Rising from the dust: The reconstruction of O’Connell Street

We are all familiar, especially in this centenary year, with those striking black-and-white photographs showing the devastation of Dublin city centre following the Easter Rising. What’s not so well known is the heroic story of how O’Connell Street and adjoining areas were reconstructed in the aftermath of 1916 and the Civil War.

Not only were three major buildings – the GPO, Custom House and Four Courts – reduced to roofless ruins, but numerous others were also destroyed, particularly on O'Connell Street; its west side suffered enormous damage in 1916, thanks to the British gunboat Helga, while much of the east side came a cropper during the Civil War.

And yet, the lower part of the street – between Eden Quay and Lower Abbey Street – had already been rebuilt, in grand neo-classical style, and this became a sort of template for redeveloping the rest of it, after Free State troops had to resort to using artillery to dislodge republicans holed up in "The Block", where Hammam Buildings now stand.

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The 1920s neoclassical interior of the GPO, following its reconstruction. Photograph: Frank McDonald

The luxuriantly named Horace Tennyson O’Rourke, then city architect with Dublin Corporation, determined that O’Connell Street should be rebuilt in a 1920s neoclassical style, and he is largely responsible for the palatial facade that extends from Cathedral Street to Cathal Brugha Street, including the Gresham, the Savoy and Hammam Buildings.

O'Rourke was no doubt influenced by the work of Sir Edwin Lutyens, but the style was (and is) appropriate to the main street of a capital city. Clerys department store – an unfortunate casualty of capitalism – was modelled on Selfridge's on London's Oxford Street, with stone used as cladding over its steel frame, much like modern office blocks.

Originally developed as Sackville Mall by Luke Gardiner, O'Connell Street was lined with Georgian houses, of which only one survives – No 52, once the Catholic Commercial Club, founded by Daniel O'Connell himself; it has been vacant for years, having been caught up in plans by Chartered Land for another shopping centre.

Victorian era
Some redevelopment took place in the Victorian era, notably the extravagant Gilbey's building on Upper O'Connell Street, with its elaborate portico and French chateau-style roof; it survived the 1916 Rising only to be demolished in the early 1970s by Star GB Holdings to make way for an office block that was leased by the then Dublin County Council.

Nelson’s Pillar, centrepiece of the street, was undamaged by the British shelling – they must have taken care to avoid this monument to one of their heroes.

But the Doric column was blown up by the IRA in February 1966 and finished off by the Army and the site remained vacant for decades until the 120m-high Spire was built on it.

Georgian plot widths were replicated along the southern side of Middle Abbey Street, while Independent House, no longer the head office of Independent Newspapers, is seriously grand, topped by a pair of Parisian-style mansard roofs. Nearly next door is the art moderne Adelphi, now merely a facade for Arnotts service bay and carpark exit.

Virtually all of Eden Quay was rebuilt in the 1920s, again largely replicating Georgian plot widths, although curiously it is included in the designated area for the Government’s Living City initiative, which has a cut-off date of 1915. Liberty Hall, though damaged, survived until the late 1950s and was replaced in 1965 by the present 16-storey tower.

East of the Loop Line Bridge, the Custom House was little more than a shell after being burned by the IRA in May 1921. The Four Courts were in an even more parlous state as a result of Free State shelling, directed by Michael Collins, to dislodge republican rebels led by Liam Mellowes.

And the GPO, of course, was both roofless and windowless.

Buildings salvaged
Dublin is very fortunate that TJ Byrne, chief architect at the Office of Public Works, was able to persuade WT Cosgrave, first president of the Free State's Executive Council, that all three major public buildings could be salvaged, if not reinstated.

There was never any question of the GPO, in particular, being demolished; it was, after all, a shrine.

As documented by author and architectural historian Michael Fewer, Cosgrave knew Byrne from his earlier work in the Rathfarnham area for South Dublin Rural District Council, doing terraced cottages for people on its housing lists as well as the Whitechurch Carnegie Library, a lovely little arts and crafts-style building, which opened in 1911.

The biggest problems were with the Four Courts, which might easily have been demolished but for Byrne’s persuasiveness and ingenuity. And he showed that lateral thinking one expects from architects by turning damaged Corinthian capitals on the columns around the base of its dome to face inwards, so they appear pristine in river views.

Also in the 1920s, the Dublin Civic Survey was finally published and Patrick Abercrombie’s grand plans for the city, including the majestic Griffith Avenue. And although the new Free State was far from flush with money, Dublin also got the first of many “garden city” estates with the building of Marino. All in all, the city was in very good hands then.

So next time you walk down O’Connell Street, forget about all the dross at ground-floor level and look up to see the results of Horace Tennyson O’Rourke’s work.

And don’t forget to pop into the GPO, still mercifully in use as a post office, to admire the finest 1920s neoclassical interior that Dublin has to offer.