Rathgar: A History E-Book

Maurice Curtis

• Herausgeber: THP Ireland
• Kategorie: Sachliteratur, Reportagen, Biografien
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Beschreibung

Rathgar may well be the most fascinating area of Dublin. Its red-brick Georgian and Victorian terraces, the fruits of the architectural experimentation of the nineteenth century, are home to some of the most impressive houses, churches and schools in Ireland. Rathgar's residents have also proved to be some of the most influential in Irish political, social and cultural life, with at least four Nobel Prizewinners boasting strong ties with the area. A unique district with a rich and august history, this book serves as a timely record of an area that has had a profound influence on so many people.

Leseprobe

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Many people in Rathgar were of immense help in writing this book. Among those I must include, Anthony Goulding, Eileen Clancy, Revd Stephen Farrell, Ged Walsh, Hal O’Brien, Cynthia Wan, Denis Coman, Brendan O’Donovan and Pat Farrell. Frankfort Avenue resident Michael Barry must be commended for his landmark work, Victorian Dublin Revealed. Also, Peter Pearson’s Decorative Dublin and Mary Daly, Mona Hearn and Peter Pearson’s Dublin’s Victorian Houses were of particular help. Profound gratitude to Angela MacNamara (former resident), whose reminiscences captured the atmosphere of 1930s Rathgar so well. As did ‘Thank Heavens We Are Living in Rathgar’, by Jimmy O’Dea and Harry O’Donovan. The late and indefatigable Fred E. Dixon was also a great inspiration. He did much over the years to methodically chronicle a history of Rathgar. His extensive work on Rathgar now resides with the Dublin City Archives on Pearse Street. Laetitia Lefroy helped greatly with old photos of Faunagh House on Orwell Road. Thanks to The Rambling House for information on Peggy Jordan and to John Byrne of Byrne’s Family Butchers, Seán Cronin of the Gourmet Shop and the Davy Group for information on the history of the company. Another local, Angela O’Connell, has done much work on the Rathmines Township and the Three Patrons’ church. Grateful thanks also to Séamus Ó Maitiú for his Rathmines and Rathgar Township works. Mary Doyle of Ardagh House was most accommodating. The extraordinary and helpful Ulick O’Connor was kindness in itself in sharing his memories of Rathgar, as was former resident, Angela MacNamara. The dynamic Rathgar Residents’ Association has done much sterling work to protect and enhance Rathgar and was most forthcoming, particularly individuals such as John McCarthy, Mark McDowell and Barbara Fleming. The Rathmines, Rathgar and Ranelagh History Society and the Rathmines and Rathgar Musical Society were also helpful. Thanks to the Irish Independent’s Mark Keenan for information on some of the history of Clarendon. To estate agents Sherry Fitzgerald, Douglas Newman Good, and Savill’s, a big thanks! The Parish Development and Renewal Core Group, the Parish Priest, Fr Joseph Mullan, Frs Sammon and Commane and the parishioners of the Church of the Three Patrons, have worked hard to make their church a splendid and welcoming place. Likewise, much gratitude to the personnel of Christ Church, Zion Road church, Grosvenor Road and Brighton Road churches, as well as Leicester Avenue synagogue. Thanks to Libby McElroy of Trinity Hall and to Kate Palmer of Trinity College. Thanks to Bewley’s Café for information on the early days. Other residents, including Sharon Griffin, Michael McGarry, Helen Rock, and John McKiernan, were inspiring. Heartfelt thanks to Reggie Redmond and St Luke’s Hospital for the history of Oakland (Rathgar House) and to the librarian Marie Corrigan. Also to Elizabeth Birdthistle of TheIrish Times for information on Kenilworth Road. Pat Fennell of Highfield Grove was helpful with information on the tramway cottages. Frances and Malachy Coleman of Kenilworth Square have done much to preserve a beautiful house and made a big effort to help me. Many thanks also to David Kerr for his history of the Rathgar National School and to the staff and former pupils of that school. David Robbins and Peter Costello were inspiring on James Joyce. And Pat Comerford’s musings are always helpful. Thanks to Jacolet for her nineteenth-century photos. Ronan Colgan and Beth Amphlett of The History Press Ireland were most encouraging and patient and for this I am very grateful. Finally, a hearty thanks to the businesses and residents of Rathgar for ensuring that this unique and historic area of Dublin offers such a wonderful and welcoming experience.

CONTENTS

Title

Acknowledgements

Introduction

1.  Early History, the Castle and the Cusack Family

2.  Pleasant Houses and Detached Villas, 1750–1850

3.  Rathgar and the Township, 1847–1862

4.  Trams and Transport – The Vulture of Dartry Hall

5.  Thank Heavens for Rathgar – The Exclusivity of the 1930s

6.  Steeples, Spires, Servants and Synagogues

7.  The High Field – Different Houses for Different Eras

8.  Rathgar Avenue, Garville and the Greek Revival

9.  Rathgar Road and Villadom

10.  The Windmill and the Washerwoman – Orwell

11.  Dartry Road and the Steamboat Ladies

12.  Zion, Bewley’s and Bushy

13.  Grosvenor, Kenilworth and the Gothic

14.  James Joyce’s Old Triangle

15.  Sport and Music

16.  Rathgar Village – Shops and Businesses

Bibliography

Copyright

INTRODUCTION

Rathgar is a quiet leafy south Dublin suburb just 3km from Grafton Street. It consists approximately of the area bounded on the south by the River Dodder, on the north by Rathmines and Dartry, on the east by Milltown Golf Club and Churchtown and the west by Rathfarnham/Terenure and Harold’s Cross Roads. The name Rathgar derives from the Irish Ráth Garbh, meaning ‘rough ringfort’. Rath’s were early Gaelic defensive structures usually built on elevated land to command views of the surrounding area. The one in Rathgar was located in the Highfield Road area, in the vicinity of what are now Templemore, Neville and Villiers roads. John Taylor’s map of the environs of Dublin in 1816 shows an earthen ringfort situated in this vicinity.

This is a most fascinating area in Dublin – full of history, mystery and magic. Today, the housing stock largely comprises red-brick late Georgian and Victorian terraces and much of the area lies within an architectural conservation zone. This is not surprising since many houses have Greek, Gothic, Georgian, Victorian or Edwardian influences. The architectural experimentation of the mid-nineteenth century had climaxed by the 1860s and the fruits of that era are to be found in Rathgar. Some of Dublin’s most impressive roads and dwellings, churches, schools and other fine buildings are to be found here.

It is an area that has for centuries attracted some of the most influential people in Dublin (and Irish) political, social, business and professional, cultural and literary life. Many of these people have had a profound influence on every aspect of Irish society. Moreover and uniquely, four Nobel Prize winners either lived in Rathgar or had connections with it. Individuals such as James Joyce, author of Ulysses, who was born in Rathgar, George Russell (Æ), W.B. Yeats, Arnold Bax and other members of the Rathgar Circle put the area on the map, as did Maud Gonne. Other great writers, including Bram Stoker, J.M. Synge, David Marcus and William Carleton, lived in Rathgar.

Businessmen such as Charles Wisdom Hely, Frederick Stokes, David Drummond, Charles Eason of Eason’s bookshops, the Davy brothers and Ernest Bewley of Bewley’s Cafés lived in Rathgar for many years. The founders/owners/managers of some of Dublin’s great department stores, including Clerys, Brown Thomas and Arnotts, have lived there. Newspaper owners and editors, including Douglas Gageby of The Irish Times, also resided there. Some of Ireland’s greatest nineteenth-century architects, such as George Palmer Beater, either built there or lived there (or both). Ireland’s foremost twentieth-century artist Louis Le Brocquy also resided in Rathgar. Some of Ireland’s greatest thespians – Siobhán McKenna, Denis O’Dea, Jimmy O’Dea and Maureen Potter – either lived there or had connections with the area. The legendary Jimmy O’Dea was so enthralled by the area that he came out with the song ‘Thank Heavens We Are Living in Rathgar’!

Senior politicians and future presidents, such as Erskine Childers (both senior and junior; the latter became President of Ireland), former Taoisigh Séan Lemass and Jack Lynch worked and lived there, as did Ernest Blythe. Activists involved in the 1916 Rising and the War of Independence lived and met in Rathgar, including Thomas MacDonagh, Eoin MacNeill and Michael Collins. Veterans of the War of Independence, such as Countess Markievicz, Dan Breen, Ned Broy and Patrick O’Hegarty, lived there. Another Nobel Prize winner, Ernest Walton, also lived there. As did William Martin Murphy of 1913 infamy.

Rathgar village in the early twentieth century. (Courtesy of GCI)

Late nineteenth-century map of Rathmines Townships showing Rathgar at No. 2. (Courtesy of Ordnance Survey Office)

The influence of the Normans, the Reformation, Cromwell and the Battle of Rathmines in 1649, the 1798 Rebellion, the 1913 Dublin Lockout, 1916 and the War of Independence: Rathgar featured in all of these chapters of history.

This unique district in Dublin has such a rich and impressive history that this book can only serve as an introduction to an area that has created a lasting influence on so many people.

1

EARLY HISTORY, THE CASTLE AND THE CUSACK FAMILY

Prior to the Norman invasion of Ireland in the twelfth century, the lands of Rathgar were part of the home farm, or grange, of the Augustinian nuns of the Abbey of St Mary, whose convent stood at College Green, Dublin. The order had been established by Dermot Mac Murrough, High King of Leinster, in the middle of the twelfth century. The name Rathgar has been in continuous use since the thirteenth century and was used to describe the area containing a rath (fortification) in the vicinity of the farm, in what is now called Highfield.

For hundreds of years the lands of Rathgar containing this outlying 90-acre farm continued to prosper under the nuns. However, with the Dissolution of the Monasteries during Henry VIII’s Reformation, the lands were seized and granted to Nicholas Segrave in 1539. Later, in the early 1600s, the occupant of these lands, consisting now of more than 120 acres, was Alderman John Cusack, who was Mayor of Dublin in 1608.1

THE CUSACKS AND CROMWELL

The Cusack family bought the lands and the manor house for use as a country residence. John Cusack was Mayor of Dublin in 1608 and was head of one of Dublin’s oldest and leading mercantile families, having substantial trade dealings with England. He was an alderman from 1604 until his death in 1626. He was from a long-settled and prominent family in Co. Meath that had strong connections with similarly prosperous families. During these years the family resided at the manor house and what had become known as Rathgar Castle. Its location was in the immediate vicinity of what is now Highfield Road. The most reliable authorities place the site of the castle in the area immediately south of the upper end of Rathgar Road (44–49 Highfield Road and near Fairfield Park).

The house was sacked during the important Battle of Rathmines in 1649, in which the parliamentarian garrison of Dublin defeated the Royalist army under the Duke of Ormonde. Oliver Cromwell’s forces, under Colonel Michael Jones, on landing in Dublin at Ringsend, had captured Baggotrath Castle. The defenders retreated, but Jones cut them off by marching his army along the Dodder, past Donnybrook, and then swinging around to meet the Royalists at the Battle of Rathmines. The defeated army of over 2,000 soldiers fled to the woods near Rathgar Castle and a number of the soldiers actually took up residence in the castle. This was an ideal position for the army to camp, given its elevated position. Unfortunately, however, this did not suit the Cusacks and they obtained orders forbidding the Royalist troops from cutting timber in the wood and taking their horses and carts while drawing corn from their fields.

Amongst the Royalist troops holding Rathgar Castle, some defected to the opposition. According to a contemporary witness, some of the Royalist forces ‘who, after some defence, obtained conditions for their lives, and the next day most of them took up arms in our service’. Following the success of his forces at the Battle of Rathmines, Oliver Cromwell was then able to sweep through Leinster and rout the rest of the Irish forces with much bloodshed.

Rathgar Road in the early twentieth century. (Courtesy of GCI)

Following the upheaval, the Cusacks, being Protestants of the Calvinist persuasion, were allowed to retain Rathgar Castle, which they repaired and continued to live in. In the Hearth Rolls of 1664 ‘Rathgar Castle’ was said to have had five hearths, a sign of prosperity and comfort. In the early 1670s Cusack’s second son Adam took over the castle when his original heir, Robert, died in the latter part of the seventeenth century. He had considerable influence as he was by marriage a nephew of Sir Maurice Eustace, the Lord Chancellor. He died in 1681. His widow and family continued to live in the castle.2

Historian Nicholas Donnelly, writing in 1908 about the Catholic Parish of Rathgar, noted that after the upheavals John Cusack was living in Rathgar Castle with Alice, his wife, his eldest son John, his daughter, two menservants and two maidservants, one described as ‘a full fat wench’.3

The castle remained in the Cusacks’ possession for at least a century, but during the mid-eighteenth century the property fell into ruin. The extensive ruins were still standing at the end of the eighteenth century, but they had deteriorated greatly over the years. In 1782 only the walls of a large and extensive building, the remains of several outhouses and an entrance gateway remained. The lands were rented out to market gardeners, dairymen and to various people, including one Henry Coulson, whose name lives on in Coulson Avenue.

Cattle grazing in the grounds of ruins of Rathgar Castle, 1769. (Courtesy of NLI/RIA)

Paintings of later years, however, show the castle in ruins, including one in the National Gallery by the artist C.M. Campbell and another by Gabriel Beranger, a Dutch Huguenot living in Ireland, of 1769.

In 1782, the well-known antiquarian, Austin Cooper, visited the area and described how he found only the walls and an entrance gateway still standing. Geoghegan, the author of a book of ballads The Monks of Kilcrea, described the ruins in his poem ‘The Rapparee’s Tale’:

Rathgar, upon thy broken wall,

Now grows the lusmore rank and tall –

Wild grass upon thy hearthstone springs,

And ivy round thy turret clings;

The night-owls through thy arches sweep,

Thy moat dried up, thy towers a heap,

Blackened, and charr’d and desolate –

The traveller marvels at thy fate!

But other look thy tall towers bore

Upon that well known night,

When silentlie we scaled the bawn

And stood beneath thy tall oak boughs,

Close sheltered from the sight

With bustle loud thy courtyards rung

As horseman from their saddles sprung

All lightly to the ground.4

In 1784 the remaining structures suffered again during an attack by a number of the United Irishmen Volunteers who were only driven out of it with great difficulty.

Taylor’s Map of 1816 shows the ruins near Highfield Road and St Luke’s Hospital. The word ‘ruins’ is also visible on a 1909 map of Rathgar close to this location. The lane or bridle track to it is now Rathgar Avenue, the oldest road in the locality. Highfield Road is much newer; it was laid out in 1753 to connect the old castle of Rathmines with Terenure and Rathfarnham. It was originally just a farm lane leading to and from Rathmines Castle, located near the present-day Palmerston Park. Originally called Cross Avenue, it was later called Highfield Road.

The Ordnance Survey Map of 1837 shows that there was a house near the site of the castle ruins called ‘Rathgar Castle Cottage’ – a name which was probably intended to commemorate the nearness to the site of the castle, whose ruins may have survived in the memory of the builder. Interestingly, a Rathgar Cottage still stands at 124 Rathgar Road and dates from the 1840s. It is probable that it stands on the site of the original castle cottage. However, to confuse matters, across from this house, at 103 Rathgar Road, there is a dwelling called ‘Castle Cottage’!

The area opened up in the mid-eighteenth century when a new road (Highfield) was constructed. Near the ruins of the old Rathgar Castle, a family known as the Wilsons built a house called Rathgar House.5

NOTES

1  Nicholas Donnelly, A Short History of Some Dublin Parishes, Part 3, Section 6 (Dublin: CTSI, 1908), p.104; Weston St John Joyce, The Neighbourhood of Dublin (Dublin; Gill & Sons, 1912 and 1939), pp.171–4; Ball, Francis Erlington, A History of the County Dublin Part 11 (Dublin: Alex Thom, 1903), pp.144–6.

2  Francis Erlington Ball, A History of the County Dublin Part 11 (Dublin: Alex Thom, 1903), pp.144–7; Maurice Curtis, Rathmines (Dublin: The History Press Ireland, 2011), pp.26–9.

3  Nicholas Donnelly, A Short History of Some Dublin Parishes Part 3, Section 6 (Dublin: CTSI, 1908), p.104–7.

4  John Dalton, The History of County Dublin (Dublin: Hodges & Smith, 1838), pp.392–3.

5  Nicholas Donnelly, A Short History of Some Dublin Parishes Part 3, Section 6 (Dublin: CTSI, 1908), p.104; Weston St John Joyce, The Neighbourhood of Dublin (Dublin; Gill & Sons, 1912 and 1939), pp.171–4; Francis Erlington Ball, History of the County Dublin (Dublin: Alex Thom, 1903), pp.144–6.

2

PLEASANT HOUSES AND DETACHED VILLAS, 1750–1850

For more than one hundred years after the Battle of Rathmines, Rathgar remained a rural area with just a few large residences. However, a village gradually developed, firstly because it was a junction where the new Highfield Road met Rathgar Avenue and secondly to cater for the needs of Rathgar Castle and subsequently the large residences nearby.

One of oldest houses in Rathgar, on Rathgar Avenue. Notice the loft over the garage doors. (Courtesy of DNG)

Despite this gradual development, Rathgar remained very much a rural idyll until the 1740s. A lot of the land remained under cultivation and was used by market gardeners and dairymen to graze their cattle. Names recalling the rural nature of Rathgar are still commemorated by the likes of Highfield, Ashgrove and Oaklands. A significant transformation in the mid-1750s due to the construction of Highfield Road, which linked Dublin city and Rathmines to Rathfarnham. As soon as the road was built, houses followed.

RATHGAR HOUSE AND 1798

It has been suggested that the first house built in Rathgar, after Rathgar Castle, was Oakland, known originally as Rathgar House and built in c. 1780 on Cross Avenue, later Highfield Road. The house, built for the Wilson family, was described as being ‘in the heart of the country’. A prominent Dublin solicitor, Charles Farren, later owned it towards the end of the eighteenth century (most likely the early 1780s). The Farren family lived there until the mid-nineteenth century. A prominent individual in Dublin legal circles, Farren’s presence in Rathgar must have generated interest in the area. His house was the first modern house built there.6

However, the house was still isolated and in 1798 it was the scene of an attack which saw an employee, Daniel Carroll, who lived in a gate lodge on the estate, murdered. The Freeman’s Journal of 17 March 1798 described the attack:

Yesterday morning, about two o’clock, a numerous banditti, said to be forty in number, attacked the country house of Charles Farren, Esq., which is situated adjoining the avenue that leads to Rathfarnham Road. They cruelly put [Carroll] to death …7

Three of the attackers were subsequently arrested, charged and executed at the nearby Terenure crossroads in late October. The Freeman’s Journal described the route of the execution procession from Kilmainham Jail. It passed Highfield Road and Rathgar House. It reported that ‘the bloody shirt of poor Carroll was placed in front of the cart before them [those found guilty] on the way to the place of execution. After hanging the usual time, they were cut down and their bodies conveyed to the Surgeons’ Hall for dissection, consonant to the letter of the law.’8

The repercussions of the 1798 Rebellion were still affecting the country a year later. Charles Farren wrote to his daughter in England saying the country was quiet owing to the uncompromising response of the government in 1798 ‘in punishing those offenders daily brought to justice for their atrocious crimes. Scarce a day passes but one of two of those deluded wretches are executed or sent to the King of Prussia to serve in his armies.’9

Farren died in 1808 and the house was passed on to this son Joseph, also a clerk of the Pleas at the Court of Exchequer. He did much to improve and develop Rathgar House. He also leased some land from a nearby landlord, known as Lodge, who held the title of Baron Frankfort (hence Frankfort Avenue). The Farren family sold the property after Joseph’s death in 1853. His two daughters moved to Georgeville (16 Highfield Road) and died at the end of the 1890s.

TODD BURNS AND BROWN THOMAS

The new purchaser of Rathgar House was the wealthy businessman Henry Walker Todd of the famous Todd, Burns & Co. Drapers, established in 1834. Gilbert Burns was a nephew of the Scottish poet, Robert Burns. A major investor in the company was Alexander Findlater, an importer of wines and spirits whose company later became a household name in certain prosperous suburbs of Dublin, including Rathgar.

Zion Road Church of Ireland church. (Courtesy of NLI)

The name Rathgar House was changed to Oakland by the family. It is thought the reason for the name change was because there were two other properties in the area with the same name. There is still a property on Bushy Park Road called Rathgar House. The Todds, however, did not stay long in Oakland as H.W. Todd died in 1863 and two years later the house and fourteen acres were sold. The new owner was Hugh Brown, who had worked in the Todd Burns emporium on Mary Street. He opened his own business in 1849 and formed the well-known Brown Thomas store on Grafton Street with another businessman. When he moved to Rathgar in the 1860s, the area was known as ‘one of the most prestigious and desirable places to live’. He died in 1882. One of his sons, Robert, a doctor, lived at Hopeton, a large and distinctive house at 33 Terenure Road East. He is remembered in one of the stained-glass windows in the chancel of Zion Road church: ‘To the glory of God and in loving memory of Robert Browne M.D. of Hopeton, Rathgar who died on Apl. 29th 1913’. One of Brown’s daughters, Marianne, lived in Oakland for another ten years after her father’s death, until she moved to her newly built house at 1 Zion Road (called Glengyle and now Stratford College).10

THE HELY COAT OF ARMS

Towards the end of 1893, the house was bought by another businessman, Charles Wisdom Hely of the stationary and printing company with premises on Dame Street. He began to develop and improve Oakland and to make his new home one of the most significant in the south Dublin suburbs. He added a new wing, a billiard room and a large ballroom. Moreover, the dining room, sitting room and drawing room were re-decorated with silk tapestry and he had the ceilings painted by a specially commissioned Italian artist. These beautiful ceilings may still be seen today in what is now the library. Across the finely decorated hall is the present-day Boardroom, also noteworthy, not only for the mural on the ceiling, but also for the magnificent fireplace and mantelpiece, half-timbered walls and the hardwood flooring – all originals.

Seven servants, including a governess and a butler, looked after the needs of the new household. Hely had a croquet lawn, tennis courts, a putting green, a rock garden and ponds installed in the vicinity of the house. Four gardeners looked after the grounds and the heated glasshouses contained fruit and vegetables for the house. Today, the grounds are still impressive and there is an original small original wooded area containing ancient trees and paths to amble about on.

He acquired extra land in Orwell Park, which gave him a second entrance to his property (the first being on Highfield Road). He enhanced this new rear entrance with fine pillars and wrought-iron gates, on which he had his initials carved. Today we can still see CWH and an arm holding a broken spear (part of his crest) on the gates to what is now St Luke’s Hospital. The Lodge at this entrance similarly has his crest and the date of construction – 1893. His crest and coat of arms can also be seen on the stained-glass window in the house. The family’s motto, ‘Certavi et Vici’ (‘I have fought and conquered’), is emblazoned on this window. Hely acquired land at nearby Sunbury and leased it to the Mount Temple Lawn Tennis Club. He had access to the club via his own private gate.

Hely became one of the first owners of a motor car in Rathgar when he bought a seven-horsepower Panhard in 1901. It had a top speed of 30mph. His purchase was covered in the weekly magazine Motor News and the May edition for 1902 had an article ‘Mr C. Wisdom Hely and His Motor Stud’. The article noted that on arriving in Dublin with his new car he ‘was already an expert and drove at a pace through traffic which terrified the onlookers and left the police aghast’. However, the article reassured its readers that Hely ‘has now covered between 5,000 and 10,000 miles without causing any accident of any description’. It also noted that Hely intended to use his car ‘largely for running down to his fishing in the Mayo highlands. The distance is over 200 miles, and he expects to find it a comfortable day’s journey.’11

Hely died in 1929 and his wife, Edith Mary, continued to live in the house. In 1936 she sold some of the land bordering the avenue leading from Highfield Road to the house to a builder. This is now Oakland Drive. The impressive entrance gates were removed and placed in their present location at Orwell Park. The family owned the house until 1950 when it sold it to the Cancer Association of Ireland and it became St Luke’s Hospital, which it has remained to this day.12

NURSERIES AND MILLS

There were a number of businesses developing in Rathgar at this time – Grimwood’s Nurseries at a site on what is now Kenilworth Road and Grosvenor Road; Dartry Dye Works; Waldron’s Calico Mills on Orwell Road Bridge; and Rathgar Quarry and its windmill on the site of the present-day Herzog Park.

Taylor’s Map for 1816 shows the early outline of Rathgar, with the five main roads extending out from the village. The map also shows quarries, Grimwood’s Nursery and the printworks and mill, but very few houses in Rathgar. There were none on Rathgar Road, only Rathgar House on Highfield Road and a few smaller dwellings on Rathgar Avenue and Orwell Road near the crossroads. A house, Annedale, and a few cottages are shown on Dartry Road. For the next 200 years Rathgar developed around this skeleton.

Over the next few decades a few more houses appeared and the Dublin Almanac for 1835 had nearly sixty dwellings listed for Rathgar. The new elegant villa and terraced houses were in the Regency style, with fanlights and pillared front doorways, which were at the top of a flight of steps with railings. The first terrace in Rathgar was Spire View in 1834. The name derived from the view of Holy Trinity church in nearby Rathmines. Other terraces were Alma and Malakoff, at the Rathmines end of Rathgar Road, names inspired by the Crimean War. For many years residents in Rathgar used the name of the house or a number in the short terrace of three to four houses rather than a particular road number, e.g. 1 Francesca Terrace (along Grosvenor Road). The numbering of the houses on the main roads of Rathgar began in 1866 on Rathgar Road. Terenure Road East was not finished until the 1930s and Dartry Road not until the 1950s.13

Samuel Lewis’s Topographical Dictionary of Ireland for 1837, described Rathgar as:

a district, which is on the road from Dublin, by way of Rathmines, to Roundtown, consists of several ranges of pleasant houses and numerous detached villas, of which the principal are Rathgar House, the residence of J. Farran, Esq.; Rathgar, of P. Waldron, Esq.; Rokeby, of C. Pickering, Esq.; Mote View, of J. Powell, Esq.; Mountain Prospect, of P. Nolan, Esq.; Roseville, of Miss Moore; Fair View, of Mrs. Fox; Prospect Villa, of J. Houston, Esq.; Maryville, of J. Jennings, Esq.; Prospect Lodge, of R. Clarke, Esq.; Primrose Cottage, of T. Alley, Esq.; and the handsome residences of G. Wall and W. Haughton, Esqrs. There is an extensive bleach-green, with printing-works belonging to Messrs. Waldron, Dodd, Carton, & Co., for muslin, calicoes, and silks; the works are set in motion by a steam-engine of 30-horse power, and a water-wheel of equal force, and afford employment to 300 men. In the immediate vicinity are some quarries of good limestone, which are extensively worked; and strata of calp limestone have been discovered alternating with the limestone in several places, here, as well as in the quarries at Roundtown and Crumlin, inclined at a considerable angle and exhibiting other appearances of disturbance.

This is a good summary of some of the activities and people of Rathgar in the early nineteenth century, with ‘pleasant houses and detached villas’. Many of these are still visible and distinctive in Rathgar, although they are now surrounded by modern buildings.14

NOTES

    6  Reggie Redmond, The History of Oakland Rathgar (Dublin: St Luke’s Hospital, 2008), pp.3–5.