith. Currently works to the new jetty are nearing completion. This has created a new viewing point with stunning vistas across Scotsman’s Bay to Sandycove Harbour. The new long bench on the jetty has been also been completed which is inspired by the sitting bench where swimmers relax overlooking Sandycove Harbour. The new Casement Memorial Sculpture by the sculptor Mark Richards is complete and is dramatically sited on a plinth at the end of the jetty.
The construction of massive new sea walls supporting the new walkway at the back of the pavilion are also nearing completion. The old Pavilion building has been stabilised enclosed and is now fully weathered. This has allowed the artists’ studios at the lower level and café at the upper level to be progressed with the installation of electrical and mechanical services. While significant progress has been made in all these areas overall progress in constructing the works has been slower than anticipated. A combination of factors has contributed to this including a requirement to stabilise the retaining walls that supports the Queens Road and Dart cutting, difficulty in constructing the jetty and underpinning and stabilisation required for the Pavilion Building. As a consequence of this the Contractor advises a completion date of Summer 2022. This completion date is however subject to the ongoing impact of the site closure caused by the Covid pandemic.
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