Housing - Art Deco Ireland

Private Housing: Only a few private houses were built in Ireland in non-traditional styles, usually in a rather plain art deco style, with white facades, steel windows but with plain glass, not etched or stained glass as one finds in Belgium, for example, to relieve the plain look. Interiors tend to be simple, almost austere, with ceramic tile fireplaces often the only art deco touch. These flat roof houses have often been altered, due to continuing difficulties with flat concrete roofs in our rather wet climate. The most interesting inter-war housing tends to be in clusters. On the north side of Dublin, near Clontarf, there are several clusters of flat roof semi-detached or detached houses.

In particular, early international style houses at Kincora Road and on the seafront at Dollymount.

In the now rather posh area of Mount Merrion, in Dublin there are some more conventionally roofed, but distinctly thirties looking, houses and even a few with flat roofs. Mount Merrion.

There are some more in Foxrock. Foxrock houses.

One-off houses in the international style include the very early and imaginative Wendon

(now Balnagowan) in Glasnevin, Dublin,  used as offices for many years.

Geragh (1938 ) by Architect Michael Scott, was for his own use.

There are also a few moderne houses in Dundalk   Dundalk moderne

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In Limerick there is a sizeable estate of moderne style houses at Corbally (shown right) ,and one or two individual art deco houses on the Dublin and Ennis Roads. Greater Belfast has a few also.

A spectacular seaside house dating from 1936 in Co. Wexford called "The White House " was on the market in 1999.

 

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Public Housing: Local authorities outside Dublin built little on a large scale until the 1930's and then almost always not in an art deco manner. Most public housing was in small scale house building schemes, done in a traditional style. Cottage style in the country. Terrace housing in the towns. In the 1930's, Dublin which had some of the worst housing stock in Europe, began to replace tenements with city-centre flats.

Limerick and Cork explicitly rejected the option of apartment building and went for larger estates of small, cheaply built houses.

In Dublin, where the City Housing Architect H A Simms was attracted by Deco and Dutch styles for apartment complexes, some distinguished work was done. Simms liked working in brick but there are also examples in concrete carried out under his direction. In recent years, many of these buildings have been demolished,  have had their windows replaced or are being upgraded.          ©Art Deco Ireland 2005

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