The weekend of Friday 16th to Sunday 18th October sees Open House Dublin return, essentially Ireland’s biggest celebration of nice gaffs. This year’s theme, ‘This Place We Call Home’, focuses on housing and public space. More private residences than ever before make up the programme with 84 buildings, 37 Open House Plus events (film, walking tours, exhibitions, talks) and 10 Open House Junior events. And as usual entry is free! For the first time Open House Dublin will have an Info Hub in the ground floor of Fumbally Exchange from 5th to 18th October, so please drop in and say hi.
2015 marks the tenth anniversary of the founding of the Irish Architecture Foundation and Open House Dublin. Since then the Open House Ireland family has expanded to Limerick, Cork and Belfast. This milestone was marked with a tenth birthday bash in one of the buildings on this year’s programme, No.13 North Great George’s Street. The grand rooms were once again hosted a big social event of the kind for which they were built.
North Great George Street was developed from 1768 as a result of commercial leases on the avenue leading to the Mount Eccles Estate. The street itself was laid out in 1774 as a driveway leading to Belvedere House, home of the 2nd Earl of Rochester. No.13 was commissioned by Robert Smith, Alderman of Dublin City circa 1785, to the design of Henry Darley. Other notable occupants of the street in the past include Yeats’ muse Maud Gonne for her radical women’s organisation Inghinidhe na hÉireann. Today it is home to the Darc Space Gallery, the James Joyce Centre and Independent Senator David Norris.
The house itself is a terraced Palladian style townhouse, three-bays wide and four storeys tall, possessing a beautiful red brick façade. A parapet wall conceals a pitched natural slate roof maintaining the clean lines. The fenestration consists of tall replacement timber sliding sash windows that mirror the proportions of the building finished with granite sills. A painted stone doorcase gives the entrance gravitas. It is flanked by engaged Doric columns supporting stepped lintel cornice with entablature forming support to an open-bed pediment housing a plain fanlight. Painted wrought-iron railings enclose the basement area inaccessible from the street. Upon entering the visitor is met with impressive ceiling heights and rooms flooded by daylight.
No.13 represents the endurance of good quality design, craftsmanship and materials withstanding the changes in society, fashion, boom-time speculation and recessions. The building’s history is laid bare with exposed brick walls and lath and plaster partitions. Her fireplaces and cornices are sadly gone and the old girl’s balustrades are delicate. Nevertheless a considerable amount of original fabric remains such as moulded chair rails, original shutters, joinery and neo-Classical plasterwork. Black and white flagstone floors lead to the wide staircase which once accommodated ladies’ gowns as they glided upwards to the drawing room, enticed by the waft of music. The excesses this building witnessed stopped after the Act of Union and the Famine brought the rural masses to the city seeking work and relief. Cue the exodus of the middle classes from the overcrowded urban centre to the suburbs and the building became tenements until the 1960s. No.13 is currently being restored by the owner and is available to hire as a venue. Despite its neglected appearance this edifice maintains a significant presence in the middle of this impressive street. The exposed internal fabric only adds to the enchantment of the building for this urban explorer.
Words: Emma Gilleece
Image: Irish Architecture Foundation
Emma Gilleece (@Gilleeece) is a historic buildings consultant and architectural historian. She is coordinator for the IAF’s Open House Dublin 2015 and Assistant Editor of Architecture Ireland.
For more on Open House Dublin 2015, see the centre of this month’s Totally Dublin magazine, which includes a map of the participating buildings.
