OPW to restore glasshouses at Áras

The Office of Public Works (OPW) is to restore the Turner range of Peach Houses at Áras an Uachtaráin in Dublin's Phoenix Park.

The restoration of the intricate, wrought-iron glasshouses, which were built in 1835, will involve "significant" offsite work and the subsequent reinstatement of large glass panes.

It will also involve the replacement of the rear wall and south window of the main structures, which run to 65m (213ft) in length.

The three Peach Houses were designed by Richard Turner (1798-1881), a descendant of a long line of Dublin ironmongers. They predate his more acclaimed glasshouses at Belfast and at Dublin's Botanic Gardens. His work is also visible at Kew Gardens in London.

His "more mundane work", according to the OPW, included the railings around Trinity College Dublin and "boilers, cisterns and even bedsteads".

The central section of the Peach Houses range is "overstressed and subject to considerable movement in times of severe wind loading", according to the OPW. A number of plastic replacement panels have been blown out over the past four years, the most recent occurring this year when two iron opening sashes fell out in high winds.

The OPW architectural team involved in the project restored the Turner Curvilinear Range in the Botanic Gardens in the early 1990s and the Palm House complex there in 2001.

The team's efforts on glasshouse restoration have won it the Europa Nostra Medal in the mid-1990s and in 2001; the Ford Foundation Conservation Award in 1996, and the RIAI Triennial Medal in 2001.

The OPW has yet to decide whether to open the Peach Houses to the public as part of tours of Áras an Uachtaráin.