Pigeon House Power Station
In their location between civilized urban life and the boundless sea, ports form natural fringes to society. As we cycle out we pass a travellers’ settlement, truck-drivers, and a few birdwatchers, all following their routines at odds with much of the rest of the city. Although situated out by Sandymount and Ringsend in the midst of Dublin Bay, the Pigeon House area is often felt to be closer to us than it actually is, because of the presence of the Poolbeg Chimney Stacks. Visible from every corner of the city, the Stacks have brought the site back in the news recently because of plans to put an incinerator within the grounds and raze the iconic chimneys. Anger and outcry followed, as the stacks have a special place in both the Dublin psyche and skyline.
The Pigeon House Power Station itself, not visible from a distance, is one of the larger late Victorian warehouses in the country, all colossal redbrick and glass. The site where all the Poolbeg and ESB controversy is taking place, was originally known as The Green Patch. Many of the buildings in the area get their name not, as one might suspect, from the copious amounts of pigeons hanging around, but from the original caretaker to the The Green Patch, one John Pigeon, who in 1760 took it upon himself to feed and house sailors.
The Dublin City Council plans state that the first electric light to be shone in Dublin was outside the Freeman’s Journal offices on Prince’s Street in 1880. It was this introduction of electricity to the city at large that caused the construction of the Pigeon House Power Station to take place in 1906. As the demand for electricity grew, the power station found itself unable to meet the city’s demands, and by the 1960s, having been sold by Dublin City Council to ESB, it shut its doors for good as an electricity power station.
Visiting the site, you’re reminded once again of the immense amount of potential in Dublin’s derelict landmark sites. It’s hauntingly beautiful and offers an entirely different view of the city – one that makes it feel like a totally different place. On the morning we visit there are streams of late September rays coming through the broken windows, across a dramatic expanse of nothing, where machinery once lay. Most recently the site featured in footage used in this year’s Fringe show Fizzles, with actor Raymond Keane performing within the power station. There had been plans for it to become a science museum, and one can see its Tate Modern-inspired potential. It remains a subject of continual interest to artists, who have conducted residencies on the site, staying in the Pigeon House Hotel, a nearby 18th century structure. There are no immediate plans for the site. But as Charles Duggan told us, a viable and more sustainable way he’d like to see the space reintroduced to the public, might be to create a series of pop-up and limited events. Even Dublin City Council has its inspired souls! For now however, the Pigeon House Power Station remains a mammoth beauty abandoned by the sea, and for the most part inaccessible to the public.
