Latest news with #GeorgianArchitecture
Telegraph
4 days ago
- General
- Telegraph
Forget Bath and Bloomsbury – the greatest Georgian architecture is found in Dublin
The clearest memory of my first visit to Dublin, nearly 40 years ago, is my initial sight of Merrion Square. It is – whatever the claims of Bloomsbury, Bath, or the New Town in Edinburgh – the finest Georgian architectural spectacle in the British Isles. For those who do not know it, Merrion Square is a vast rectangle of terraced houses in the centre of the Irish capital, surrounding a superb park – originally a private space for residents, now open to the public. The original landlord was the 6th Viscount Fitzwilliam, whose family had been in Ireland since the 13th century and was then the biggest landowner in the Dublin area. Both he and his son, the 7th Viscount, undertook extensive property development, of which Merrion Square is the foremost jewel. The 7th Viscount served for a time as an MP in Wiltshire, and left the bequest that founded the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. The decision to lay out the square was taken in 1762 and began with the west side: the original plan was devised by two local architects, John Smyth and Jonathan Barker, and in 1780 the plan for the east side was drawn up by a third, Samuel Sproule. Benjamin Simpson won a competition to design the gardens in 1792, and by the early 19th century almost all the houses had been built. It quickly became a fashionable address, sought after by the 'quality' of Dublin. When I first walked around the square in the 1980s, many of the properties were still residential; now, it is dominated by offices and embassies, though some private houses remain. In the past, some of Ireland's most glittering names lived there: Oscar Wilde's father, William, had a house where Wilde (a statue of whom reclines in the park) lived until he was 22. Later, W B Yeats was a resident of the square; as were, in earlier times, Daniel O'Connell, the nationalist leader, and Sheridan Le Fanu, the gothic novelist. The original conception remains mostly intact – one sizeable property on the North Terrace was, however, demolished almost a century ago and the National Maternity Hospital was built on the site. Everything else on the east, south and north sides is conventional late-Georgian townhouses of three storeys, an attic and a basement, built in red brick, with the traditionally fenestrated sash windows and solid front doors with varieties of semi-circular fanlights above them. The west side contains two museums and the gardens of Leinster House. Looking up the south side there is in the distance at the end of Mount Street (which carries on from the square) a fine Georgian church, St Stephen's, designed by John Bowden, and known as the Pepper Canister after the distinctive shape of its spire. The view from the bottom of Merrion Square along the terraces of the square and of Mount Street, with this gem at the end, is one of the finest townscapes one could wish to see. It is something of a marvel that the square looks as good as it does. The uniformity is remarkable, given the length of time over which the houses were built, by a variety of labourers and craftsmen. Some of the 92 houses are narrower than others; and one of the great joys of walking round is to compare the different designs of fanlight and the colours of the handsome front doors. In some, the fenestration of 12 small panes (six in the top frame and six in the bottom) has been replaced by one large single pane in each frame, which detracts from the uniformity, but luckily is rare; and most houses are of three bays but some are of two bays. Nor are the heights of the houses always uniform, but the line of the terraces and the effect of the patina of the brick is what captures the eye. The growing wealth of 19th-century Dublin after the 1801 Act of Union led to the embellishment of some of the houses, notably with wrought-iron balconies on the first floor. The square is also blessed with tall and ornate lamp standards that complement the houses. Architectural guides – including the excellent Buildings of Ireland volume on Dublin – speak rapturously of the interiors of many of the houses, such as their ceilings, cornices, mantelpieces and staircases. But the great joy about Merrion Square is that even from the outside it is astonishingly special.
Irish Times
28-05-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
Georgian gem on Harcourt Street guiding at €4.5m
Agent Knight Frank is guiding a price of €4.5 million for Clonmell House, a prime Georgian building in the heart of Dublin city centre. Located at 17 Harcourt Street and extending to 888.6sq m (8,811sq ft) across four floors over basement level, along with a mews to the rear, the building has a rich history. It served for a time as the Dublin home of The Earl of Clonmell and later, between 1908 and 1932, as the home of the Municipal Gallery of Modern Art. The building, which is accessed via a flight of granite steps, is predominantly in office use. The basement of Clonmell House and first floor of the mews is let to Vaugirard - a designated activity company under two separate leases with the basement in use as a bar/nightclub. The car park to the rear accommodates 10 parking spaces and is accessed via Montague Lane. Both leases are for a term of 25 years from January 11th, 2016, with a passing rent of €55,700 and €8,000 respectively. The sale will not affect the tenants currently occupying the building. Clonmell House is of traditional brick and masonry wall construction, with suspended timber stairs and floors. The building retains extensive ornate ceiling plasterwork, including period cornices and centre roses. Impressive period mantelpieces can be found throughout. The property is in walk-in condition and benefits from a passenger lift. READ MORE The property is highly accessible thanks to its proximity to the Luas Green- Line stops on Harcourt Street and St Stephen's Green. Dart and mainline rail services can be accessed at Pearse Street station, a 25-minute walk away. Both the QBC (Quality Bus Corridor) and Aircoach stops are located within a 10-minute walk of the property on St Stephen's Green. Tom Fahy and Harry Dawson are guiding a price of €4.5 million for the property and understand that VAT is not applicable to the sale. They recommend, however, that all intending purchasers carry out their own due diligence in this regard.
Daily Mail
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
So much for the gothic vibes! Tim Burton puts mansion on sale for £4.5m...but shocks fans with quintessentially English decor
Film director Tim Burton has shocked fans after his 'quintessentially English' Oxfordshire country home was put on the market for £4.5million. Burton bought the 5,900 square feet home in January 2006 when he and Actress Helena Bonham Carter were together. The 'enchanting' Grade II-listed Mill House, which sits on 17 acres of gardens and lies next to the River Thames in Abingdon, has now been put up for sale. At the time it was bought for £2.9million but has now surged in price and any keen buyer will have to fork out £4.5million for the country home. The 66-year-old is famous for his unique and dark film style, having been behind a string of iconic films including Beetlejuice, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Edward Scissorhands. But he has surprised fans at how 'normal' his choice of decor is for his Oxfordshire pad. 'Fantastic home, but I am shocked by how simple it is. I had envisioned Tim Burton's home to have a gothic vibe,' one said. The listing for the home, which is now open for anyone interested, says: 'This graceful and quintessentially English 18th century country house sits gently within its exquisite landscape. 'Lovely 19th-century cast iron window boxes beneath 16-pane sash windows and hipped dormers to the second floor, all make for a delightful entrance to the front of the house. 'Built in showcases the stunning classic design and symmetry of the Georgian period. 'Original architectural and design details abound throughout the house.' The property showcases a wealth of period features, including ornate plaster cornices, full-height sash windows, dado rails, substantial skirting boards, panelled doors, original wooden shutters, and intricately carved fireplaces. There is a drawing room, library, study, sitting room, kitchen, utility room, boot room, eight bedrooms, and four bathrooms. The landscaped grounds span 17 acres and feature winding miniature waterways, small islands, a summerhouse, and a rose courtyard. However, some were left open-mouthed at how normal the property is compared to the style of film the director is known for. One said: 'I'm disappointed by how ordinary it is.' Another speculated that 'when you've got all that stuff in your head, maybe you want your environment to be calm and neutral'. The house gained national prominence between 1697 and 1724, when the Bank of England chose its original paper mill to manufacture specialised paper for banknotes. Paper production continued successfully even after the contract ended, and the house, built in 1741, served as the residence for the mill's foreman. In 1913, Prime Minister H. H. Asquith and his wife Margot moved to a nearby estate. It was there that Asquith signed the declaration marking Britain's entry into the First World War. In 1917, the couple acquired this house to offer additional accommodation for their guests. In 2020, while Burton lived there, he put up a new fence to stop anti-social behaviour including littering on his land. Locals claimed the fence cut off a route they had used for years to get to pools and weirs alongside the river. Some were even said to have fly-tipped Burton's home to show their anger at what they said had cut the heart out of their village. It is understood that the fence, at the time, was on land belonging to Mr Burton but blocks a route locals have used for years. Locals have threatened to tear it down if it's not removed and said the structure was 'selfish and heartless'. Resident Chris Dalton previously posted: 'I live in the village and believe there are a few things we can do to organise and fight the fence. 'I have opened a planning dispute against the fence [...] This is based on it being a listed building and being next to a footpath. They should have put in planning. 'If everyone would email [the council] to add to the complaint, the would be appreciated. I believe that ultimately money wins planning disputes, but this is worth a try.'
Telegraph
27-05-2025
- Telegraph
The English high street: Whitehaven, Cumberland – Glorious Georgian houses preserved by poverty
Whitehaven is a town by the sea but not a seaside town. The first designed town in England since the Middle Ages, it was built in the 1660s. Its strong character captivated me in a way no town has for years. Holidaymakers do not flock here but to the Lake District a few miles inland. The train journey from London took six hours via the enjoyably slow line from Carlisle down the coast of Cumberland. It is still open, I suspect, because it serves nearby Sellafield nuclear power station. Sellafield pays good salaries; otherwise, in central Whitehaven, 15 per cent of people are claiming Universal Credit and housing can be poor. Yet the glorious streets of Georgian houses near the harbour were preserved by poverty – the recession from 1800, when the tobacco trade dried up, ensuring that these old houses were not replaced with grand Victorian buildings. The small grid of streets was the brainchild of the local landowner Sir John Lowther, who was in his 20s in the 1660s. He sent detailed instructions to his agent from London, where fellow members of the Royal Society, Sir Christopher Wren and Robert Hooke, were planning the rebuilding of London after the Great Fire of 1666. Whitehaven had 84 households in 1667, 2,281 people by 1696 and 9,063 by 1762. Its greatest prosperity came in the 1740s, from exporting coal mined right by the harbour and importing tobacco, for which this was the main port after London. Coal exports peaked at 400,000 tons in 1928. A new mine was cancelled this year after a court ruling on government net-zero legislation. The principal thoroughfare, Lowther Street, runs from the castle (once the Lowthers' house) to the harbour. Sir John laid out Lowther Street in 1685, 48ft wide. Houses, built by their owners, had to follow a building line on the street with no gaps between them. Windows were to have stone transoms and doors hewn stonework. Sir John refused permission for a back ally to King Street because such things were 'commonly nothing but a sink of nastiness'. The square he built round the new St Nicholas's Church on Lowther Street was the earliest in the country, outside London. From 1706 his son, James, continued the development of fine but modest houses. In modern times many were washed in a variety of colours, adding a fortuitous attraction. During my visit, it was so cold in my lodgings that I went out for a walk in my overcoat in the middle of the night. Unlike London, there were no street sleepers visible, in fact no one at all, and no traffic but a police car. In the moonlight the terraces of Scotch Street and Irish Street looked like theatre sets, their varied 18th-century doorways framed with columns and pediments. From shabby first floor rooms with makeshift curtains came chance nocturnal voices. Of the churches the Lowthers provided, Holy Trinity (1715) was demolished in 1949; St Nicholas (rebuilt 1883) on Lowther Street burned down in 1971, leaving a surprisingly pleasing tower in its green churchyard. The gem is light and tranquil St James's (1753), on the valley side – 'the finest Georgian church interior in the county,' said the great architectural historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner. In 1970 only 36 per cent of buildings in Whitehaven were sound and 34 per cent derelict. The old industrial area west of the harbour was almost obliterated. Little evidence remains of King Pit, which, in 1793, was the deepest in the world at 160 fathoms, or of Saltom Pit, the first to extend under the sea, in 1729. However, Wellington Lodge survives – a crenellated tower of the 1840s by the architect Sydney Smirke, who was commissioned to design Gothic pithead buildings for the prominent site above the harbour. Whole areas of 18th-century houses were demolished by 1970, when it was realised that if this continued there'd be nothing left. Since then gradual renovation has made the vital difference between a ghost town and an historic setting for local people to develop a future. Lowther Street boasts three rare gems. The first is Michael Moon's shop, which has been 'finding new homes for old books since 1970'. It has 13 rooms and stalagmites of old volumes. Behind the counter I found Peter Moon, wisely wearing a quilted gilet under his tweed jacket against the spring chill and dealing with postal sales. His father Michael kindly walked round from his home to join us. Michael Moon's mind is wryly humorous. His trade flyer lists some things he doesn't sell: 'Donkey stones, tins of dubbin, laminated shims, koi carp, flensing knives, canopic jars…' But not only does he sell books, he publishes them. Of his 55 historical reprints, all sold except for Annals of the Solway by George Neilson (1896). Few live on the Solway Firth who might want to buy it. A few doors down, the flourishing independent Dixons department store occupies a string of old stone houses. (From the slate roof, seagulls dislodge wisps of moss which garnish the pavement.) In many towns a defunct chain department store leaves a gap in the urban dentition. Dixons brings shoppers into the town centre. The third nice surprise was Richardson's wine shop. The model train looping round the 19th-century shop window caught my eye. Then I saw the Whitehaven labelled wine. Surely wine can't be grown here? Gerard Richardson put me right in his little office behind the counter. 'The Whitehaven is a sauvignon blanc from the Marlborough district of New Zealand. They started approximately the same time as our business, 1995, and we have stocked all their vintages.' It sells at £20.95. As supermarkets competed to sell cheaper wine, Richardson went up market. He relishes contrary success. 'We want to be old-fashioned,' he said, nodding at the old coffee-roasting machine. 'We dropped Mondays as a shop day. Trade went up. We closed at 3pm. Trade went up.' Richardson is friendly and unassuming, but served for 19 years as a Justice of the Peace and is a deputy lieutenant of the county. Together with his shop partner, Louise Savage, he has published books on Whitehaven in old photographs. He was behind the Maritime Festivals from 1999 that brought thousands of visitors (the late Queen among them) to the harbour. He kept the festivals going till 2015, when Health & Safety interference made hosting the event a nightmare. Two giant silos on the harbour were demolished in 1992 (formerly used by the popular employer Marchon, which made phosphoric and sulphuric acid). Since 1998 a marina has provided 400 berths for private vessels and a pontoon for commercial craft. I spotted the local fishing vessels Galatea (WA5) and Kinloch (WA35). Since 2022, though, Queen's Marina has turned brown with iron ochre, apparently from water draining a nearby railway tunnel. Some building losses have been shocking. In the 1970s, to make way for a 42,000 sq ft Co-op superstore, one side of the Georgian Church Street and one side of the Georgian Queen Street were demolished for a whole block. Wilkinsons took over from the Co-op; but then closed in 2023. The Post Office in Lowther Street closed in 1994 and in 2020 a huge cannabis farm was discovered in the building. HSBC next door closed in 2022 and NatWest two doors down in 2023. The Methodist Church in Lowther Street remains an attractive feature of the skyline, but it closed in 1996 and last year the interior was mouldering and full of water. Off Lowther Street, King Street, once bustling, now has empty and derelict shops. For weekly shopping most go to Morrisons on one edge of the historic centre, or Tesco, beside the railway station. A strength of Whitehaven is its distinctive culture. I popped into Cross's Coffee Shop ('Estd 1895') in old Roper Street and pointed to a tempting pastry. The cheery waitress looked at me as if I were a Martian, but said, 'Oh, currant cake.' It's a variant of Eccles cake, with no lid. Jane Grigson has a recipe. Further up Roper Street, the 17th century No 54 has been restored, its walls washed a tasteful maroon. But the shop below is empty. Within living memory this was R Brew's clog shop, its window full of wooden shoes. I did see whippets in the town, but no clogs. Whitehaven narrowly escaped the desolation of other post-industrial towns. Its wonderful historic kernel has been rehabilitated only thanks to the commitment of local people in and around Lowther Street.
Irish Times
26-05-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
Contemporary ‘Cigar Box' apartment amid Georgian grandeur on North Great George's Street for €575,000
Address : Apt 3, 26 North Great George's Street, Dublin 1 Price : €575,000 Agent : Sherry FitzGerald Called the Cigar Box due to its central structure – which forms the entrance and central hallways in the apartments – being shaped like a tiered humidor, the apartment building at 26 North Great George's Street, just off Parnell Street on the north side of Dublin city centre , is something to behold. Designed by Denis Byrne Architects and constructed in the early 2000s, it is one of the few contemporary structures on a street that is revered for its gorgeous Georgian town houses and their ornate doorways, as well as the history that lies within. Former senator and veteran gay rights campaigner David Norris is a proud resident of North Great George's Street and played a role in creating a society to preserve its heritage. He wrote in The Irish Times about falling in love with the street and buying a house there in 1978: 'I discovered that there were already people restoring [homes here], but in isolation ... I called a meeting in my house in June 1979 and so the North Great George's Street Preservation Society was born in my drawingroom on that day.' Also home to the James Joyce Centre, it won't be long before men in straw hats and women shaded by parasols will take to the street to celebrate Bloomsday . READ MORE As well as being surrounded by the grandeur of the past, apartment 3 at 26 North Great George's Street offers contemporary living. The owner bought two apartments when they were built, added internal stairs between the two, and lived in it as a family home. Now they have decided to downsize to a single floor and have removed the stairs to re-establish number 3 as an 89sq m two-bed apartment. It has been brought to the market by Sherry Fitzgerald , seeking €575,000. It has a C1 Ber. From the street, you can see the stairs and balconies to the side of each L-shaped own-door apartment. The stairs are accessed through a gate with fob access for residents. You can sense a New York influence when walking up the industrial-style stairs of the redbrick building to the third-floor apartment, where there is a balcony outside the front door big enough for a table and chairs for two. 26 North Great George's Street, Dublin 1 Front balcony 'Cigar box' central hallway Study area Kitchen Living area You enter the home into the 'cigar box' hallway, off which are two double bedrooms, the bathroom to the right and the study and living areas to the left, facing on to the street. Walking into the study area, it's filled with light from a dual-aspect box shape of floor-to-ceiling glazing recessed into the space. This space flows into the kitchen and living area. The Allmilmo kitchen was kept by the owners from 20 years ago, and is still in great condition as it was not used as their main kitchen. Floor-to-ceiling French doors open out to a Juliet balcony overlooking the street. Double bedroom Main bedroom Bathroom The double bedrooms are of a good size, with balcony access and built in wardrobes; the main bedroom also has an en suite shower room. The main bathroom is finished with white marble-effect wall tiles. This apartment is excellently located, with the all the city has to offer on your doorstep, including an array of restaurants and pubs on Parnell Street and the Gate and Ambassador theatres just around the corner. You can also hop on the Luas green-line stop at Parnell Street for easy access to the south side of the city.
