Location | Dublin, Ireland |
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Coordinates | 53°20′14″N6°14′56″W / 53.3371439°N 6.2488052°W |
The Georgian mile is an unofficial term used to describe a continuous, near mile-long thoroughfare largely lined with Georgian townhouses in Dublin, Ireland. It comprises Fitzwilliam Place, Fitzwilliam Square East, Fitzwilliam Street, and Merrion Square East. According to The Irish Times, the stretch was once "the longest and arguably the finest Georgian streetscape in the world." [1] It was built between the 1780s and the 1830s. [2]
In 1962, Ireland's Electricity Supply Board announced plans to level 16 houses on the Lower Fitzwilliam Street portion of the mile in order to build a new headquarters and to accommodate its growing presence on the street. [1] The move resulted in widespread pushback from the city's conservationists and would become a bone of contention between preservationists and the ESB for 50 years. [3] Those in opposition to the demolition included the Irish Georgian Society, actor Micheál MacLiammóir and artist Seán Keating. Princess Grace of Monaco also lent her support for the preservation of the houses. [1]
In spite of this, the demolition went ahead in 1965. The firm Stephenson Gibney & Associates was hired to design a new ESB building that would occupy the entire site. It was completed in 1978. The modernist building that resulted was largely unliked in the city and was subsequently called “a brutish intrusion on a polite classical assembly”. [3] It is reported that Arthur Gibney and Sam Stephenson regretted their design in later years. [2]
In 2013, the ESB unveiled plans to redevelop the 1978 building. [4] The new headquarters opened in 2022 and was designed by Grafton Architects. It was described as a “chameleon-like scheme” that is “hiding in plain view among the Georgian brick façades” by the Architects’ Journal. [3]
Georgian Dublin is a phrase used in terms of the history of Dublin that has two interwoven meanings:
Merrion Square is a Georgian garden square on the southside of Dublin city centre.
St Stephen's Green is a garden square and public park located in the city centre of Dublin, Ireland. The current landscape of the park was designed by William Sheppard. It was officially re-opened to the public on Tuesday, 27 July 1880 by Lord Ardilaun. The square is adjacent to one of Dublin's main shopping streets, Grafton Street, and to a shopping centre named after it, while on its surrounding streets are the offices of a number of public bodies as well as a stop on one of Dublin's Luas tram lines. It is often informally called Stephen's Green. At 22 acres (8.9 ha), it is the largest of the parks in Dublin's main Georgian garden squares. Others include nearby Merrion Square and Fitzwilliam Square.
The architecture of Ireland is one of the most visible features in the Irish countryside – with remains from all eras since the Stone Age abounding. Ireland is famous for its ruined and intact Norman and Anglo-Irish castles, small whitewashed thatched cottages and Georgian urban buildings. What are unaccountably somewhat less famous are the still complete Palladian and Rococo country houses which can be favourably compared to anything similar in northern Europe, and the country's many Gothic and neo-Gothic cathedrals and buildings.
Dublin is one of the oldest capital cities in Europe – dating back over a thousand years. Over the centuries and particularly in the 18th century or Georgian era, it acquired a distinctive style of architecture. Since the 1960s, Dublin has been extensively re-developed, sometimes resulting in the replacement of earlier buildings. Some of this has been controversial with preservationists regarding the development as unwelcome.
Sir John Newenham Summerson, was one of the leading British architectural historians of the 20th century.
Baggot Street is a street in Dublin, Ireland.
Kildare Street is a street in Dublin, Ireland.
Molesworth Street is a street in Dublin, Ireland named after Richard Molesworth, 3rd Viscount Molesworth and links the more notable Dawson Street with Kildare Street and lies just over 200 m to the north of St. Stephens Green in Dublin's central business district.
Sam Stephenson was an Irish architect who studied at the Bolton Street School of Architecture, which is now known as Technological University Dublin. Many of his buildings generated considerable controversy when they were built.
Dame Street is a large thoroughfare in Dublin, Ireland.
Fitzwilliam Square is a Georgian garden square in the south of central Dublin, Ireland. It was the last of the five Georgian squares in Dublin to be built, and is the smallest.
Newtown Pery is an area of central Limerick, Ireland, and forms the main city centre of the city. The district is known for its Georgian architectural heritage and is the core area of Limerick's Georgian Quarter. It is one of the three towns that make up modern-day Limerick City Centre, the other two being the older Englishtown and Irishtown, which date from the medieval period. Newtown Pery houses the largest collection of Georgian townhouses in Ireland outside of Dublin. In 1837, Samuel Lewis in his Topographical Dictionary of Ireland described Newtown Pery as "one of the handsomest towns in Ireland".
Aldborough House is a large Georgian house in Dublin, Ireland. Built as a private residence by 1795, the original structure included a chapel and a theatre wing.
Number Twenty Nine: Georgian House Museum is a preserved Georgian townhouse in Dublin that operated as a museum until 2017. The house is furnished to show how it would have looked during the period of 1790 to 1820.
Shelley McNamara is an Irish architect and academic. She attended University College Dublin and graduated in 1974 with a Bachelor of Architecture. She founded Grafton Architects with Yvonne Farrell in 1978. Grafton rose to prominence in the early 2010s, specialising in stark, weighty but spacious buildings for higher education. McNamara has taught architecture at University College Dublin since 1976 and at several other universities.
Central Plaza, also known as the Central Bank of Ireland Building for its former tenant, is an office building on Dame Street in Temple Bar, Dublin. It was the headquarters of the Central Bank of Ireland from 1979 to 2017.
Mount Street Lower is a street in Dublin, Ireland.
Clare Street is a street in central Dublin, Ireland.
The Irish Heritage Trust (IHT) is an architectural and cultural organisation which aims to preserve, maintain and understand notable Irish buildings for the purposes of education, research and recreation. Founded by the Irish state in 2006 as a national heritage property organisation, it was partly modelled on the National Trust in the U.K.