Granite Coast

Peter Pearson is a historian, conservationist and noted artist with a lifelong commitment to the protection and enhancement of Ireland’s architectural heritage. As an artist, he has had solo exhibitions in Venice, Rome, London and Dublin. His love of older buildings led to his first book, Dun Laoghaire: Kingstown (1981), and later to his activism as a member of An Taisce and the Irish Georgian Society where he fought to save many historic buildings in Dublin and beyond. He initiated the Drimnagh Castle Restoration Project in 1985 and a survey and plan to save the Temple Bar area. He was a founder member of the Dublin Civic Trust, a member of the Heritage Council and is an honorary life member of the Dún Laoghaire Historical Society.Born in 1955, Peter was educated at Newpark School and Trinity College Dublin. His bestselling book Between the Mountains and the Sea, Dun Laoghaire–Rathdown County (1998) details the architectural heritage of the county; The Heart of Dublin (2000) charts the origins and planning of Dublin’s streetscapes from early times to the present day. Decorative Dublin (2002) explores the craftsmanship of Dublin, while his most recent book, Of Sea and Stone (Gandon, 2014), records his work as a painter. Peter lives with his wife, Phil, in Shankill.

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• Acknowledgments vMaps viiiIntroduction 1Chapter 1: Dublin Bay’s Granite Coast 7From Dún to Dunleary 14Martello Towers and the Napoleonic Threat 18Chapter 2: The Victorian Harbour – A Masterpiece in Stone 24From Dunleary to Kingstown 24The Kingstown Harbour Master 41The Lifeboat Service 43Harbour Architecture 46Lost Activities of Dún Laoghaire Harbour 51The Irish Lights 52The Harbour Company 55Chapter 3: Kingstown: Infant City of the Steam Age 56Royal Visit 57Mail and Passenger Services 59The Dublin-to-Kingstown Railway 66Chapter 4: Birth of a Seaport Town 70Housebuilding and the Victorian Style 70Development of the New Town 80Churches 85Chapter 5: An Elegant Victorian Watering Place 94Yachting and Sailing 94Chapter 6: Seafront Houses and Terraces: 1840–1860 109Residential Kingstown – The Victorian Taste 114Chapter 7: Sandycove and Bullock 123Sandycove’s Rocky Shoreline 123Residential Sandycove 125The Forty Foot 129Bullock Harbour 130Bullock Castle 132Castle Park and Other Houses 136Chapter 8: Dalkey – A Sense of the Picturesque 139Dalkey Island 143The King of Dalkey 146Medieval Dalkey 146Dalkey Quarry 151Eighteenth-century Dalkey 153Chapter 9: Nineteenth-century Dalkey – the Coastline 156Sorrento Terrace 164The Vico Road 167Dalkey Hill 169The Railway 172Chapter 10: Society and Social Change 174Terraces and Squares: Dún Laoghaire in the 1860s 174The Royal Marine Hotel 177Red-brick Decades 180Charity and Social Change 186Chapter 11: Civic Dún Laoghaire 192Township Administration 192Public Buildings: 1870–1900 196Chapter 12: Culture and Amenity in Dún Laoghaire 209Sport in Dún Laoghaire 217Transport 218The Coal Trade 222Gas, Light and Telephone 225Chapter 13: Modern Times 227Mid-Twentieth Century 227The Shopping Environment 229Recent Times 232Select Bibliography and Further Reading 240Index 242