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The Upper Leeson Street Residents Association Newsletter

P.O. Box 8411, Ballsbridge Dublin 4.www.ulsara.ie

Spring 2016 Page 1ULSARA NEWS

Spring 2016

The Upper Leeson Street Area Residents Association Newsletter

Carrolls BuildingThe well-known Carrolls building on Grand Parade, designed in the early 1960s by architects Robinson, Keefe and Devane, and which lay vacant for some time, has now been bought by London and Regional Properties (L&RP).

The developers intend to refurbish the building and to create a 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 between L&RP and local residents, who are capably representing

their interests. ULSARA maintains a watching brief.

Dublin Draft Development Plan The process of developing a new plan for Dublin is under way (see page 2). ULSARA, together with our neighbours in the Pembroke Road association, are interested in the potential in 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.

Ballsbridge TriangleThe sites of the former Jury’s and Berkley Court hotel were bought from NAMA some time ago and development will now proceed under the planning permission granted in 2011, Residents will recall the part ULSARA played in presenting residents’ views at the oral hearing, and the relative success achieved in restraining

the worst excesses of the original planning permission.

RoadsThe state of the road surfaces in the area is often appalling. There are deep potholes, notably in Burlington Road, especially near the Waterloo Road junction; as you turn into Elgin Road at the US Embassy; in Leeson Park; spasmodically in Wellington Road; and indeed elsewhere.

We sometimes refer to these potholes as a disincentive to through traffic, but the situation has got so bad that we have written to the traffic and roads departments of the Council, asking for a meeting.

ULSARA AGMWednesday 13 April at 7.30 pmLitton Hall, Wesley House, Leeson ParkLitton 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 SPEAKERSDr Ellen Rowley

Irish Research Council Post-doctoral fellow (UCD/DCC)The Value of Ireland’s 20th Century Architecture

Jacqueline KelleherProject Leader of the Heritage

Community Garden Donnybrook,The benefits of community gardens. Carrolls building behind Dartmouth Square West

ULSARA News 2016 v3.indd 1 23/03/2016 15:24

Chairman’s MessageEvery five years a new Development Plan for Dublin City is drafted, outlining the proposed planning strategy for the coming years, and is displayed for public view and comment. The current plan, for the period 2017-2022, is a comprehensive document, with detailed drawings and descriptions, and runs to several volumes.

Once the draft plan has been released for public viewing, it goes through a number of stages, as various interested groups make observations, comments or express objections to the plans. ULSARA is fortunate to have a number of committee members with experience of planning and development, who study these plans on your behalf and highlight concerns that could impinge negatively on our area.

In December 2015 ULSARA made its submissions to Dublin City Council in regard to the Draft Dublin City Development Plan 2017-2022. In order to best preserve the residential character and amenities of our neighbourhood, we offered to work with Dublin City with a view to establishing an architectural conservation area or areas for our neighbourhood. In addition, we requested Dublin City Council to remove a loophole in the text of the draft plan to ensure that embassy offices cannot be considered open for consideration in residential conservation areas zoned Z2. We await results!

ULSARA’s activities rely on the annual membership fees. Thus the support of existing and new members is essential for our future. The annual membership form is enclosed with this newsletter, and gives you the option to pay by direct debit, if that is more convenient for you.

Our 2016 AGM takes place on Wednesday 13 April at 7.30pm in Litton Hall (Leeson Park), so please make a note in your diary. We shall have two speakers as usual.

We hope that you will join us and enjoy these presentations. As always, your comments and suggestions are welcome at: ULSARA, P.O.Box 8411, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4.

Carmen Neary, Chairman

Who We AreThe Upper Leeson Street Area Residents’ Association was founded in 1968. The Association draws its members from the catchment area of streets, lanes and squares, extending south from the Grand Canal, that are adjacent to Upper Leeson Street.

The primary aim of the Association is to promote the conservation and preservation of the residential character and amenities of the neighbourhood, including the maintenance of green spaces, as well as the distinctive Georgian and Victorian architectural features of this area of Dublin.

ULSARA



Baggot Street UpperMespil Road

Grand Parade

Pembroke Road

Pembroke Lane

Pembroke Park

Morehampton Road

Sussex Road

Ranelagh Road

Leeson Street UpperLeeson ParkLitton Hall Clyde Road

Clyde Lane

Hey

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Lane

Wat

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Northbrook Road

Dartmouth

Square

RanelaghGardens

Herbert

Park

Wat

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Burli

ngto

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ad

Wel

lingt

on R

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Wellington Lane

Appi

an W

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Leeson Park Avenue

Chelmsfo

rd Road

Sally

mou

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Avenue

Wellington Place

Ragl

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Ragl

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Elgin Road

Pembroke Place

ULSARA AGMat Litton Hall, Leeson Park,

Wednesday 13th April at 7:30 pm

Northbrooke Ave.

Northbrooke Lane.

Swan river

Swan river


Development ULSARA AGM



Water Water Everywhere Residents recall the floods of November 2011, when flooding occurred in Clyde Lane, coming probably from Herbert Park. Water also crept some distance up Elgin Road.

The floods of December 2015, however painful for the people affected, seem this time to have passed us by, owing no doubt to geography and perhaps also to the Dodder scheme. It certainly provides reassurance.

The Swan River and other streams underlie our area, as is shown on the map on page 2, and the underlying natural water table is close to the surface. Wells in some terraces show that the water table is perhaps a metre or less below ground level; some of these wells are fully stone-lined down for some 6 metres, demonstrating that the water table in the 19th century may have been that far down.

The water table is affected by many factors, among them surely the extent to which we are creating hard surfaces in place of grass or other absorbent surfaces. Another concern is the extent to which large buildings have one or more storeys at underground level, potentially cutting old drains or natural underground water seepage routes. The same may be true of the fashion for creating large underground extensions to private houses or embassies.

These are questions for engineers and hydrologists, and are also we trust a concern of the planning department of DCC. Residents should be told of the risk factors involved in this area; the question could arise of installing non-return valves on domestic sewers or other preventive measures. See page 5 for more on water.

Underground Rivers Dublin has an amazing variety of underground rivers. Altogether, the city and county have around 75 rivers and streams, and while these all flowed overground, that was before the city was built up. In the past 150 years, many of them have disappeared underground, built over. Only a few rivers, like the Liffey, the Dodder and the Tolka, remain above ground.

The best known underground river in this part of Dublin is the Swan, which has its origins in the upper reaches of the Dodder and flows through Terenure, Rathmines, Ranelagh and Ballsbridge, to join the River Dodder as it flows under Londonbridge Road. Its course is deep below Morehampton Road, then underneath Clyde Road and Shelbourne Road. One branch of the Swan once flowed through Herbert Park into the Dodder in Ballsbridge. The name of the Swan shopping centre in Rathmines is one of the few present day reminders of this river. See the course of the Swan river on the map.

Also in this part of south Dublin, the Elm Park stream, which starts in Goatstown, flows beneath Elm Park golf course and empties into the sea at Merrion Strand. The Nutley Stream flows from Clonskeagh, beneath RTÉ, and reaches Sandymount Strand close to the Martello Tower.

Another underground stream rises in this part of Dublin, the Gallows Stream, which rises near Leeson Lane, and flows underground appropriately close to Government Buildings. The Stein or Steyne River rises near Charlemont Bridge on the Grand Canal and flows underground far beneath such city centre landmarks as Brown Thomas, discharging into the Liffey.

Flood control works below Ballsbridge


Practically all of the buildings, in the ULSARA district, were built for families to live in. Ttwo Victorian Gothic churches were built to serve those families - St. Bartholomew’s and Christ Church - and there are some ambitious public buildings like the Molyneux Institute or the Old Mens’ Home in Northbrook Road. The twentieth century has added more big blocks: the Fitzwilliam Tennis Club, the unlovely frontage of the Burlington, now the Double Tree Hilton Hotel, and John Johansen’s quirky concrete pill box, built for the American Embassy in 1962. Blocks of flats have been shoehorned into sites that are rather too small to contain them yet, despite these insertions, our area survives as one of the best example of a nineteenth-century residential district with many grand houses, built for fashion-conscious Dubliners, from the late Georgian period, through the whole of Queen Victoria’s reign and even, at Herbert Park, into the Edwardian age.

Of course when they were planned all these houses had ample front gardens, set behind cast-iron railings, low brick walls with granite copingstones from Dalkey or, on occasion, a privet hedge. These railings, walls and hedges are important since they contribute directly to the sense of place and create a space between the public and the private domain. They are an integral part of the historic character of our area and, since practically all the houses

are designated as protected structures, their curtilage should be protected too. Yet this does not happen. A walk down any of our streets today will immediately establish just how much the front gardens of ULSARA are under attack. Where there are more businesses, as in Waterloo Road, the dereliction is worse: here railing and front walls have been removed to create a sea of asphalt, usually ill-maintained, with cars parked up to the front steps of once handsome houses.

Environmentally these spaces are a disaster! No thought is given to the needs of wild life inhabiting the gardens. There is no cover for birds or any places where the invertebrates they feed on can grow and multiply. The number of blackbirds in our area has fallen markedly and thrushes have disappeared. No thought is given to the flash flooding that these areas of additional hard surfaces create for the city drainage system, which every year backs up more and more. And these spaces look frightful.

The ‘satellite view’ on Google Maps reveals the extent of this blight. In one glaring instance, some years ago an Embassy on Leeson Park entirely removed its garden wall and more recently laid concrete over the garden and even across the public pavement. Let us determine as a community to see that no more work like this disfigures our area again.

Trees and Gardens



Front Gardens

Indian Embassy improvements


Water Feature



Of course we were charged indirectly before the introduction of water charges, and charged too much because there was little incentive to be efficient; yet we were not charged enough to ensure adequate investment in a safe and reliable system. We had the worst of both worlds.

What to do with the conservation grant?

• Leaking taps and pipes - probably best to get in a plumber.

• Leaks outdoors between the mains and your house – ditto.

• Over-generous WC cisterns – often one can reduce the flush by placing a closed plastic bottle full of water in the cistern.

• To save on heating and on water bills, insulate water pipes between the boiler and the hot tap, to reduce the amount of water wasted while waiting for the hot water to come through.

• Install a water butt; they can be attractive, see below – and see the article on the ULSARA website

• and then there are also simple tweaks to our behaviour listed in www.taptips.ie/

If we are doing this seriously, there are dozens of other actions that can be taken. Apart from the well known options such as selecting a water and energy-efficient dishwasher or washing machine, there are also water-saving shower heads, for example. These have been well reviewed by WHICH? consumer magazine and could pay for themselves surprisingly quickly in some households.

Update on Lower Dodder Flood Alleviation WorksWe reported in the 2014 Newsletter feature on this topic that we were advised that these works would be completed up to the Smurfit Weir in Clonskeagh in 2015. DCC now expects the works to be completed during 2017.

The delay has been due to unanticipated significant additional works in constructing reinforced retaining walls below Ballsbridge, to secure business properties from Sherry Fitzgerald to Ballsbridge 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.

Water Butts and the Conservation GrantThe 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.


Website www.ulsara.ie Please check www.ulsara.ie for local information and up-to-date news on ULSARA activities. The site includes links to Dublin City Council services including Property Flood Protection and Planning Applications, further articles on the local area and an archive of newsletters dating back to the 1980s.

#ulsaradublinWe invite you to follow us at #ulsaradublin and welcome ideas on how to make our website and tweets more useful.

ULSARA Campaign to Control GraffitiWell 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 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 2015) and ULSARA volunteered to try to control the problem on an ongoing basis. The ULSARA committee organised monthly clean ups, averaging 12 instances per month, starting in June 2015.We believe this is a success.

ULSARA cannot take action on any private property, and owners are encouraged to clean graffiti on the walls of their own private property; contact Dublin City Council for advice (01 222 2362).

ULSARA’s Autumn SocialMembers of ULSARA gathered in the Pirates’ Den in November for the annual social, and the occasion provided a valuable opportunity for discussion. The committee welcomes the social as a chance to catch up with the members and to listen to any issues of concern to them. What better way to spend a wet November afternoon? It also helps to remind residents of the existence and value of the association. This year’s event: 5 November.

Carnac Restored On 14 November 2015, The Leeson Lounge hosted a nostalgic and delightful evening to celebrate the unveiling of the restored ‘Carnac’ by sculptor Bob Mulcahy. The audience was privileged to hear Imogen Stuart in conversation with Professor Alistair Rowan as well as wonderful contributions by Ronan Sheehan, writer, and Philip O’Neill, sculptor. Carmen Neary, the intrepid Chairwoman of ULSARA, braved the elements along with many of the audience to unveil the sculpture. More photographs and an appreciation can be found on www.ulsara.ie.

BloomsdayDid the Invincibles’ gang stop for refreshment in Upper Leeson Street? So we believe and ULSARA aims to mark this interesting, if rather bizarre, historical fact on Bloomsday.

The Bloomsday connection: Joyce (born 1882) refers to the Phoenix Park Murders (also 1882) in Ulysses. In one scene, McHugh and Dedalus listen to Crawford in the Freeman’s Journal: “Skin-the-Goat drove the car for an alibi. Inchicore, Roundtown, Windy Arbour, Palmerstown Park, Ranelagh…. X is Davy’s publichouse in upper Leeson street.”

Davy’s public house is now the Leeson Lounge, where the event will take place from 7pm – 8pm, 16th June 2016. The guest speaker will be Senan Molony, author of The Phoenix Park Murders: Conspiracy, Betrayal and Retribution (Mercier, 2006). Victorian attire recommended!

Check out www.bloomsdayfestival.ie, www.jamesjoyce.ie and

www.ulsara.ie for updates.

ULSARA Activities



Imogen Stuart and Carnac


ULSARA Activities



Public Plaques & Monuments in the Upper Leeson Street Area

A plaque commemorating Professor Edward Dowden (1843-1913) was unveiled In November at 50 Wellington Road by Councillor Micheal MacDonncha before a sizeable crowd. This was the convivial conclusion of dedicated efforts by the current residents, Paul and Elizabeth Murray, to have Professor Dowden, first Professor of English at Trinity College Dublin, commemorated in this way.

Paul discovered the connection between Edward Dowden and the house while researching his biography of Bram Stoker (2004) and uncovered letters written by Dowden to Walt Whitman, among others, from 50 Wellington Road. Stoker was likely a frequent visitor, as would have been the Wildes and Yeatses.

Other plaques in our area:Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904) Writer and scholar of Japan; 73 upper Leeson Street.

John Bagnall Bury (1861-1927) historian and classicist who lived at 12 Leeson Park

William Percy French (1854-1920), Songwriter, painter and poet; 35 Mespil Road.

Patrick Kavanagh (1904-1967). Poet; 62 Pembroke Road (1943-1958), 19 Raglan Road (1958-1959) and at the former Parson’s Bookshop at Baggot Street Bridge. Also three canal-side benches at Baggot Street bridge.

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

Eoin Mac Neill (1867-1945), scholar, soldier and politician, at 63 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 officers, soldiers and medical corps for the Great War, in which many perished, are commemorated by a large stone Celtic cross between Christ Church and Molyneux House in Leeson Park.

Recently, a garden of remembrance with a simple stone cross was erected on the corner of Clyde Road and Elgin Road, in memory of the deceased parishioners of St Bartholomew’s Church, Clyde Road, including officers and soldiers who participated in the Great War.

Not far from St Bartholomew’s, a plaque and Celtic cross stands at the corner of Herbert Park & Clyde Road, in honour of the officers and soldiers of the Third Battalion, Óglaigh na hEireann, participants in the Easter Rising, 1916.

Herbert Park Updates• The Parks Service of Dublin City Council commissioned

Howley, Hayes Architects to undertake a conservation and management plan for the park. A copy of this excellent report can be found on the Dublin City website. It is open for public consultation and comments can be sent by email to [email protected].

• The tearooms still have not opened but we understand the franchise has been given to Noshingtons who along with their café on the South Circular Road, already run the tearooms in Harolds Cross Park and St Patricks Park.

• Floodlighting has recently been installed for the tennis courts, and we now await the resurfacing of the courts.

• ULSARA remains concerned that despite all the expenditure on major new facilities for the park, the day to day maintenance of the park is at an all-time low.

Unveiling the Dowden Plaque at 55 Wellington Road


The Upper Leeson Street Residents Association Newsletter



Speculations on Leeson TerraceThe 2012 ULSARA Newsletter carried an article on the refurbishment of part of

Leeson Terrace, especially the forecourt.

Leeson Terrace comprises thirteen early Victorian houses on the west side of Upper Leeson Street, opposite the end of Waterloo Road. The terrace was built between 1840 and 1849 in two distinct architectural styles: Classical (65A-69) and Tudor (70-75). The nine houses at 65A-72 originally accessed a shared coach house through a gap between

7 0 70 and 71 that was filled by 70A in about 1869.

The terrace was built in the grounds of a villa, Harrymount, which stood on the site now occupied by Leeson Village. All the houses were originally rented from the owner-occupier of Harrymount, Mr George Patterson, who was associated with two building companies: Patterson and Catcheside, contractors for a number of workhouses in the early 1840s; and by 1847, Hammond, Murray & Patterson, railway contractors. . As Leeson Terrace was built within the grounds of Patterson’s property and he owned all the houses, it is reasonable to assume they were his own private development.

Patterson’s career parallels with that of the English architect George Wilkinson (1814-1890), who was appointed by the Poor Law Board in January 1839 to design all 130 workhouses in Ireland. The workhouses were complete by 1847, and Wilkinson moved on to work for 3 railway companies, including the Dublin and Wicklow Railway for whom he designed the Harcourt Street Terminus (1859), now the Odeon Bar. Both Patterson and Wilkinson moved from workhouses to railway infrastructure.

Wilkinson employed several architectural styles in his work, including a tudor domestic idiom and classical. The Tudor detailing would have been familiar to Wilkinson from his early life in Oxford and he had used these styles in buildings in England and Wales prior to his appointment in Ireland.

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 architect and builder is tangible, no concrete evidence has been uncovered, as yet, of Wilkinson’s hand in directly designing the houses, as opposed to Patterson simply observing and replicating.

However, it is possible that Leeson Terrace was the result of collaboration between two men at the forefront of their respective and evolving professions at that time. The terrace’s development coincided with the Great Famine and provides an insight into domestic building activity in Dublin at that time.

Urban bees and urban beekeepingBee-friendly flowers make urban areas more attractive places in which to live and work. If we make cities better for bees and pollinators, they are better for us too. Bees only eat nectar and pollen from flowering plants and trees. As they collect their food they pollinate the plants, allowing them to reproduce. Towns and cities can provide a diverse source of forage in gardens, parks, tree-lined streets and railway/tram sidings if bee-friendly flowers are grown from early spring to late autumn.

Bees like blue, purple, violet and white flowers best, grown in large clumps in a sunny, sheltered spot. They do not like double-headed varieties whose nectar and pollen has often been bred out. Wild flowers like dandelions, clover and dead-nettles provide welcome food for our urban neighbours. And the roof of a garden shed carpeted with sedum, heathers and lavenders will be a feast. Ivy, privet and holly are among the most abundant sources of food if they are allowed to flower.

While skeptics might call it a fad, urban beekeeping and the rapid growth of the honey business in cities such as London and New York over the last decade suggests it’s here to stay. Some say urban bees may actually be stronger than rural bees thanks to the lack of pesticides sprayed all over their pollen supply.

Pat Kavanagh at the Airfield Estate in Dundrum says, “Dublin’s bees are spoiled, because there’s plenty of food and it’s warmer than you’d expect. There’s a distinct Dublin honey, it’s treacle-y. The canal banks are perfect for them. There’s growth, wilderness and they’re not so much in danger from other animals. Roofs are perfect though, they love height.”

Starting your own hive is no great challenge. The Irish Beekeeping Association (irishbeekeeping.ie) offers beginner courses for budding apiarists, some at concessionary prices, alongside literature and hive insurance. They’ll even hook you up with a starter colony once you’ve got a palace

for your queen built.

WildlifeThe dominant species at the moment appear to be magpies and foxes, and the area is overpopulated with both. The chatter of the birds during the day and the screeching of foxes at night are familiar to us all. Only seagulls are as noisy.

It is a bad idea to encourage them: magpies are scavengers who frequently rob the nests of small song-birds. Foxes may attack chickens and pets, and are also a more serious threat, in that their urine and faeces contaminate our gardens and the latter especially is a dangerous vector of disease. Clearing fox droppings is nasty work that should be carried out wearing rubber gloves and hands washed afterwards.

Leeson Terrace Notebook

Leeson Terrace


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