Finding Out About Buildings in

Dublin
Richview Library
Tel: (01) 716 2741 / (01) 716 2727

Revised July 2012

Books
Catalogue

Use "Keyword" search to search by specific building (e.g. Custom House) or place
(e.g.,Temple Bar, Rathmines) or subject (e.g. Hospital* Dublin or houses Stillorgan)
Use "Keyword" to find an architect (e.g. James Gandon for books by and about James
Gandon).

Some useful books

The following books give information on individual buildings, bridges, streets, areas of
Dublin. Some are general histories or guidebooks to Dublin City and / or Dublin County.

The buildings of Ireland: Dublin 1 / Christine Casey.

Very comprehensive inventory style guide to the buildings/streets/areas of Dublin
between the Canals.

Dublin 1660-1860 2 / Maurice Craig. The classic book on Georgian Dublin.

Dublin’s architectural development 1800-1925 3 / Matthew J. McDermott. Includes

bibliographies.

The encyclopaedia of Dublin 4 / Douglas Bennett.

The Georgian squares of Dublin: an architectural history 5 / editors, Mary Clark, Alastair
Smeaton.

A companion guide to architecture in Ireland 1837-1921 6 / Jeremy Williams. A gazetteer

covering the specific buildings of this era, throughout Ireland.

Ireland and the new architecture 1900-1940 7 / Sean Rothery.

Comprehensive with good references to articles elsewhere e.g. in Irish Builder.

New Irish architecture: AAI awards 8 / Architectural Association of Ireland.

Annual publication (since 1986). Good source for illustrating range of modern Irish
architecture. All entries are indexed onto PADDI (see below).

The heart of Dublin : resurgence of an historic city 9 / Peter Pearson.

Covers Dublin City centre comprehensively.

Decorative Dublin 10 / Peter Pearson.

Concentrates on the decorative features of Dublin buildings e.g. gates,chimneys, fanlights,
paving, plasterwork.

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Dublin 11 (Phaidon Architecture Guide) / edited by John Graby & Deirdre O’Connor.
This guide is divided into four sections: Mediaeval Dublin, Classical Dublin, Georgian &
Victorian Dublin, and 20th century Dublin. Each section lists key buildings, plus brief
architectural details, preceded by a description of the section’s architectural style/s.

A guide to modern architecture in Dublin 12 / edited by Tomás O’Beirne.

Includes basic information on 20th century offices, shopping centres etc. Photographs,
minimal text, no plans.

The Dublin Docklands : architectural survey 13 / School of Architecture, UCD.

Inventory covering buildings and streets in and around the Liffey.

Public works: the architecture of the Office of Public Works 1831-1987 14.
Building for government: the architecture of state buildings, OPW: Ireland 1900-2000 15.
Use these books for information on the OPW’s buildings. These cover a wide range of
building types e.g. schools, prisons, courthouses, laboratories, government offices.

The Liffey in Dublin 16 / J.W. de Courcy. A sort of mini encyclopaedia of anything that and
anyone who had anything to do with the Liffey. Specific buildings, statues, adjoining
geographical areas/streets, architects are covered in an alphabetical arrangement from
Abbey Green to Zozimus. Good bibliography and index are included.

The industries of Dublin 17. 1889 (?).

An expanded version of Thom’s Commercial Directory. Descriptions of key Dublin
commercial buildings. Includes line drawings of buildings. No index so time-consuming to
use.

The Dublin pictorial guide & directory of 1850 18 / Henry Shaw.

Similar to Thom’s street directory but includes street elevations of Dublin City centre
streets.

A history of the city of Dublin 19 / J. T. Gilbert. Published in the 1850s. Descriptive 3 vol.
work.

A topographical dictionary of Ireland 20 / Samuel Lewis.

Published in 1837 this work provides a detailed description of Ireland’s parishes, towns,
villages etc at that time. Descriptions include those of the buildings, bridges, squares etc
of specific areas. This is now available as a pdf on the OSi website 21.

The history of County Dublin 22 / John d’Alton.

Originally published in 1838, this provides a descriptive account of places in County Dublin
at that time. Includes areas we would regard as “city” nowadays e.g. Ballsbridge,
Ringsend, Kilmainham.

A history of the county Dublin: the people, parishes and antiquities from the earliest times
to the close of the eighteenth century 23 / Francis Elrington Ball.
Descriptive 5-vol. work.

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Between the mountains and the sea: Dun Laoghaire/Rathdown County 24 / Peter Pearson.
Useful history of this area, focusing on the architecture.

The new neighbourhood of Dublin 25 / Joseph Hone et al. Focuses on Dublin County.

Local histories: use the catalogue to check for books written on specific areas/streets e.g.
Smithfield, Ranelagh, Drumcondra, Sandyford, etc.

Four roads to Dublin : a history of Rathmines, Ranelagh and Leeson Street 26 / Deirdre
Kelly.

Publications of the Dublin Civic Trust/Historic Heart of Dublin on individual Dublin streets
including streets such as Henrietta Street, Capel Street and Pearse Street.

Theses
Check the Library’s catalogue for MUBC theses as they often focus on individual building
types, streets or areas. Previous theses have covered topics such as Fitzwilliam Square,
South City Markets, Church of Ireland churches. To find them on the Library catalogue,
limit the Collection to “Theses” and the Library Site to “Richview”.

Journal Articles
PADDI 27 : Planning Architecture Design Database Ireland.
This freely-available Web database is produced in collaboration by the Architecture and
Planning Libraries of the Queen's University of Belfast and University College Dublin. PADDI
indexes articles on specific buildings, streets, areas in journals and books. Particularly
good for locating information on 20th century Irish buildings.

McParland, Edward: A bibliography of Irish architectural history 28

This comprises a list of "serious accounts of the history of important architectural projects
undertaken in Ireland between the late 17th and early 20th centuries". It covers
monographs, chapters in books, and journal articles.

Sources 29: a National Library of Ireland Database for Irish Research

This is the electronic version of the Hayes Index. From the point of view of architectural
research, the most important periodical indexed is the Dublin Builder/Irish Builder. This
periodical was indexed by Hayes from its start date in 1859 until 1903. It can be searched
online to locate articles on buildings, streets, architects, building materials, etc.

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Maps
25” and 6” maps
The 25” maps for Dublin city date from the mid 1930s. Many of the 25” maps for Dublin
County were revised in the 1960s.

1st edition 6" maps 30

This series, covering the whole of Ireland, was published in 1833-1844 and is available to
view via the OSi’s website 31. Richview Library also holds the complete set on microfiche.

Dublin 5' to 1 mile maps

These are the maps of Dublin produced between 1838 and 1864. The library has a
complete set on acetates/dyelines covering Dublin city centre, i.e. the area between the
canals. Interiors of public buildings, churches, museums are shown on these maps. Original
copies of these maps are held in Special Collections in the James Joyce Library.

Dublin Parish Maps

A series of coloured Dublin Parish Maps dating from the 1860s / 1870s originally published
by the Ordnance Survey at 25” to 1 mile. Each parish is reproduced as a set of maps on A3
size paper.

Dublin Rocque maps

These reproductions of the original 1756 - 1770 maps cover Dublin City and County. The
City maps, in particular, are especially fine for their wealth of detail. The library has the
complete set of these maps.

Other Historical Maps of Dublin and Ireland are listed here 32

Web
Buildings of Ireland 33
This is the website of the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage (NIAH). This
website is the on-line representation of the survey work of the NIAH. Surveys are
presented by county, and consist of a database record and images of each
building/structure surveyed. Buildings in both Dublin South and Fingal are currently
included in the survey.

Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720-1940 34

An Irish Architectural Archive database that contains biographical and bibliographical
information on architects, builders, and craftsmen born or working in Ireland during the
period 1720-1940. Searchable by person or by works.

Old Dublin books available via the web, including Ball, Gilbert etc.
[Link]

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Other Organisations, Libraries and Archives
Irish Architectural Archive 35

Gilbert Library 36 and Dublin City Archives 37

Public Libraries 38

National Library of Ireland 39

TCD Map Library40

Miscellaneous Sources
Hibernia 41 is the website version of The Dublin Environmental Inventory (DEI). Its purpose
was to create an integrated database of the natural, social and built environment of inner
Dublin. The survey of the built environment was carried out in the mid 1990s. It recorded
and evaluated streets, buildings and other structures and included documentary research
from historical and contemporary sources. The resulting database included photographic
records of streets and buildings, information on their condition and historical evolution.
Fieldwork included measured surveys of selected buildings, and incorporated existing
surveys of buildings. Access is available via [Link] Login as Guest.

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