This unusual church at Monkstown, County Dublin is beautifully captured by Mr. French in this shot. The swinger on the chains, the sitter on the wall and the seeming flock of rooks fluttering above would perhaps appear to suggest a warm summers day? I've passed it many times and wondered at the strange architecture - but put it down to eccentric 19th century tastes...
The DIA dates the church to 1866, the tower and spire to 1882.
DannyM8
09/Mar/2017 09:40:10
It is before the Tram arrived
Niall McAuley
09/Mar/2017 09:45:59
This one in the archive has tram wires, and the creeper has grown across the main door. Clearly later.
There is a pole for the tram wires in this little roundabout.
The later shot has cobbled roads.
DannyM8
09/Mar/2017 09:46:22
Nelson's Pillar and Kingstown Opened August 1885,
Niall McAuley
09/Mar/2017 09:48:08
Dalkey tram was electrified in 1896.
Niall McAuley
09/Mar/2017 09:50:18
So 1882-96.
Niall McAuley
09/Mar/2017 10:19:57
[https://www.flickr.com/photos/mikeegee] I think the "famine pot" is a horse trough: it is marked Tr on the 25" at GeoHive.
The 25" also marks a Fire Escape Station, which is one of those carts with a long ladder. We saw one before in Dun Laoghaire, which I now see has a matching trough and statue.
Niall McAuley
09/Mar/2017 10:22:47
[https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]] Do you mean before the tram was electrified? Wikipedia suggests the horse-drawn tram was here from 1879.
Inverarra
09/Mar/2017 10:23:58
Great photo. Not sure about the crows though.
Niall McAuley
09/Mar/2017 10:27:25
Bill Posters has been at the right-most gate pillar. The obscured left-most pillar, too, I think.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE IRISH TIMES
Sir, Allow me to contradict an announcement which appeared in a recent number of your paper, to the effect that a marriage had been solemnised by me in Monkstown Church, on the 17th instant. No such marriage ever took place.
It is difficult to denounce in sufficiently strong terms the heartless conduct of the fabricator of such a mischievous falsehood.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
Edward Leet,
Minister of Dalkey Church.
Otranto, Sandycove, Jan. 23, 1861
(Irish Times Thursday, 24 January 1861)
Niall McAuley
09/Mar/2017 10:56:59
This archive shot looks like the same day as the later one above (with tram wires and fire ladder), and includes the Knox Memorial Hall, dating from 1904.
Niall McAuley
09/Mar/2017 11:02:48
Today's photo is the cover image on this traffic plan for Monkstown.
O Mac
09/Mar/2017 11:04:17
Interesting history of the Roundabout, tho claiming the cherub, made by the Sun Foundry in Glasgow, was installed in 1895. ??
Niall McAuley
09/Mar/2017 11:05:15
The plan includes a crop of a Stereo Pair looking similar to this one. It suggests this image is c1890s.
Niall McAuley
09/Mar/2017 11:10:55
"Identical Cherubs can be found on the fountains in the People's Park in Dun Laoghaire. They were designed by the Sun foundry in Glasgow and erected in 1895."
DannyM8
09/Mar/2017 11:11:16
https://www.flickr.com/photos/gnmcauley Niall, I think we are both looking at the same document, the date I noted was the date the line opened, rather than the electrified date.
If the tracks were there, I am not sure we would see them in this photo.
Niall McAuley
09/Mar/2017 11:13:04
Niall McAuley
09/Mar/2017 11:16:22
So if the cherubs are 1895ish (and they are clearly a job lot - in Monkstown, Dun Laoghaire park and in that Dun Laoghaire horse trough I linked upstream), and the electrification is 1896, we are very near to 1895.
Niall McAuley
09/Mar/2017 11:19:08
OK, maybe not so fast: The cherub is undoubtably pattern number 8: Boy With Paddle And Urn, four of which were contributed to the Stewart Memorial Fountain in Kelvingrove Park, Glasgow in 1872, where they sat above the four granite drinking fountains around the outer basin until 1939.
So folks could have ordered paddling cherubs anytime from 1872 on.
Bernard Healy
09/Mar/2017 11:34:06
www.monkstownparishchurch.com/history
There's a little bit about the design of the church here:
Semple’s 1831 church was a spectacular modification of the earlier 1789 Georgan church. Semple knocked down the east end and added two huge transepts onto the existing west end, to finish up with a T-shaped building. He built galleries 20 feet deep in each transept, in addition to the organ gallery already at the west end and a shallow extension and ‘vestiary’ at the east end. All the seating faced inwards towards the huge central wood ‘three-decker’ pulpit. The original west end of the Georgian church is preserved inside Semple’s church, up to the point where the north and south transepts begin.
However, the building of Monkstown Church did not run smoothly: a disastrous series of setbacks meant that it took an incredible eight years before the eventual opening. The site and design changes at least seven times, four different Building Committees were appointed, the builders went on strike when the money dried up, plans were lost, there were difficulties in raising money due to apathetic parishioners, personalities clashed and, to cap it all, Archbishop Magee, who had masterminded the whole project, lost the wife he adored, was crippled by a series of strokes and died before seeing the church completed. Semple’s church opened on Christmas Day, 1831 to mixed reactions.
here is the Stereo Pair in the archive. It shows the cherub, and damaged posters on the same two gateposts. Is the creeper at the door a little different?
And the STP collection ends in 1883?
CHG PRO PHOTOGRAPHY incorporating the APL archives
09/Mar/2017 14:08:33
Current Rector of Monkstown is Canon Roy H Byrne, whom I went to school with. He became one of the youngest Canons in history a few years ago....
Dún Laoghaire Micheál
09/Mar/2017 22:52:50
Sorry for coming late to this. I grew up in the area and remember the entire "Ring" being RELOCATED by several feet as part of the Carrickbrennan Road widening scheme in the mid-late 1960s. So its position in the photo no longer applies exactly. (Odd that the conservation report did not report this). And yet, the 2012 contemporary picture seems to contradict my memory. Maybe the movement was towards/away from the camera.
There was also a P&T Telephone Kiosk located opposite the door of the Church; this too went when the "ring" was shifted.
Dún Laoghaire Micheál
09/Mar/2017 23:07:53
The Church spire has been receiving some attention lately. They've even installed a Stairway to Heaven
oaktree_brian_1976
10/Mar/2017 02:34:48
I like how we can nail down a date of a solitary photo.
philfluther
10/Mar/2017 14:41:26
Not the coast road. Same. road, railway.
sam2cents
10/Mar/2017 14:44:28
A wonderful lovely image and more than a mere photograph of architecture.
Oretani Wildlife (Mike Grimes)
The chains are still there as is the famine pot(?) but the small statue is gone and the lovely lamp replaced by a palm tree. www.google.es/maps/uv?hl=en&pb=!1s0x486708991a2e07bf:...
Niall McAuley
The DIA dates the church to 1866, the tower and spire to 1882.
DannyM8
It is before the Tram arrived
Niall McAuley
This one in the archive has tram wires, and the creeper has grown across the main door. Clearly later. There is a pole for the tram wires in this little roundabout. The later shot has cobbled roads.
DannyM8
Nelson's Pillar and Kingstown Opened August 1885,
Niall McAuley
Dalkey tram was electrified in 1896.
Niall McAuley
So 1882-96.
Niall McAuley
[https://www.flickr.com/photos/mikeegee] I think the "famine pot" is a horse trough: it is marked Tr on the 25" at GeoHive. The 25" also marks a Fire Escape Station, which is one of those carts with a long ladder. We saw one before in Dun Laoghaire, which I now see has a matching trough and statue.
Niall McAuley
[https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]] Do you mean before the tram was electrified? Wikipedia suggests the horse-drawn tram was here from 1879.
Inverarra
Great photo. Not sure about the crows though.
Niall McAuley
Bill Posters has been at the right-most gate pillar. The obscured left-most pillar, too, I think.
ɹǝqɯoɔɥɔɐǝq
Droneview!! 2015 - youtu.be/WLdrS0lO060
Carol Maddock
Erroneous Marriage KLAXON!
(Irish Times Thursday, 24 January 1861)Niall McAuley
This archive shot looks like the same day as the later one above (with tram wires and fire ladder), and includes the Knox Memorial Hall, dating from 1904.
Niall McAuley
Today's photo is the cover image on this traffic plan for Monkstown.
O Mac
Interesting history of the Roundabout, tho claiming the cherub, made by the Sun Foundry in Glasgow, was installed in 1895. ??
Niall McAuley
The plan includes a crop of a Stereo Pair looking similar to this one. It suggests this image is c1890s.
Niall McAuley
"Identical Cherubs can be found on the fountains in the People's Park in Dun Laoghaire. They were designed by the Sun foundry in Glasgow and erected in 1895."
DannyM8
https://www.flickr.com/photos/gnmcauley Niall, I think we are both looking at the same document, the date I noted was the date the line opened, rather than the electrified date. If the tracks were there, I am not sure we would see them in this photo.
Niall McAuley
Niall McAuley
So if the cherubs are 1895ish (and they are clearly a job lot - in Monkstown, Dun Laoghaire park and in that Dun Laoghaire horse trough I linked upstream), and the electrification is 1896, we are very near to 1895.
Niall McAuley
OK, maybe not so fast: The cherub is undoubtably pattern number 8: Boy With Paddle And Urn, four of which were contributed to the Stewart Memorial Fountain in Kelvingrove Park, Glasgow in 1872, where they sat above the four granite drinking fountains around the outer basin until 1939. So folks could have ordered paddling cherubs anytime from 1872 on.
Bernard Healy
www.monkstownparishchurch.com/history There's a little bit about the design of the church here: Semple’s 1831 church was a spectacular modification of the earlier 1789 Georgan church. Semple knocked down the east end and added two huge transepts onto the existing west end, to finish up with a T-shaped building. He built galleries 20 feet deep in each transept, in addition to the organ gallery already at the west end and a shallow extension and ‘vestiary’ at the east end. All the seating faced inwards towards the huge central wood ‘three-decker’ pulpit. The original west end of the Georgian church is preserved inside Semple’s church, up to the point where the north and south transepts begin. However, the building of Monkstown Church did not run smoothly: a disastrous series of setbacks meant that it took an incredible eight years before the eventual opening. The site and design changes at least seven times, four different Building Committees were appointed, the builders went on strike when the money dried up, plans were lost, there were difficulties in raising money due to apathetic parishioners, personalities clashed and, to cap it all, Archbishop Magee, who had masterminded the whole project, lost the wife he adored, was crippled by a series of strokes and died before seeing the church completed. Semple’s church opened on Christmas Day, 1831 to mixed reactions.
ɹǝqɯoɔɥɔɐǝq
From almost exactly the same position in 1954 - https://www.flickr.com/photos/nlireland/9054949487/
Niall McAuley
here is the Stereo Pair in the archive. It shows the cherub, and damaged posters on the same two gateposts. Is the creeper at the door a little different? And the STP collection ends in 1883?
ɹǝqɯoɔɥɔɐǝq
Flickr sometimes amazes - in 2012 via https://www.flickr.com/photos/infomatique/ - https://www.flickr.com/photos/infomatique/7942827690/
ɹǝqɯoɔɥɔɐǝq
The interior is extraordinary too - see https://www.flickr.com/photos/bernardhealy's description above - https://www.flickr.com/photos/maderb/22011271338/
CHG PRO PHOTOGRAPHY incorporating the APL archives
Current Rector of Monkstown is Canon Roy H Byrne, whom I went to school with. He became one of the youngest Canons in history a few years ago....
Dún Laoghaire Micheál
Sorry for coming late to this. I grew up in the area and remember the entire "Ring" being RELOCATED by several feet as part of the Carrickbrennan Road widening scheme in the mid-late 1960s. So its position in the photo no longer applies exactly. (Odd that the conservation report did not report this). And yet, the 2012 contemporary picture seems to contradict my memory. Maybe the movement was towards/away from the camera. There was also a P&T Telephone Kiosk located opposite the door of the Church; this too went when the "ring" was shifted.
Dún Laoghaire Micheál
The Church spire has been receiving some attention lately. They've even installed a Stairway to Heaven
oaktree_brian_1976
I like how we can nail down a date of a solitary photo.
philfluther
Not the coast road. Same. road, railway.
sam2cents
A wonderful lovely image and more than a mere photograph of architecture.
Can Pac Swire
Wow, I'm speechless. Very whimsical design.