Sir, - In a few months' time the height of the tourist season will be here again and the many tour buses will trundle around Merrion Square and Fitzwilliam Square, the core of Dublin's redbrick Georgian heritage. This is as it should be, as these are one of the city's main attractions but what will the tourist see? Sad to say, it will be an unnecessarily shabby and cluttered scene.
Merrion Square has its centuries old doorcases spoiled by unsightly entry phones, bells, etc (one doorway in the area has more than 20 insertions). Wall plaques of various size and design mar the rosy red brick walls, and various ugly structural excrescences have sprouted in the basements. Elegant Fitzwilliam Square suffers in a similar way, with intrusive road markings and parking meters as well as a number of non timber windows. These squares are the pride of our domestic Georgian heritage, but there is an evident lack of an overall authority in caring for them.
Restriction should be imposed on the number and type of entryphones, etc, and their positioning nameplates should be uniform and small perspex and glass roofs, or other structures, should not be permitted in the basements; disc parking, with the minimum of street markings, is this less intrusive than parking meters, and granite slab paving should be restored. To carry out these steps may not be simple, but fire brigade action is needed, initially in these squares, and then extending to the other streets and squares in Georgian Dublin.
Most owners and occupiers in the squares take great care of their historic houses and are proud of them, but many feel hard done by, as they are given no assistance in maintaining this highly important part of the national heritage. There are various schemes in the pipeline for tax relief and incentives but, in the meantime, the visual impact of the squares (what the tourist sees) could be vastly improved. As well as the steps outlined above, a grant to strip, repair and paint the railings (almost all of which are original) of the houses would be a very effective step. - Yours, etc.,
BArch, MUBC, Conservation officer,
Irish Georgian Society, 74 Merrion Square,
Dublin 2.