Ballsbridge Archives - EXCELLENT STREET IMAGES

IRISHTOWN

William Ashford, who for many years was an apothecary and general practitioner at Ballsbridge, and died at his residence, No. 1 Serpentine Avenue, on 15th July, 1892, in his 80th year. A pillar memorial to him was erected at Irishtown in 1893, commemoration of his services for half a century to the poor of the parish.

His grandfather was William Ashford [1746-1824] the well known English landscape painter who worked exclusively in Ireland.

The memorial is a simple pillar made of limestone. It is about 10 feet tall and has a plaque on the front that reads:

IN MEMORY OF

DR WILLIAM ASHFORD

APOTHECARY AND GENERAL PRACTITIONER

WHO DIED 15TH JULY 1892

IN HIS 80TH YEAR

THIS MONUMENT IS ERECTED BY THE POOR OF THE PARISH

IN GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCE OF HIS BENEVOLENCE AND KINDNESS

PHOTOGRAPHED 18 MARCH 2023

I mentioned Amazon because I received an communication from them today advising that they are closing DPReview in April [10th].

Most people in Dublin were aware of Burlington Road because of the Burlington Hotel. I went to school nearby and during the summer holidays I worked in a variety of hotels owned by P.V. Doyle who owned the Burlington Hotel.

Back in the late 1960s I heard some of my teachers, who lived in the area, describe Burlington Road as being “leafy” since then many of the grand houses have been replaced by generations of office blocks mainly because the older buildings occupied sites that were worth more than the occupying buildings were.

The first phase of modern buildings included Sam Stephenson’s Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies building which is now a protected building. To the best of my knowledge the building was completed in 1971 or 1972.

The Burlington hotel was developed on the site of what was formerly the grounds of Wesley College Dublin and included the Victorian houses – Burlington House, Tullamaine Villa and Embury House (formerly Burleigh House). It also encompassed the site of Mespil House, a large notable Georgian house which was demolished in the 1950s. Note: Wesley College Dublin was one of the few schools that CUS, my school, could beat on the rugby pitch.

Completed in 1972 by P.V. Doyle initially as part of Doyle Hotels and named the Burlington Hotel and nicknamed “the Burlo” by Dubliners, the hotel was purchased by property developer Bernard McNamara in 2007 for €288 million.

Following the post-2008 Irish economic downturn, Bank of Scotland (Ireland) took possession of the hotel from McNamara. It was sold in 2012 to The Blackstone Group for €67 million, in what was Ireland’s biggest property transaction since the start of the downturn. The DoubleTree chain assumed management in 2013, and the hotel was rebranded as DoubleTree by Hilton Dublin – Burlington Road. In 2016, Blackstone sold the hotel to the German investment bank DekaBank, and a 25-year lease to operate the hotel was granted to the Dalata Hotel Group, which rebranded it within their Clayton Hotels brand as Clayton Hotel Burlington Road in November 2016.

The hotel’s former nightclub, Club Anabel, gained notoriety in 2000 when the death of Brian Murphy took place during a fight outside the premises.