Public Buildings in Ireland
Public buildings tended to follow the classical or beaux-arts styles, utilitarian with very little ornamentation on grounds of economy, and there was little desire to use the art deco or moderne style to mark out a new national style. Indeed the idea of Ireland as an old, and once independent state, regaining independence may have encouraged the use of historical references in building styles. A few classical buildings got deco touches, usually around the doors or windows. The international style was popular for hospitals and many were designed in this style in the late 1930's. A few even got built, some after the war, using earlier designs.
There are some deco inspired carved stone panels by Ms Gabriel Hayes (1942) on Government Buildings in Kildare Street . This building is rather more deco inside than out, with ruboleum floors, walnut paneling and custom made brass door fittings. It was designed by J R Boyd Barrett who won a competition in 1935. Completion was delayed due to the war. A number of public libraries in Dublin built to a uniform design in the 1930's have a deco exterior appearance, but are rather plain inside.
Banks
Little enough new building took place, with the Bank of Ireland in Royal Avenue Belfast the most interesting building that remains.There is an art deco bank in Bangor also. A smaller deco style bank in Bray, Co. Dublin is now gone.
Utilities
The Dublin Gas Company, the town gas supplier, were particularly adventurous with their showrooms and the Dublin showroom in Dolier Street by the architectural firm Robinson & Keefe manages to survive with some changes. Showrooms in Bray and Dun Laoire, both near Dublin, were disposed of some years ago but remain. Robinson & Keefe had a particular taste for deco and were good at it. Perhaps that is why a disproportionate amount of the work in the deco style is from that firm. Or perhaps they were the firm that the few local admirers of deco went to?. This building was sold by the Gas Company in March 2002, and it is now used by Trinity College, Dublin. A cafe is open in the ground floor.
Back to Art Deco Ireland Index Page
Churches
The Roman Catholic church did not favour adventurous designs for new churches, and had a particularly strong preference for traditional designs , usually Gothic or Italian influenced, which is why the church by Chicago architect F Barry Byrne, a former pupil of Frank Lloyd Wright, at Turners Cross in Cork city is so amazing. How it got built to this design and with such a monumental sculptured entrance by American sculptor John Storrs is a true miracle. Read more on John Storrs
Hospitals
The clean white look of deco and of the international
style, with all those dirt catching cornices removed, should have been a
natural for hospital design in the interwar period and so it was. The large
opening metal windows and the sun balconies of the mediterranean type lidos,
such as the De La Warre Pavillion in Bexhill England, were also adopted
enthusiastically by the designers of tuberculosis hospitals, where sun and
fresh air were considered beneficial to treatment. Indeed generations of nurses
must have cursed the enthusiasm of architects for the illusion of the
mediteranean transposed to chilly Ireland and generations of maintenance
budgets must have gone in trying to keep the exteriors white, the interiors
warm and the flat roofs from leaking.
Most deco of all Irish hospitals is the Nurses
Home of University College Hospital, Galway by T J Cullen 1933/38. This was
the only part built of a very extensive hospital design dating from 1932. Nurses Home Galway
Michael Scott built two hospitals in the
international style in Ireland. That at Portlaoise 1933/40 is the more
satisfactory to look at, a H shaped plan in white concrete, the one at
Tullamore 1934/42 was faced in stone.
One international style school was built in the Republic, at Drogheda. Drogheda Vocational School Belfast has a number of 1930's schools, see the Belfast page.