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Telegraph
01-06-2025
- 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
22-05-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
Dublin: The 13th best city in the world ... supposedly
If somebody asked you where Dublin ranked among the 1,000 largest cities in world, would you rank it thirteenth? Well, the team behind the Oxford Economics Global Cities Index did just that. A 'sustainable city' they called it, with top ratings for everything except a little, inconsequential thing called 'quality of life'. The Fair City ranked as just the 100th best city in the world when it comes to quality of life as Dubliners spend 'relatively more on housing than nearly anywhere else'. Digging deeper, that score suddenly seems even more generous. 'Dublin's challenges include its acute housing shortage, lack of economic diversity and the instability that comes with its sectoral composition,' the report reads, placing the Irish capital above the very cities our young people are queuing to emigrate to – Amsterdam ranked 27th, Berlin 29th, Brisbane 23rd and Perth 31st. READ MORE Dublin's placement, knocking on the door of the top 10, was driven by strong scores for environmental friendliness (14th) and human capital (17th), based on a score of 'high-quality universities' such as Trinity College Dublin. With Dublin's economics score being artificially inflated by having the fifth-highest GDP per person in the 1,000 cities, the city's overall position would doubtless be lower were it not for the convenient location of the European headquarters of many United States firms. Still, we have the third-fastest employment growth forecast in western Europe, which puts weight behind the prior 'flawed measure'. Dublin's ranking was boosted by the country's 'stable political democracy', despite a business environment thought to be 'average' in comparison to the rest of western Europe – though perhaps not average when it comes to taxation. 'On the other hand', after pouring praise upon the city, the report goes on to explain that there are actually some negatives to living in Dublin and, yes, you've guessed it, the major is being one of the most expensive cities in Europe for housing. In Ireland's 'sustainable city', one is left wondering if its housing situation is capable of being anything other than a spur for emigration.
