Would you like to buy a house in Kenilworth Square for £630? Sadly, you're almost a century too late. That was the going price in 1904, according to an advertisement in this newspaper at the time and one of the many snippets of information contained within Dublin's Victorian Houses. The book, which was commissioned by Sherry FitzGerald, has three distinguished authors, Mary Daly, who is Associate Professor of Modern Irish History at UCD, architectural historian Peter Pearson, and Mona Hearn who for many years was head of the Home and Social Science School at Cathal Brugha Street.
For those of us in Dublin who do not own our own houses, it's an exercise in grim voyeurism to read how our fellow Victorian house-hunters fared. "There was no longterm rise in the price of houses during Victoria's reign, and most homeowners did not expect to face a severe increase in rents, or to reap the benefits of capital gains from home ownership . . .house-hunting does not seem to have caused major distress for the typical middle-class family."
Daly's chapter illustrates why and how certain areas of the city were developed, which makes for fascinating reading. In Clontarf and Monkstown, cottages which had housed fishermen and agricultural workers on the local farms were demolished in the 1880s. Bigger, modern houses were then built on the sites. Controversial redevelopment has always been with us.
Mona Hearn was Head of the Home and Social Science School in Cathal Brugha Street for several years, and has already published work about the world of domestic service in Victorian Dublin. She draws on census statistics to build up pictures of the families who lived in these so familiar redbricked houses in Ranelagh, Rathmines, and Drumcondra, so we know how many people lived there and how much money came into the house each year.
Since all the heating came from open fires, she estimates that at least a ton of coal was used every month by a household lighting fires in both kitchen and livingroom.
Peter Pearson, who is a founder member of the Dublin Civic Trust and a member of the Heritage Council, has lots of practical, hands-on information in his chapter.
Find out what the dreaded dry rot is, and why you need to get out on the roof and check that it's sound before you start doing an iota of decorative painting inside the house. Pearson tells us where the brickworks which produced the red bricks of the period were located - at Dolphin's Barn, Mount Argus, and Bog Hall in Bray.
He suggests ways of cleaning the brick, and where you might go to look for the right salvage yards for stray replacements. There's a great piece on the evolution of the Victorian fireplace and decorative tiles. At the end of the book, there are two very useful and interesting appendixes. The first is a step-by-step guide about exploring the history of your own house and street. Everyone who owns an old house and who's curious about its history will love this. Find your address in Thom's Directory, available at the Gilbert Library in Pearse Street, and you can discover the names and occupations of those who walked through your front door a century ago. Or check the 1901 and 1911 Census forms, which are held in the National Archive in Bishop Street.
The second appendix is a list of specialists in conserving and repairing Victorian houses. This is for those who get out on the roof and know it's beyond their DIY capabilities. The book is illustrated throughout by a wide selection of photographs, many of them of houses of the period. You may even find your own house there.
Dublin's Victorian Houses is published by A & A Farmar, price £19.99.
