Spring 2016

The Upper Leeson Street Area Residents Association Newsletter The Upper Leeson Street Residents Association Newsletter

ULSARA AGM Wednesday 13 April at 7.30 pm Litton Hall, Wesley House, Leeson Park Litton Hall adjoins Wesley House on Leeson Park, just south of the large church on the corner of Dartmouth Road and upper Leeson Street. (see map on page 2) To find out more about ULSARA and discuss pressing issues in YOUR neighbourhood, we urge you to attend. GUEST SPEAKERS Dr Ellen Rowley Irish Research Council Post-doctoral fellow (UCD/DCC) The Value of Ireland’s 20th Century Architecture Jacqueline Kelleher Project Leader of the Heritage Community Garden Donnybrook, Carrolls building behind Dartmouth Square West The benefits of community gardens. Carrolls Building Triangle The well-known Carrolls building on Grand Parade, designed The sites of the former Jury’s and Berkley Court hotel were bought in the early 1960s by architects Robinson, Keefe and Devane, from NAMA some time ago and development will now proceed and which lay vacant for some time, has now been bought by under the planning permission granted in 2011, Residents will London and Regional Properties (L&RP). recall the part ULSARA played in presenting residents’ views at the oral hearing, and the relative success achieved in restraining The developers intend to refurbish the building and to create a the worst excesses of the original planning permission. residential complex on the plot behind, bordering on Dartmouth Square. ULSARA sent representatives to a consultation meeting with L&RP and their advisers. Further meetings have taken place Roads between L&RP and local residents, who are capably representing The state of the road surfaces in the area is often appalling. their interests. ULSARA maintains a watching brief. There are deep potholes, notably in Burlington Road, especially near the Waterloo Road junction; as you turn into Elgin Road at Draft the US Embassy; in Leeson Park; spasmodically in Wellington Road; and indeed elsewhere.

Development Plan We sometimes refer to these potholes as a disincentive to The process of developing a new plan for Dublin is under way through traffic, but the situation has got so bad that we have (see page 2). ULSARA, together with our neighbours in the written to the traffic and roads departments of the Council, Pembroke Road association, are interested in the potential in asking for a meeting. the plan for creating an Architectural Conservation Area for the district, in line with the evolving views of the Council planners. This is medium-term strategy.

ULSARA NEWS P.O. Box 8411, Ballsbridge Dublin 4. Spring 2016 Page 1 www.ulsara.ie

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Chairman’s Message Every five years a new Development Plan for Dublin City is ULSARA’s activities rely on the annual membership fees. Thus drafted, outlining the proposed planning strategy for the coming the support of existing and new members is essential for our years, and is displayed for public view and comment. The current future. The annual membership form is enclosed with this plan, for the period 2017-2022, is a comprehensive document, newsletter, and gives you the option to pay by direct debit, if that with detailed drawings and descriptions, and runs to several is more convenient for you. volumes. Our 2016 AGM takes place on Wednesday 13 April at 7.30pm in Once the draft plan has been released for public viewing, it goes Litton Hall (Leeson Park), so please make a note in your diary. through a number of stages, as various interested groups make We shall have two speakers as usual. observations, comments or express objections to the plans. We hope that you will join us and enjoy these presentations. ULSARA is fortunate to have a number of committee members As always, your comments and suggestions are welcome at: with experience of planning and development, who study these ULSARA, P.O.Box 8411, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4. plans on your behalf and highlight concerns that could impinge Carmen Neary, Chairman negatively on our area. In December 2015 ULSARA made its submissions to Dublin Who We Are City Council in regard to the Draft Dublin City Development Plan The Upper Leeson Street Area Residents’ Association was 2017-2022. In order to best preserve the residential character and founded in 1968. The Association draws its members from the amenities of our neighbourhood, we offered to work with Dublin catchment area of streets, lanes and squares, extending south City with a view to establishing an architectural conservation from the Grand Canal, that are adjacent to Upper Leeson Street. area or areas for our neighbourhood. In addition, we requested Dublin City Council to remove a loophole in the text of the draft The primary aim of the Association is to promote the conservation and preservation of the residential character and amenities of plan to ensure that embassy offices cannot be considered open the neighbourhood, including the maintenance of green spaces, for consideration in residential conservation areas zoned Z2. We as well as the distinctive Georgian and Victorian architectural await results! features of this area of Dublin.

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ULSARA NEWS P.O. Box 8411, Ballsbridge Dublin 4. Spring 2016 Page 2 www.ulsara.ie

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Flood control works below Ballsbridge Water Water Everywhere Underground Rivers Residents recall the floods of November 2011, when flooding Dublin has an amazing variety of underground rivers. Altogether, occurred in Clyde Lane, coming probably from Herbert Park. the city and county have around 75 rivers and streams, and Water also crept some distance up Elgin Road. while these all flowed overground, that was before the city was built up. In the past 150 years, many of them have disappeared The floods of December 2015, however painful for the people underground, built over. Only a few rivers, like the Liffey, the affected, seem this time to have passed us by, owing no doubt to Dodder and the Tolka, remain above ground. geography and perhaps also to the Dodder scheme. It certainly provides reassurance. The best known underground river in this part of Dublin is the Swan, which has its origins in the upper reaches of the The Swan River and other streams underlie our area, as is shown Dodder and flows through Terenure, Rathmines, Ranelagh on the map on page 2, and the underlying natural water table and Ballsbridge, to join the as it flows under is close to the surface. Wells in some terraces show that the Londonbridge Road. Its course is deep below Morehampton water table is perhaps a metre or less below ground level; some Road, then underneath Clyde Road and Shelbourne Road. One of these wells are fully stone-lined down for some 6 metres, branch of the Swan once flowed through Herbert Park into the demonstrating that the water table in the 19th century may have Dodder in Ballsbridge. The name of the Swan shopping centre in been that far down. Rathmines is one of the few present day reminders of this river. The water table is affected by many factors, among them See the course of the Swan river on the map. surely the extent to which we are creating hard surfaces in place of grass or other absorbent surfaces. Another concern is Also in this part of south Dublin, the Elm Park stream, which the extent to which large buildings have one or more storeys starts in Goatstown, flows beneath Elm Park golf course and at underground level, potentially cutting old drains or natural empties into the sea at Merrion Strand. The Nutley Stream underground water seepage routes. The same may be true of flows from Clonskeagh, beneath RTÉ, and reaches Sandymount the fashion for creating large underground extensions to private Strand close to the Martello Tower. houses or embassies. Another underground stream rises in this part of Dublin, the These are questions for engineers and hydrologists, and are Gallows Stream, which rises near Leeson Lane, and flows also we trust a concern of the planning department of DCC. underground appropriately close to Government Buildings. The Residents should be told of the risk factors involved in this Stein or Steyne River rises near Charlemont Bridge on the Grand area; the question could arise of installing non-return valves on Canal and flows underground far beneath such city centre domestic sewers or other preventive measures. See page 5 for landmarks as Brown Thomas, discharging into the Liffey. more on water.

ULSARA NEWS P.O. Box 8411, Ballsbridge Dublin 4. Spring 2016 Page 3 www.ulsara.ie

ULSARA News 2016 v3.indd 3 23/03/2016 15:24 Trees and Gardens

Front Gardens

Indian Embassy improvements

Practically all of the buildings, in the ULSARA district, were are designated as protected structures, their curtilage built for families to live in. Ttwo Victorian Gothic churches should be protected too. Yet this does not happen. A walk were built to serve those families - St. Bartholomew’s down any of our streets today will immediately establish and Christ Church - and there are some ambitious public just how much the front gardens of ULSARA are under buildings like the Molyneux Institute or the Old Mens’ attack. Where there are more businesses, as in Waterloo Home in Northbrook Road. The twentieth century has Road, the dereliction is worse: here railing and front walls added more big blocks: the Fitzwilliam Tennis Club, the have been removed to create a sea of asphalt, usually ill- unlovely frontage of the Burlington, now the Double Tree maintained, with cars parked up to the front steps of once Hilton Hotel, and John Johansen’s quirky concrete pill handsome houses. box, built for the American Embassy in 1962. Blocks of Environmentally these spaces are a disaster! No thought flats have been shoehorned into sites that are rather too is given to the needs of wild life inhabiting the gardens. small to contain them yet, despite these insertions, our There is no cover for birds or any places where the area survives as one of the best example of a nineteenth- invertebrates they feed on can grow and multiply. The century residential district with many grand houses, built number of blackbirds in our area has fallen markedly and for fashion-conscious Dubliners, from the late Georgian thrushes have disappeared. No thought is given to the period, through the whole of Queen Victoria’s reign and flash flooding that these areas of additional hard surfaces even, at Herbert Park, into the Edwardian age. create for the city drainage system, which every year Of course when they were planned all these houses had backs up more and more. And these spaces look frightful. ample front gardens, set behind cast-iron railings, low The ‘satellite view’ on Google Maps reveals the extent of brick walls with granite copingstones from Dalkey or, on this blight. In one glaring instance, some years ago an occasion, a privet hedge. These railings, walls and hedges Embassy on Leeson Park entirely removed its garden are important since they contribute directly to the sense wall and more recently laid concrete over the garden and of place and create a space between the public and the even across the public pavement. Let us determine as a private domain. They are an integral part of the historic community to see that no more work like this disfigures character of our area and, since practically all the houses our area again.

ULSARA NEWS P.O. Box 8411, Ballsbridge Dublin 4. Spring 2016 Page 4 www.ulsara.ie

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Water Butts and the Conservation Grant The Conservation Grant offered by Irish Water aimed to encourage citizens to improve the efficiency of their water use. If we have a meter we are charged according to our use, up to a limit, and we can make financial savings by reducing our use if our annual bills are below €160 for a single adult household or below €260 for a multi adult household. After the end of 2018, when the cap is planned to be removed, there could be scope for wider financial savings.

Of course we were charged indirectly before the If we are doing this seriously, there are dozens of other introduction of water charges, and charged too much actions that can be taken. Apart from the well known because there was little incentive to be efficient; yet we options such as selecting a water and energy-efficient were not charged enough to ensure adequate investment dishwasher or washing machine, there are also water- in a safe and reliable system. We had the worst of both saving shower heads, for example. These have been well worlds. reviewed by WHICH? consumer magazine and could pay for themselves surprisingly quickly in some households. What to do with the conservation grant? • Leaking taps and pipes - probably best to get in a plumber. Update on Lower • Leaks outdoors between the mains and your house – Dodder Flood ditto. • Over-generous WC cisterns – often one can reduce Alleviation Works the flush by placing a closed plastic bottle full of We reported in the 2014 Newsletter feature on this water in the cistern. topic that we were advised that these works would • To save on heating and on water bills, insulate water be completed up to the Smurfit Weir in Clonskeagh pipes between the boiler and the hot tap, to reduce in 2015. DCC now expects the works to be the amount of water wasted while waiting for the hot completed during 2017. water to come through. The delay has been due to unanticipated significant • Install a water butt; they can be attractive, see below additional works in constructing reinforced retaining – and see the article on the ULSARA website walls below Ballsbridge, to secure business • and then there are also simple tweaks to our properties from Sherry Fitzgerald to Ballsbridge behaviour listed in www.taptips.ie/ Motors. Above Ballsbridge further such walls will be required at the rear of Anglesey Road properties opposite the RDS.

Flood protection works to Herbert Park and Donnybrook RFC are nearing completion, while works from Donnybrook to Clonskeagh Weir will be carried out in 2017.

Hurricane Charlie in August 1986 caused a deluge 200mm of rainfall into the Dodder catchment, while the most recent Dodder flood in October 2011 resulted from 83mm of rainfall. A repeat of either of these rainfall events would cause flooding problems within ULSARA’s area, but the flood alleviation works will help to contain the Lower Dodder within its banks.

ULSARA NEWS P.O. Box 8411, Ballsbridge Dublin 4. Spring 2016 Page 5 www.ulsara.ie

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Website www.ulsara.ie Carnac Restored Please check www.ulsara.ie for local information On 14 November 2015, The Leeson Lounge hosted a nostalgic and up-to-date news on ULSARA activities. The and delightful evening to celebrate the unveiling of the restored site includes links to Dublin City Council services ‘Carnac’ by sculptor Bob Mulcahy. The audience was privileged including Property Flood Protection and Planning to hear Imogen Stuart in conversation with Professor Alistair Applications, further articles on the local area and an Rowan as well as wonderful contributions by Ronan Sheehan, writer, and Philip O’Neill, sculptor. Carmen Neary, the intrepid archive of newsletters dating back to the 1980s. Chairwoman of ULSARA, braved the elements along with many #ulsaradublin of the audience to unveil the sculpture. More photographs and an appreciation can be found on www.ulsara.ie. We invite you to follow us at #ulsaradublin and welcome ideas on how to make our website and tweets more useful. ULSARA Campaign to Control Graffiti Well done those residents who regularly clean up graffiti in their streets, specifically those of Northbrook Avenue and Waterloo Lane! We too have been concerned at the increase of graffiti in our area and last year some committee members volunteered to paint out offending graffiti on utility street furniture on a monthly-patrol basis, and checking for repeat offences. Paint and materials are supplied by DCC. This collaboration with DCC began in early 2015 when ULSARA Imogen Stuart and Carnac recognised that the graffiti problem was approaching epidemic proportions. An agreement was reached between ULSARA and Dublin City Council whereby DCC funded a clean-up project of graffiti in the ULSARA area (successfully completed in Spring Bloomsday 2015) and ULSARA volunteered to try to control the problem on Did the Invincibles’ gang stop for refreshment in Upper Leeson an ongoing basis. The ULSARA committee organised monthly Street? So we believe and ULSARA aims to mark this interesting, clean ups, averaging 12 instances per month, starting in June if rather bizarre, historical fact on Bloomsday. 2015.We believe this is a success. The Bloomsday connection: Joyce (born 1882) refers to the ULSARA cannot take action on any private property, and owners Phoenix Park Murders (also 1882) in Ulysses. In one scene, are encouraged to clean graffiti on the walls of their own private McHugh and Dedalus listen to Crawford in the Freeman’s property; contact Dublin City Council for advice (01 222 2362). Journal: “Skin-the-Goat drove the car for an alibi. Inchicore, Roundtown, Windy Arbour, Palmerstown Park, Ranelagh…. X is ULSARA’s Autumn Social Davy’s publichouse in upper Leeson street.” Members of ULSARA gathered in the Pirates’ Den in November Davy’s public house is now the Leeson Lounge, where the event for the annual social, and the occasion provided a valuable will take place from 7pm – 8pm, 16th June 2016. The guest opportunity for discussion. The committee welcomes the social speaker will be Senan Molony, author of The Phoenix Park as a chance to catch up with the members and to listen to any Murders: Conspiracy, Betrayal and Retribution (Mercier, 2006). issues of concern to them. What better way to spend a wet Victorian attire recommended! November afternoon? It also helps to remind residents of the Check out www.bloomsdayfestival.ie, www.jamesjoyce.ie and existence and value of the association. This year’s event: 5 www.ulsara.ie for updates. November.

ULSARA NEWS P.O. Box 8411, Ballsbridge Dublin 4. Spring 2016 Page 6 www.ulsara.ie

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Jim Larkin (1874-1947), docker and Labour activist, at 41 Public Plaques & Wellington Road, 1934-1947.

Monuments in the Upper Eoin Mac Neill (1867-1945), scholar, soldier and politician, at 63 Leeson Street Area Upper Leeson Street, 1941-1945. Padraig Pearse (1879-1916), soldier, teacher, barrister and poet, worked at Cuil Crannac, 17 Sallymount Avenue, 1907-08.

Frances Bunch Moran (1928-2002), painter, at 106 Pembroke Road, 1952-2002. Decade of Commemoration: Irish men and women from this community who volunteered as Unveiling the Dowden Plaque at 55 Wellington Road officers, soldiers and medical corps for the Great War, in which many perished, are commemorated by a large stone Celtic cross A plaque commemorating Professor Edward Dowden (1843- between Christ Church and Molyneux House in Leeson Park. 1913) was unveiled In November at 50 Wellington Road by Councillor Micheal MacDonncha before a sizeable crowd. Recently, a garden of remembrance with a simple stone cross This was the convivial conclusion of dedicated efforts by the was erected on the corner of Clyde Road and Elgin Road, in current residents, Paul and Elizabeth Murray, to have Professor memory of the deceased parishioners of St Bartholomew’s Dowden, first Professor of English at , Church, Clyde Road, including officers and soldiers who commemorated in this way. participated in the Great War. Not far from St Bartholomew’s, a plaque and Celtic cross stands Paul discovered the connection between Edward Dowden and at the corner of Herbert Park & Clyde Road, in honour of the the house while researching his biography of Bram Stoker (2004) officers and soldiers of the Third Battalion, Óglaigh na hEireann, and uncovered letters written by Dowden to Walt Whitman, participants in the Easter Rising, 1916. among others, from 50 Wellington Road. Stoker was likely a frequent visitor, as would have been the Wildes and Yeatses. Herbert Park Updates Other plaques • The Parks Service of Dublin City Council commissioned Howley, Hayes Architects to undertake a conservation and in our area: management plan for the park. A copy of this excellent report can be found on the Dublin City website. It is open for Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904) Writer and scholar of Japan; 73 public consultation and comments can be sent by email to upper Leeson Street. [email protected].

John Bagnall Bury (1861-1927) historian and classicist who • The tearooms still have not opened but we understand lived at 12 Leeson Park the franchise has been given to Noshingtons who along with their café on the South Circular Road, already run the William Percy French (1854-1920), Songwriter, painter and tearooms in Harolds Cross Park and St Patricks Park. poet; 35 Mespil Road. • Floodlighting has recently been installed for the tennis courts, (1904-1967). Poet; 62 Pembroke Road (1943- Patrick Kavanagh and we now await the resurfacing of the courts. 1958), 19 Raglan Road (1958-1959) and at the former Parson’s Bookshop at Baggot Street Bridge. Also three canal-side • ULSARA remains concerned that despite all the expenditure benches at Baggot Street bridge. on major new facilities for the park, the day to day maintenance of the park is at an all-time low.

ULSARA NEWS P.O. Box 8411, Ballsbridge Dublin 4. Spring 2016 Page 7 www.ulsara.ie

ULSARA News 2016 v3.indd 7 23/03/2016 15:24 Leeson Terrace Notebook The Upper Leeson Street Residents Association Newsletter Speculations on Leeson Terrace Urban bees and urban beekeeping Bee-friendly flowers make urban areas more attractive The 2012 ULSARA Newsletter carried an article on the refurbishment of part of places in which to live and work. If we make cities better Leeson Terrace, especially the forecourt. for bees and pollinators, they are better for us too. Bees only eat nectar and pollen from flowering plants and trees. Leeson Terrace comprises thirteen early As they collect their food they pollinate the plants, allowing Victorian houses on the west side of Upper them to reproduce. Towns and cities can provide a diverse Leeson Street, opposite the end of Waterloo source of forage in gardens, parks, tree-lined streets and Road. The terrace was built between 1840 railway/tram sidings if bee-friendly flowers are grown from and 1849 in two distinct architectural styles: early spring to late autumn. Classical (65A-69) and Tudor (70-75). The Bees like blue, purple, violet and white flowers best, grown in large clumps in a sunny, sheltered spot. They do not nine houses at 65A-72 originally accessed a like double-headed varieties whose nectar and pollen has shared coach house through a gap between Leeson Terrace often been bred out. Wild flowers like dandelions, clover 7 0 70 and 71 that was filled by 70A in about 1869. and dead-nettles provide welcome food for our urban The terrace was built in the grounds of a villa, Harrymount, which stood neighbours. And the roof of a garden shed carpeted with sedum, heathers and lavenders will be a feast. Ivy, privet on the site now occupied by Leeson Village. All the houses were originally and holly are among the most abundant sources of food if rented from the owner-occupier of Harrymount, Mr George Patterson, who they are allowed to flower. was associated with two building companies: Patterson and Catcheside, While skeptics might call it a fad, urban beekeeping and the contractors for a number of workhouses in the early 1840s; and by 1847, rapid growth of the honey business in cities such as London Hammond, Murray & Patterson, railway contractors. . As Leeson Terrace and New York over the last decade suggests it’s here to stay. was built within the grounds of Patterson’s property and he owned all the Some say urban bees may actually be stronger than rural houses, it is reasonable to assume they were his own private development. bees thanks to the lack of pesticides sprayed all over their pollen supply. Patterson’s career parallels with that of the English architect George Pat Kavanagh at the Airfield Estate in Dundrum says, Wilkinson (1814-1890), who was appointed by the Poor Law Board in “Dublin’s bees are spoiled, because there’s plenty of food January 1839 to design all 130 workhouses in Ireland. The workhouses and it’s warmer than you’d expect. There’s a distinct Dublin were complete by 1847, and Wilkinson moved on to work for 3 railway honey, it’s treacle-y. The canal banks are perfect for them. companies, including the Dublin and Wicklow Railway for whom he There’s growth, wilderness and they’re not so much in designed the Harcourt Street Terminus (1859), now the Odeon Bar. Both danger from other animals. Roofs are perfect though, they love height.” Patterson and Wilkinson moved from workhouses to railway infrastructure. Starting your own hive is no great challenge. The Irish Wilkinson employed several architectural styles in his work, including a Beekeeping Association (irishbeekeeping.ie) offers beginner tudor domestic idiom and classical. The Tudor detailing would have been courses for budding apiarists, some at concessionary familiar to Wilkinson from his early life in Oxford and he had used these prices, alongside literature and hive insurance. They’ll even styles in buildings in England and Wales prior to his appointment in Ireland. hook you up with a starter colony once you’ve got a palace for your queen built. While many of the details of Wilkinson’s output are evident in both the classical and Tudor elements of Leeson Terrace, and the link between Wildlife architect and builder is tangible, no concrete evidence has been uncovered, The dominant species at the moment appear to be magpies and foxes, and the area is overpopulated with both. The as yet, of Wilkinson’s hand in directly designing the houses, as opposed to chatter of the birds during the day and the screeching of Patterson simply observing and replicating. foxes at night are familiar to us all. Only seagulls are as noisy. However, it is possible that Leeson Terrace was the result of collaboration It is a bad idea to encourage them: magpies are scavengers between two men at the forefront of their respective and evolving who frequently rob the nests of small song-birds. Foxes professions at that time. The terrace’s development coincided with the may attack chickens and pets, and are also a more serious threat, in that their urine and faeces contaminate our gardens Great Famine and provides an insight into domestic building activity in and the latter especially is a dangerous vector of disease. Dublin at that time. Clearing fox droppings is nasty work that should be carried out wearing rubber gloves and hands washed afterwards.

ULSARA NEWS P.O. Box 8411, Ballsbridge Dublin 4. Spring 2016 Page 8 www.ulsara.ie

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