Henrietta Place

NOT THE SAFEST PLACE IN THE CITY AT NIGHT BUT AT LEAST THE FOOTPATHS ARE BEING REPAIRED

November 20, 2022 by infomatique

HENRIETTA PLACE

After more than 20 years Dublin City Council decided the repair the footpaths but I must give them credit resurfacing the road multiple times but unfortunately it was resurfaced three times in a month. They are also installing bollards which are needed because of anti-social activity relating to joy-riding or using the laneway as a ratrun.

Very few of you will have ever visited Henrietta Place but there is a lot of interest nearby but the laneway/road is ugly and is the subject of ongoing anti-social behaviour including illegal dumping. But to be fair things have improved over the last four or five years because the area is now undergoing the process of ‘gentrification’ and this is likely to accelerate with the introduction of the Luas Cross-City tram service and the ongoing development of the nearby University Campus.

I once took a walking tour of this area of Dublin and the tour guide told us that King’s Inns had a D2 address even thought it was in D7 [not true]. His story was they had insisted on having a ‘southside’ number instead of D7 as was the case with Henrietta Street and Henrietta Place. I cannot find any evidence that this story was ever true and having checked a number postal addresses for buildings in the area I can say that Henrietta Place and Henrietta Street area in D1. However North King Street at one hen of Henrietta place is in Dublin 7. I should mention, for reasons that I will not discuss here that Phoenix Park on the north side of the river Liffey has a D8 postal code.

NOT THE SAFEST PLACE IN THE CITY AT NIGHT BUT AT LEAST THE FOOTPATHS ARE BEING REPAIRED 001

NOT THE SAFEST PLACE IN THE CITY AT NIGHT BUT AT LEAST THE FOOTPATHS ARE BEING REPAIRED 002

HENRIETTA PLACE NOVEMBER 2022

November 3, 2022 by infomatique

THE UGLY FACE OF ANTI-SOCIAL ACTIVITY

At the best of times this section of the laneway acts as a rat run and is not safe to walk along especially at night. Until now I have not seen it in such poor condition and shortly after I photographed it public access was curtailed on the section nearest North King Street.

The street and laneway is generally held to be named after Henrietta (née Somerset; 1690–1726), the wife of Charles FitzRoy, 2nd Duke of Grafton, although an alternative candidate is Henrietta (née Crofts; 1697–1730), third wife of Charles Paulet, 2nd Duke of Bolton. The nearby Bolton Street is named after Paulet.

There is now a social housing complex at Henrietta Place which was built by Herbert Simms for Dublin Corporation in 1936 under the Housing Act of 1932, which aimed to increase the level of public housing from 2,000 to 12,000 annually. Simms was particularly involved in the construction of inner-city flat complexes. He drew from Dutch housing design and British contemporary models, and contributed to the design and construction of over 17,000 housing units in the city and suburbs. This complex illustrates some of the themes of Simms’ formula for inner-city blocks of flats, having galleried elevations and stair towers facing a large inner courtyard. Simms made interesting use of simple materials, with red brick, brown brick and a variety of render finishes employed to provide an element of visual and textural contrast. An overhanging eaves course to the inner facades and long bands of roughcast rendered galleries contribute to a strong horizontal emphasis.