Many thanks to the friend who sent us this extraordinary re-discovered film footage of Queen Victoria (1819-1901) visiting Ireland back in 1900, that Queen’s last-ever visit to this country. As a recent article on the British Heritage Travel website makes clear, the Museum of Modern Art, or MoMA, says that “in 1939, it received “a… Read More a long lost film, and our Victorian architecture walking tour.
In the always excellent Dublin Inquirer newspaper this week I was delighted to read a report on how Dublin City Council (DCC) is (at last) trying to find a new use for both the beautiful old 1700s Pigeon House Hotel near Ringsend, and for the huge derelict Poolbeg power station next door. Both buildings stand… Read More Stretching the City & Into the Bay – new life for old Pigeon Hotel & former Poolbeg Power Station?
A few coal hole iron covers, these particular two are on Merrion Street. There are coal-hole covers in all the older parts of Dublin. This Merrion/Fitzwilliam area has a particularly rich store of them. The majority of the most interesting are coal holes, those circular discs of cast iron capping the coal chutes, ubiquitous to… Read More Cast of Thousands
I occasionally write about Fine Art here, but very rarely my own output. i don’t draw as much as i used to, it is more of a hobby than an obsession these days. Also, when you sometimes have to write about a towering genius like Johannes Vermeer, or any of the great Dutch, Flemish or… Read More for Ease of Navigation: a practical suggestion for architects, planners, builders & developers.
There are 6 or 7 tickets left for our next Dublin history and architecture walk which takes place very soon, afternoon of Wednesday 26th October (2016). It starts 2.15pm, meeting at the Campanile of Trinity College. (Meet from 2.05PM, please present tickets, walk departs 2.15 sharp.) The tour goes for around 1 hour and 45… Read More South City Stroll- a Dublin Decoded mystery tour, Wed 26th Oct.
I am unable to resist posting a few photos, showing some of my own highlights Open House Dublin 2106.. Saturday: First to the lovely Art Deco Kodak factory in Rathmines. (original building 1930, by Donnelly, Moore and Keatinge) Unfortunately access was unexpectedly denied for the planned tour on Saturday morning of the interior. But we still… Read More My highlights Open House Dublin 2106
A large part of the last full day in Paris is spent browsing the flea market at Porte de Clingnancourt. In fact this is the collective name for a number of markets, each with a different character, spread over a large area. As a whole Les Puces de Saint-Ouen is very diverse, but as a… Read More Paris Pictures part ii: snakes & elephants, a morning at the Flea market.
Great Victorians, our new Dublin Decoded walking tour, is now open for bookings via email. (see blow) Our theme is Great Victorians. On this tour we explore the rich legacy of beautiful, often spectacular buildings, with their applied arts, architectural detail and decor, all from the second half of the 19th century, the Victorian era.… Read More Great Victorians, Dublin walking tour.
North by North West, is the newest of Dublin Decoded’s walking & talking tour of Dublin city centre. As always with Dublin Decoded, we’ll look at and discuss the rich, varied; often surprising historic past, and explore how aspects of that past shape our present and our city today. There is an upcoming date on… Read More North by North West, a walking & talking tour of Dublin, 18th century to medievel, history, architecture, revolution & social history.
To mark the screening of the RTE documentary on Eileen Gray next Tuesday and the publication of an important new book on Gray’s Life and work by design historian Jennifer Gough, we re-visit this personal appraisal, written during October 2013 in response to the Eileen Grey retrospective at IMMA… The Irish Museum of Modern Art, recently… Read More Eileen Gray at IMMA, thoughts & reflections.
Arran Q Henderson 