BLAQUIERE BRIDGE SCHOOLHOUSE – NORTH CIRCULAR ROAD
Different accounts and discriptions use different spellings “Blacquiere” or “Blaquiere” but the name on the building and the spelling a local streetsign is the version without the “c”.
A diminutive early nineteenth-century schoolhouse, prominently located at the corner of North Circular Road, and now converted to a house. The overall form and proportions have been retained, and the building is of social significance for the area, due to its associations with early nineteenth-century education in the area.
In the 19th Century Broadstone was a major transport centre consisting of a railway station and a canal harbour. There was, at one stage, an aqueduct and a narrow canal that linked to the royal canal.
The canal was known as the Broadstone Canal and as the North Circular crossed the canal route the engineers had to build a humpbacked bridge to carry to road over the canal. The bridge was named Blaquiere Bridge after one of the directors of the Royal Canal Company.
Note: The Royal Canal was originally planned to terminate in Dublin at Broadstone, to serve the then fashionable area of residence, as well as King’s Inns and the nearby markets, but it was extended so that now, at the Dublin end, the canal reaches the Liffey through a wide sequence of dock and locks at Spencer Dock, with a final sea lock to manage access to the river and sea.
DUBLIN CASTLE LOOKS LIKE GHOST CASTLE – WHERE HAVE ALL THE PEOPLE GONE
At times, because of Covid-19 restrictions, when I walk around the city I feel as if I am a ghost who has returned to discover that it is not possible to see people and also nothing is exactly as I remembered it. The other possibility is that I am alive and everyone else is a ghost. Sometimes I do see someone far off in the distance but their faces appear to lack features and as I begin to approach the keep moving away.
OLD WAREHOUSE ON SIR JOHN ROGERSONS QUAY PHOTOGRAPHED 17 APRIL 2017
Back in the late 1960s I was employed by the B+I [British and Irish Steam Packet Company] and while I was based on the North Side of the docklands I am almost certain that this was one of our warehouses if not then it is next to a building that was owned by the company [part of that building still exists].
In August [2020] it was announced that the construction of 216 will begin at this site and that B AM Ireland in the main contractor for the project which will be completed bu July 2022.
The block is part of a complex consisting of four developments including the Sorting Office, a 208,000sq ft commercial building recently sold to Mapletree for €240 million, Ropemaker Place, a new residential development with 56 high-end apartments sold to German investor Real IS for €46 million, and the Shipping Office, an upcoming 177,000sq ft grade A commercial development on Sir Rogerson’s Quay.
Last October, Google entered into talks to rent the ‘Sorting Office’ but have recently, because of Covid-19, abandoned plans to rent office space in the Docklands for 2,000 new employees. I am assuming that the employees will work from home going forward.
B&I was taken over by the Irish Government in 1965 about three years before I joined the company. It had ten passenger and cargo vessels, many built in the late 1940s. The new management commenced a major programme of modernisation, launching the car ferries MV Munster (1968), Innisfallen and Leinster (1969). The Munster and Leinster plied the Dublin–Liverpool route and the new Innisfallen out of Cork changed from Fishguard to Swansea in 1969. The company was also operating new freight ships.
On 25 April 1980 a jetfoil service from Dublin to Liverpool started but was withdrawn as it was not a commercial success. The company ran into major financial problems in 1981, this and labour disputes persisted into the early 1992 when the company was privatised and taken over by the Irish Continental Group.
NORTH BRUNSWICK STREET – OLD RICHMOND HOSPITAL BUILDING
This could be described as being in Grangegorman, Smithfield or Stoneybatter.
The Richmond originally formed part of a complex of three hospitals – the others were the Whitworth and Hardwick – collectively known as St Laurence’s.
The building in my photographs was constructed in the 1890s to replace a former convent that had been there since 1807. I do not know why, but the hospital did not open until 1901 with the two wings of the U-shaped complex accommodating all of the wards. There was one window for each bed. The double loggias at the ends of the wings allowed sheltered access to fresh air for patients
In 1994, the Richmond and Whitworth hospitals were converted into business centres and a self-storage facility.
In 1996 The Richmond was leased by the Government for use as District courts. The building housed five of the Dublin District Courts until the opening of the new Criminal Courts of Justice.
In January 2014 it was announced that the building had been acquired by the Irish Nurses and Midwives’ Organisation (INMO) for use as an education and event centre. However, it appears to be unoccupied at present with some construction work ongoing.
In July 2016 I came across the following statement by the INMO – “I now wish to confirm that the refurbishment works, on the Richmond Building, will commence shortly and will take a little under six months to complete. The refurbishment works are designed to provide the Organisation with an Education and Event Centre that will allow us to greatly expand the full range of professional, educational, industrial relations and other courses that we provide to members on an ongoing basis.”
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