St. Luke’s Conservation Plan Plean Caomhnaithe San Lúcás An Action of the Dublin City Heritage Plan Gníomh de chuid Phlean Oidhreachta Chathair Bhaile Átha Cliath St. Luke’s Conservation Plan Plean Caomhnaithe San Lúcás An Action of the Dublin City Heritage Plan Gníomh de chuid Phlean Oidhreachta Chathair Bhaile Átha Cliath Prepared for Dublin City Council by Shaffrey Associates Architects Historic Building • Planning • Urban Design in collaboration with: John Montague, MA, Architectural Historian Archaeological Projects Ltd. Daphne Levinge-Shackleton, Ph D, Landscape Consultant Roger Goodwillie Associates, Ecology Consultants 2 Contents VOLUME ONE – THE PLAN Part Four – Policies, Recommendations and Implementation Executive Summary Background 3 12.0 Policies/Recommendations 73 Significance 4 13.0 Implementation 79 Vulnerabilities 4 Policies 5 References and Sources 80 Recommendations 7 Part One – Process VOLUME TWO – APPENDICES 1.0 Introduction 9 1.1 Scope of Conservation Plan 10 Appendix A: The Brief 1.3 Methodology and Layout 10 Appendix B: The Covenant 1.4 Acknowledgements 11 Appendix C: Consultation – Written Submissions; 1.5 Consultant Team 12 Minutes from meetings; List of attendees; invitation letters and notices 2.0 Consultation 13 Appendix D: Historic Documents/Inventories: Extracts from Building Account Books and Burial Part Two – Understanding The Place Register Appendix E: Supplementary Reports – Consultant 3.0 Chronology 16 Archaeologist Report; Osteoarchaeologist 4.0 St. Luke’s in The Coombe 18 Report, Independent Architectural 5.0 St. Luke’s – Architectural Appraisal 32 Historical Report 6.0 St. Luke’s – The Contemporary Context 44 7.0 Condition 50 The Plan is presented in three parts: 8.0 Archaeological Issues 58 9.0 Environmental Issues 62 Executive Summary Part Three – Significance and Vulnerability Volume 1 – The Plan (including Executive Summary) Volume 2 – Appendices (This is a separate collection of doc- 10.0 Statement of Significance 65 uments available through the Dublin City Council Heritage 11.0 Issues of Vulnerability 68 Officer and the Dublin City Archives). 3 St. Luke’s Conservation Plan 4 St. Luke’s Conservation Plan – Executive Summary “Every trace of the past that is not recognised in the present building has since been in a ruinous, unused and inacces- threatens to disappear irretrievably” 1 sible state. Early maps (for example, Rocque’s 1756 map of Dublin) Background Cúlra show the church located within the core of a dense urban This Conservation Plan for St. Luke’s has been commis- block of mixed use, residential and industrial buildings. sioned by Dublin City Council and The Heritage The church building was set within in relatively generous Council. The context for commissioning the grounds and a graveyard. With the narrow main access off Conservation Plan arises from “Dublin City Council’s the Coombe, along a tree lined avenue, there were also desire to establish an agreed and appropriate re-use for the entrances from Skinner’s Alley, which no longer survives, Church, while retaining its significance”.2 It has been and a later, 19th Century entrance, from Newmarket, commissioned at a time of considerable development which does survive. activity within the Coombe/Liberties area and following the completion, after decades of planning, of the new In 2002 the new Cork St/Coombe relief road severed the Cork Street/Coombe relief road, which has radically historic site, separating the church from its former main altered the context, setting and site of St. Luke’s. The area entrance on the Coombe. The alignment of this new road is currently undergoing substantial change, the extent of through the middle of the site, has resulted in a radically which has been unseen since the original development new and visually prominent setting for St. Luke’s. The two explosion of 18th century Dublin, of which St. Luke’s is sites created by this partitioning include the section closest one of the earliest survivals. to The Coombe, containing the former Widows Alms House (originally built as a school), which is now being St. Luke’s Church, a protected structure and recorded redeveloped, privately, as a mixed use building. The shell monument, was built between 1715 and 1716. It is locat- of the Widows Alms House, a protected structure, is being ed in The Coombe, within Dublin’s historic centre and is retained as part of the development. The remaining site, attributed to Thomas Burgh, Surveyor General - the sur- which contains the church building, is in the ownership of viving building account books confirm his role as super- Dublin City Council and is the site to which the main vising architect. Formerly parish church of the St. thrust of the policies and recommendations of this Nicholas Without and St. Luke’s parish, it closed for pub- Conservation Plan apply. lic worship in 1975 and, following a fire in 1986, the 1. Walter Benjamin, One Way Street and Other Writings, (London: Verso, 1979) 2 . Extract from Dublin City Council Brief for St. Luke’s Conservation Plan, dated 13 February 2003, included in Volume 2, Appendix A) 5 St. Luke’s Conservation Plan View of roofless interior of St. Luke’s today, looking towards east chancel apse. Pilaster load detail of classically inspired east chancel apse showing current derelict condition. As part of the Conservation Plan a broad consultative The public ownership of St. Luke’s can be considered of process was carried out, which included a workshop for significance – it brings both responsibilities and possibili- invited stakeholders and key individuals/interest groups; a ties for its future re-use and rehabilitation. public meeting; structured meetings with key individuals As a former place of worship and still a place of burial, St. and, written submissions. The consultation process indi- Luke’s is a sacred place. The value of St. Luke’s as a burial cated a shared appreciation of the significance of St. Luke’s ground is notable from the extent of burials within the and a concern for its future appropriate re-use. Further, site, including those recorded and those numerous the considerable potential of St. Luke’s to play an influen- unknown and unrecorded burials. tial role in the, primarily social and cultural, regeneration of the area, is widely understood and valued. The feed- Albeit currently overgrown, St. Luke’s is and always has back and information arising from the consultation been an island of green space in a highly urbanised part of process has informed the understanding of what is impor- the city. This amenity and environmental value is particu- tant about St. Luke’s and what threatens to de-value this larly significant in consideration of the small percentage of importance and, has assisted in preparing the policies and publicly accessible parks/open space in the area. In addi- recommendations which aim to protect and enhance this tion to some surviving early planting, the grounds also importance. contain soapwort, a plant associated with the historic tex- tile industry. Swifts are welcome visitors to the grounds. Significance Suntasacht Strategically, the location of St. Luke’s is important in Amongst the aspects of St. Luke’s which the Conservation facilitating a connection from the Cathedrals area of the Plan has identified as important, the more notable are: city centre and the wonderful urban space of Newmarket and its hinterland. St. Luke’s, as a survivor of the sizeable social and physical upheaval which the area has endured in recent years, The former church building is an important survival of remains a valued repository of memories and histories. It early 18th century church building of which little remains resonates stories of the past and hopes of the present for in the City. As such it is a repository of contemporary the future. This somewhat elusive quality reflects, in equal construction and building skills. The fine granite surround measure, the potential of an appropriately re-used and to the original north entrance and the quality and intact- rehabilitated St. Luke’s to play a valuable role in the area’s ness of the crypts are notable. The strict rectangular sim- regeneration and all the historic associations and signifi- plicity of the design also reflects the emerging contempo- cance which the site retains. rary architectural styles and influence of the time. Allied to the above, yet a more tangible facet, is the his- The full set of original building records for St. Luke’s repre- 6 toric ‘landmark’ quality of St. Luke’s. sents a very rare survival for still-standing buildings of such Executive Summary View today from The Coombe through former entrance to St. Luke’s Detail from 1847 Ordnance Survey map showing tree lined entrance avenue to St. Luke’s Church from The Coombe a date. They add considerably to the understanding of St. St. Luke’s lies within the hinterland of the City’s historical- Luke’s and contemporary church building as well as the ly and architecturally important cathedrals and forms, building trades and craftsmen of that time. with these, a group of prominent landmark church build- ings. The site is also significant due to its associations with Sir Thomas Burgh, as architect, and other, known, skilled Vulnerabilities Baoil craftspeople, e.g., Issac Wills, Francis Quin and John The above are put at risk by the following: Whinrey. The lack of use of St. Luke’s over the past 17 years con- St. Luke’s is a survival from the John Rocque Dublin City tributes to its present state of vulnerability. Unused, inac- map of 1756, arguably Dublin’s most important drawn cessible and un-maintained, it has become de-valued. record which traces the architectural and urban transfor- mation of Dublin in the 18th century to a city of There are a number of criteria controlling future use, European significance.