Fatima Mansions (housing)

Last updated

Fatima Mansions
General information
Location Rialto, Dublin, Ireland
StatusDemolished and rebuilt under Public Private Partnership between 2004 and 2007.
Construction
Constructedlate 1930s-1947

Fatima Mansions is an extensive public housing complex located in Rialto, Dublin. In the early 21st century, it underwent a substantial urban renewal programme with the assistance of public and private funding. [1] All existing apartment blocks were demolished to make way for 600 accommodation units, consisting of social, affordable and private housing along with community, business and leisure facilities at a cost of €200 million. [2] The blocks have since been renamed Herberton Apartments, but the area is still referred to locally as Fatima, which is the name of the adjacent Luas Red Line tram stop.

History

Work on the original complex started before World War II under the direction of Dublin Corporation (now Dublin City Council) but construction was held up due to material shortages. The first phase of construction was finally completed after the war and the first tenants began to move in during 1947: the development consisted of fifteen blocks, each of four floors in height. They replaced tenement housing for the area's working-class residents, and provided a great improvement in living conditions. [3] In the mid 1980s the area became notorious for its high levels of heroin use and drug dealing, [4] which eventually led to the original complex's demolition due to the drug problem's severity.[ citation needed ]

The Fatima Mansions were an Irish art rock group named after the flats. Speaking in 2021, lead singer of the band Cathal Coughlan agreed that he had a "pang of guilt" for calling the band Fatima Mansions and said that the name of the band was "emphatically not poking fun at poor social conditions that were being foisted upon people in inner-city Dublin". [5]

Related Research Articles

Tower block Tall building; as opposed to a low-rise building

A tower block, high-rise, apartment tower, residential tower, apartment block, block of flats, or office tower is a tall building, as opposed to a low-rise building and is defined differently in terms of height depending on the jurisdiction. It is used as a residential, office building, or other functions including hotel, retail, or with multiple purposes combined. Residential high-rise buildings are also known in some varieties of English, such as British English, as tower blocks and may be referred to as MDUs, standing for multi-dwelling units. A very tall high-rise building is referred to as a skyscraper.

Public housing Residential properties owned by a government

Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is usually owned by a government authority, either central or local.

Apartment Self-contained housing unit occupying part of a building

An apartment, or flat, is a self-contained housing unit that occupies part of a building, generally on a single story. There are many names for these overall buildings, see below. The housing tenure of apartments also varies considerably, from large-scale public housing, to owner occupancy within what is legally a condominium, to tenants renting from a private landlord.

Housing estate Group of homes and other buildings built together as a single development

A housing estate is a group of homes and other buildings built together as a single development. The exact form may vary from country to country.

Urban renewal Land redevelopment in cities

Urban renewal is a program of land redevelopment often used to address urban decay in cities. Urban renewal involves the clearing out of blighted areas in inner cities to clear out slums and create opportunities for higher class housing, businesses, and other developments.

Park Hill, Sheffield Council housing estate in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England

Park Hill is a housing estate in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. It was built between 1957 and 1961, and in 1998 was given Grade II* listed building status. Following a period of decline, the estate is being renovated by developers Urban Splash into a mostly private mixed-tenure estate made up of homes for market rent, private sale, shared ownership, and student housing while around a quarter of the units in the development will be social housing. The renovation was one of the six short-listed projects for the 2013 RIBA Stirling Prize. The Estate falls within the Manor Castle ward of the City. Park Hill is also the name of the area in which the flats are sited. The name relates to the deer park attached to Sheffield Manor, the remnant of which is now known as Norfolk Park.

Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

The Downtown Eastside (DTES) is a neighbourhood in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. One of the city's oldest neighbourhoods, the DTES is the site of a complex set of social issues including disproportionately high levels of drug use, homelessness, poverty, crime, mental illness and sex work. It is also known for its strong community resilience, history of social activism, and artistic contributions.

Ballymun Large northside suburb of Dublin, Ireland

Ballymun is an outer suburb of Dublin, Ireland, at the northern edge of the Northside, the green-field development of which began in the 1960s to accommodate a housing crisis in inner city areas of Dublin. While the newly built housing was state-of-the-art at the time, comprising high-rise tower blocks and flat complexes, residents were moved in years before shops, schools and other infrastructure were fully ready, and the area became well known for both a strong community spirit and considerable social challenges. Ballymun has several sub-districts such as Sillogue, Coultry, Shangan and Poppintree, and is close to both the Republic of Ireland's only IKEA store and to Dublin Airport. The area is the source of one Dublin river, and parts lie in the floodplain of another, and there are a number of parks.

Ballymun Flats Former apartment buildings in Dublin, Ireland

The Ballymun Flats referred to a number of flats—including the seven Ballymun tower blocks—in Ballymun, Dublin, Ireland. Built rapidly in the 1960s, there were 36 blocks in total, consisting of seven 15-storey, nineteen eight-storey, and ten four-storey blocks. The complex was built in a Corbusian style known as towers in the park, which was popular in European and American cities in the mid-20th century.

Ballyfermot Suburb of Dublin, Ireland

Ballyfermot is a suburb of the city of Dublin, Ireland. Located seven kilometres west of the city centre, south of the Phoenix Park, it is bordered on the north by Chapelizod, on the south by Bluebell, on the east by Inchicore, on the north-west by Palmerstown and the south-west by Clondalkin and Parkwest. The River Liffey lies to the north, and the Grand Canal, now a recreational waterway, lies to the south. Ballyfermot lies within postal district Dublin 10. Cherry Orchard is also a suburb, sometimes considered to sit within Ballyfermot.

Cathal Coughlan (musician) Irish singer (1960/1961 – 2022)

Cathal Coughlan was an Irish singer and songwriter from Cork, best known as the frontman of the band Microdisney, formed with Sean O'Hagan in 1980. Their second album The Clock Comes Down the Stairs reached number one in the UK Indie Chart. They developed cult followings in the Irish and UK indie music scenes before breaking up in 1988.

Adamstown is a planned suburban development, the first new town in Ireland since Shannon Town in the 1960s. Located circa 16 km from Dublin city centre, the development-in-progress is based on a 220 hectare Strategic Development Zone site south of the N4 road and Lucan, west of Liffey tributary the Griffeen River and north of the Grand Canal. No date has been set for the official granting of any specific long-term official status but development is underway since 2005 and as of 2015, perhaps 4,500 of a planned population of 25,000 were resident. The planned scale of development is 9,000 to 10,000 dwellings, with aligned supporting infrastructure including public transport links. Adamstown is in the jurisdiction of South Dublin County Council.

Cranhill is an inner city district and housing scheme in the north east of Glasgow, Scotland. Cranhill was developed from public funding in the early 1950s and was originally, chiefly composed of four-storey tenement blocks surrounding a patch of grassland, which became Cranhill Park. Later development saw the building of three tower blocks, surrounded by rows of terraced maisonettes. In more recent years, a number of semi-detached and detached homes have been built. The area also hosts some shops, two primary schools and nurseries, a community centre and the Cranhill water tower.

Marino, Dublin Inner northern suburb of Dublin, Ireland

Marino is an inner suburb on the Northside of Dublin, Ireland. It was built, in a planned form, on former grounds of Marino House, in an area between Drumcondra, Donnycarney, Clontarf, and what became Fairview. The initial development featured around 1,300 concrete-built houses.

U2 Tower Proposed landmark skyscraper to be constructed in Dublin

The U2 Tower was a cancelled skyscraper which was proposed to be constructed in Dublin, Ireland. The site proposed was in the South Docklands (SODO) campshires, at the corner of Sir John Rogerson's Quay and Britain Quay, by the confluence of the River Liffey, the River Dodder, and the Grand Canal. The design announced on 12 October 2007 was by Foster and Partners. Reports suggested a building height of 120 metres, "well over 120 metres", and 180 metres, any of which would have made it the tallest building on the island of Ireland. The building was planned to be an apartment building, with a recording studio owned by the rock group U2 in a "pod" at the top. Construction was to begin in 2008 and end in 2011, at a cost of €200m. In October 2008, the project was cancelled because of the economic downturn at the time. Proposals to revive the plan were reported in July 2013. However, they did not come to fruition and the 79-metre, 22-storey Capital Dock development has since been built on the site.

Oi Man Estate Public housing estate in No. 12 Hill, Hong Kong

Oi Man Estate is a public housing estate in No. 12 Hill, Kowloon, Hong Kong. It is the largest public housing estate in Kowloon City District and has a total of 12 residential blocks which were completed between 1974 and 1975. It was officially opened by the Acting Governor Sir Denys Roberts on 20 November 1975.

Public housing estates in Ho Man Tin

The following is an overview of public housing estates in Quarry Hill and No. 12 Hill, Kowloon, Hong Kong, including Home Ownership Scheme (HOS), Private Sector Participation Scheme (PSPS), Sandwich Class Housing Scheme (SCHS), Flat-for-Sale Scheme (FFSS), and Tenants Purchase Scheme (TPS) estates.

The Glen is a predominantly residential area on the north side of Cork City, Ireland. The area consists of mostly social housing estates near an ancient glacial valley known as the 'Glen River Park'. The Glen is within the Dáil constituency of Cork North-Central, and made up of the electoral division of the Glen A and Glen B. The Glen A electoral division recorded a population of 2,354 in the 2011 census.

Public housing in the United Kingdom British government and local authority housing programmes

Public housing provided the majority of rented accommodation in the United Kingdom until 2011 when the number of households in private rental housing surpassed the number in social housing. Houses and flats built for public or social housing use are built by or for local authorities and known as council houses, though since the 1980s the role of non-profit housing associations became more important and subsequently the term "social housing" became more widely used, as technically council housing only refers to housing owned by a local authority, though the terms are largely used interchangeably. Before 1865, housing for the poor was provided solely by the private sector. Council houses were built on council estates, where other amenities, like schools and shops, were often also provided. From the 1950s, blocks of flats and three-or-four-storey blocks of maisonettes were widely built, alongside large developments of terraced housing, while the 1960s and the 1970s saw construction of many high-rise tower blocks. Flats and houses were also built in mixed estates.

Squatting in Ireland

Squatting in the Republic of Ireland is the occupation of unused land or derelict buildings without the permission of the owner. In the 1960s, the Dublin Housing Action Committee highlighted the housing crisis by squatting buildings. From the 1990s onwards there have been occasional political squats such as Grangegorman.

References

  1. "Fatima Groups United". The Ireland Funds. 2011. Archived from the original on 14 July 2010. Retrieved 5 November 2011.
  2. "Housing Regeneration Projects". Dublin City Council. c. 2011. Archived from the original on 6 November 2011. Retrieved 5 November 2011.
  3. Corcoran, Mary P. (2006). "Re-Imagining the Built Environment - Place, Community and Neighborhood in the City of Dublin". In Andrew Higgins Wyndham (ed.). Re-imagining Ireland. Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and Public Policy. University of Virginia Press. pp. 176–182. ISBN   978-0-8139-2544-8 . Retrieved 5 November 2011.
  4. Byrne, Shay (2007). The miracle of Fatima Mansions: an escape from drug addiction. Dunboyne: Maverick House Publishers. pp. ?. ISBN   978-1-905379-40-8.
  5. "To Here Knows When - Great Irish Albums Revisited". paulmcdermott.ie (Podcast). Paul McDermott. 25 September 2021. Event occurs at 8:20. Retrieved 4 November 2021.