EXCELLENT STREET IMAGES

LOCKS IS AN ATTRACTIVE RESTAURANT ON THE BANKS OF THE GRAND CANAL

May 5, 2023 by infomatique

1 WINDSOR TERRACE PORTOBELLO

When I last visited this it was under different management and ownership. Locks Brasserie was originally owned by Claire and Richard Douglas in the 1980s. In 2010, Sébastien Masi and Kirsten Batt took over. Locks Brasserie ceased trading on 18 July 2015. I am not sure when the current Locks Restaurant was established but I have heard that it is excellent.

Portobello is an area of Dublin in Ireland, in the south city centre, bounded to the south by the Grand Canal.

It came into existence as a small suburb south of the city in the 18th century, centred on Richmond Street. During the following century it was completely developed, transforming an area of private estates and farmland into solid Victorian red-bricked living quarters for the middle classes on the larger streets, and terraced housing bordering the canal for the working classes.

As a fast-expanding suburb during the 19th century Portobello attracted many upwardly-mobile families whose members went on to play important roles in politics, the arts and the sciences. Towards the end of the century came an influx of Jews, refugees from pogroms in Eastern Europe, which gave the name “Little Jerusalem” to the area.

I WALKED ALONG NEW STREET SOUTH AND CLANBRASSIL STREET

May 4, 2023 by infomatique

6 APRIL 2023

In 1953 all residents of Clanbrassil St. received a notice from Dublin Corporation that residences on the west side of the street would have to have 16 feet (4.9 m) removed from the frontage of the properties to make way for a new road. This proposal was constantly changed or deferred, so that in the 1960s and 1970s the street fell into ruin. One by one businesses, public houses and retail outlets closed up or were demolished, and that side of the road became a wasteland. By 1980 the road engineers had increased the amount of space needed to 60 feet (18.3 m), in order to run a 6-lane dual carriageway through the street, past St. Patrick’s Cathedral on to Christ Church Cathedral.

After protests and demonstrations by locals and sympathisers against the road, and intervention by the Taoiseach, Charles Haughey, work on the road eventually began in 1989. A 4-lane dual carriageway was constructed, flanked by new houses and apartments. The cost of the road was estimated to be £2 million.

Among the features destroyed by the road construction was the crossing known locally as the “Four Corners of Hell” (the junction of Patrick St., Dean St., New St. and Kevin St.), because there was a public house on each corner; and the well-known hostelry The Bunch of Grapes (formerly Fitzpatrick’s, constructed in 1739).

FOUR CORNERS OF HELL

May 4, 2023 by infomatique

DERELICT UNDERGROUND PUBLIC TOILET

Freestanding underground public toilet block, constructed c.1900. Carved granite plinth having perforated metal roundels to east and west elevations. Wrought-iron railings with stylised shamrock heads. Cast-iron ventilation shaft with stylised foliage to shaft. Granite stairs with tiled walls leading from street level, with wrought-iron gate.

Located at the Liberties crossroad junction of Kevin Street, New Street South, Dean Street and Patrick Street. At one time the area was known as Four Corners of Hell as there was a pub on all four corners of the crossroads.

This underground public toilet block at the junction of Kevin Street and New Street was one of a number that were built in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century in response to an increasing demand for public facilities in the city. Underground facilities such as this were partially hidden from general view in order to satisfy Victorian perceptions of decency. It retains many of its historic features including railings, gates and decorative ventilation shaft.

It caught me by surprise, when I first paid attention to it about six or seven years ago, especially as I should have been aware that these facilities existed having gone to school in Leeson Street and college in Kevin Street.

There are two separate entities – a small park and an underground public toilet. In 2019 the City Council announced that the building would be brought back into use as a cafe as soon as practical but as you can see that plan did not go well.

When I first noticed the structure I thought that it was an old monument or memorial but upon seeing the entrance I realised that it was an underground public toilet block.

In the 1950s and 1960s there were about seventy public toilets in Dublin but all of them have been closed.

LEONARD’S CORNER

May 4, 2023 by infomatique

A PUB AND A LOCATION

Leonard’s Corner at the junction of the South Circular Road and Clanbrassil Street

Several notable junctions in Dublin city in Ireland still carry the name (usually unofficially) of the pub or business which once occupied the corner.

While this practice is not unique to Dublin, the pace of recent development in the city has meant that the original source of the name is more likely to have disappeared.

THE CABBAGE PATCH AND NEARBY

May 3, 2023 by infomatique

NEW STREET GARDENS AND CATHEDRAL LANE

The Cabbage Garden, also known as the Cabbage Patch, is a former burial ground in Dublin, Ireland. It is located off Upper Kevin Street in Dublin’s south inner city. Used as a cemetery from 1666 until the 1890s, it is now laid-out as a public park.

The name of the plot can be traced back to the arrival of Oliver Cromwell in Dublin during 1649, whose forces rented the land from a local landowner, and planted cabbages as a food source.

The ground was consecrated by James Margetson, Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh in 1668. It consisted of a plot of land which was set apart by the Dean and Chapter of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in 1666 for the purposes of a cemetery for the inhabitants of St. Patrick’s Close and of the parish of St. Nicholas Without, as their cemetery had become overcrowded. Later part of this plot was reserved for the burial of Huguenots, who worshipped in the Lady Chapel in the cathedral.

The burial ground was closed in 1878 to all but 14 families. The last interment took place in 1896 and the cemetery closed early in the 20th century. Towards the end of the 20th century, part of the ground was converted into a public park while the rest was covered by public housing constructed by Dublin Corporation at the junction of Cathedral Lane and Upper Kevin Street. Dublin City Council opened the park in 1982.

The park, which is referred to by Dublin City Council as the “Cabbage Patch”, can be reached by way of Cathedral Lane (until 1792 called Cabbage Garden Lane).