Anglo-Irish Architectural Exchange in the Early Eighteenth Century
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Anglo-Irish Architectural Exchange in the early eighteenth century: Patrons, Practitioners and Pieds-à-terre. Volume I: Text. Submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. 2015. Melanie Hayes University of Dublin, Trinity College. Declaration: I declare that this thesis has not been submitted as an exercise for a degree at this or any other University and that it is entirely my own work. I agree to deposit this thesis in the University’s open access institutional repository or allow the library to do so on my behalf, subject to Irish Copyright Legislation and Trinity College Library conditions of use and acknowledgement. Signed: _______________ Melanie Hayes Summary: This wide-sweeping contextual study sets out to bridge the gap between the formal architectural histories of London and Dublin in the early Georgian period, establishing the links between the vibrant architectural cultures of the two capitals at a significant time for the development of Dublin’s domestic architecture. Crossing the divide between historical and architectural concerns, this thesis draws together a web of contextual and circumstantial material, adding thick layer of social, economic and political history to the formal narratives, to establish the connective tissue with which to flesh out the bare bones of the buildings. In so doing, it offers new insights into the exchange of architectural taste between London and Dublin, the routes by which this took place, and the major protagonists involved. Hitherto, the historiography of Dublin’s domestic architecture has been largely locally based. This thesis broadens the scope of enquiry, exploring the wider cross-cultural context in which the transmission and assimilation of emerging tastes in domestic urban architecture took place, specifically the relationship between the pioneering residential developments on the Gardiner estate in Dublin, primarily at Henrietta Street (c.1725-50s) and to a lesser degree Sackville Street Upper (c.1750s), and the almost contemporary residential expansion in London’s West End. Moving away from purely stylistic and connoisseurial discussion of the buildings, the people behind the development process, the close-knit group of architects, developers, builders and residents involved in Luke Gardiner’s developments are at the core of this study, which seeks a fuller understanding of their cross-cultural experience, which in turn informed taste and influenced residential developments in Dublin. This study combines rigorous archival research and documentary investigation with more archeologically driven analysis of the architectural forms, attempting to relate the paper evidence to the buildings. In the face of the very limited documentary sources for Dublin’s early Georgian architecture the net is cast wider, interrogating a broad range of primary material from both Ireland and Britain, from major archival holdings to those of smaller county record offices, digitised resources and original manuscripts to maps, prints and drawings, and a large range of newspapers and other anecdotal material. In drawing together the various strands of evidence and tangential lines of connection, and weaving this rich contextual material around the skeletal framework of the buildings, a fuller picture of the multifaceted development process, building history and the functionality of Dublin’s early Georgian houses emerges. The heavy debt owed to British architectural exemplars and development practices becomes clear, while the divergences from and alterations to these imported models prove equally illuminating, offering insights into the means by which they were transmitted and the particular concerns which informed the designers and builders of Dublin’s new mode of domestic architecture. The negotiation which took place between imported ideals and local precedents and practice highlights the distinctive characteristics of the Dublin houses, and in so doing situates these Irish examples within the wider scholarship on urban domestic architecture. A similar migration of new ideas and fashionable tastes in household furnishings and fittings, of the material culture of London’s beau monde, points up the emulative nature of Dublin’s metropolitan elites with respective to the domestic interior, but also the currency of imported taste in the art of self- fashioning and aggrandisement. The intricate array of connections, and indeed, the first-hand knowledge which Ireland’s leading architects, Edward Lovett Pearce and Richard Castle, and prominent building-developers, Luke Gardiner and Nathaniel Clements, had with British practice and practitioners prove crucial, placing these major players in Dublin’s domestic urban expansion at the front-line of British architectural developments, and pointing up the importance of empirical investigation as one of the chief routes by which architectural influence spread. The utility of two dimension representation in the transmission of new ideas also becomes apparent, the importance of architectural tracts and treaties but also of unpublished collections of architectural drawings, while the routes by which these paper sources reached Ireland highlights the combined agency of the architects, developers and their clients in the dissemination of new architectural taste. These individuals, and the dual Anglo-Irish context they negotiated, emerge as the key concerns of this thesis. Its major contribution lies in highlighting the close-knit and interconnected nature of the group responsible for the promotion of the new architectural taste in Dublin, and the integral importance of the cross-cultural networks in which they operated as routes of influence, but even more so in bringing major new protagonists, of the first significance to Dublin’s residential development to the fore. Moneymen, building operators and cultural brokers such as Thomas Lill, Caspar White and Andrew Crotty come forward as consequential players, while the pivotal role of such little known but immensely influential civilising agents and conduits of architectural taste as Thomas Carter and Henry Boyle, Viscount Shannon and Jean Ligonier, Viscount Duncannon and William Graham, Henry, Earl of Thomond and most significantly Sir Gustavus Hume come to light, establishing the central importance of these peers and patrons of architecture and their cross-channel connections as the bridge which sustained Anglo-Irish architectural exchange. Contents: Declaration Summary Acknowledgements i Abbreviations iii List of tables iii Anglo-Irish architectural exchange, an introduction. Pg. 1 Chapter 1. The Irish in London: prominent peers and patrons of architecture. Pg. 18 Chapter 2. Exemplary practice: Pearce, Castle and the British context. Pg. 55 Chapter 3. Developing connections: Luke Gardiner and his circle. Pg. 93 Chapter 4. Cross-currents in domestic design: Henrietta Street, Dublin, 1730-1755. Pg. 137 Chapter 5. The early eighteenth-century town house: spaces for living, arenas for life. Pg. 183 Findings, conclusions and scope for future endeavour. Pg. 222 Appendices Pg. 232 Bibliography Pg. 238 Acknowledgements: Firstly, I would like to acknowledge the support of Trinity College Dublin who awarded me a Postgraduate Studentship between 2010 and 2013, the Thomas Dammann Trust who granted me the Thomas Dammann Junior Memorial Trust Award in 2012, and the Irish Georgian Society who awarded me the Desmond Guinness Scholarship in 2012, all of which have been instrumental in furthering this research and for which I am very grateful. My greatest debt is to my supervisor Professor Christine Casey, whose boundless energy and enthusiasm has inspired, nurtured and guided me throughout this process. I am deeply grateful for the time and expertise she has given to this endeavour. I have encountered a similar spirit of encouragement among the wider community of established academics and historians in this field. In particular I would like to thank Dr. Edward McParland, Dr. Philip McEvansoneya, Professor David Dickson, Professor Martine Cuypers, Dr. Patrick Walsh, Dr. Finola O’Kane and Ian Lumley for their advice and guidance. Anthony Malcomson deserves special thanks, not only for his immense generosity in sharing the fruits of his labours, but also his kind hospitality, as does Dr. Susan Galavan for her constant help and invaluable advice, but above all her steadfast encouragement. This spirit of shared learning has extended across the Irish Sea and I am most grateful to Dr. Toby Barnard, Professor Amanda Vickery, John Harris and particularly to Peter Guillery, Olivia Horsfall Turner and Colin Thoms at English Heritage for their guidance in negotiating the duality of eighteenth-century Anglo-Irish culture. Archival research and documentary investigation have been central to this thesis and I owe a debt of gratitude to the staff at the various repositories throughout Ireland and Britain who have helped me in these enquiries, in particular the archival staff at the West Sussex Records Office, Pamela Hunter and the partners of Hoare’s Bank for permission to use their archives, Geraldine Walsh and the staff at the Dublin Civic Trust, Dr. Raymond Refaussé at the R.C.B. Library, and most especially to David Griffin, Eve McCauley, Simon Lincoln and all at the Irish Architectural Archive for their invaluable assistance and insights. I am also very grateful to Aidan Redmond, Senior Council, for his expert legal advice in unravelling the complexities of eighteenth-century conveyancing. Close study of the buildings in situ has also