Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Architect, surveyor and road engineer, of Dublin. James Cooke appears to have been connected with the J. Cooke who appears in Wilson's Dublin Directory for 1815-1817 as the proprietor of an artist's warehouse at 21 Lower Sackville St. Between 1816 and 1835 James Cooke appears in Wilson's Dublin Directory under various descriptions and at several addresses, as follows:(1) 1816-1817: 'Cooke (James) Architect, and Land Surveyor, 85 gt. Britain-street.' 1818: 'Cooke (James) Architect and Land-surveyor, and Artist's-warehouse, upper Dorset-street.' 1819-1820: Cooke (James) Architect, land surveyor and artist's warehouse, 42 Upper Dorset Street. 1821-1824: 'Cooke (J.) Architect and Land Surveyor, 5, Seville-place, North strand.' 1825-1829: 'Cooke (T.) Architect & Surveyor, & Irish Lithographic Printing Office, 12, Pitt-street.' 1830-1832: 'Cooke (T.) Architect and surveyor to the Commissioners of the Mullingar-road, 12 Pitt-street.' 1833-1834: Cooke (James) architect, surveyor, valuer, 14 Bachelor's Walk. 1835: Cooke (J.) surveyor, architect, road engineer, 78 Dame Street. Pigot & Co.'s City of Dublin and Hibernian Provincial Directory (1824) gives his address as 17 North Earl Street.

Between 1811 and 1819 Cooke showed ten architectural drawings and designs at the Dublin exhibitions of the Society of Artists in Ireland, the Society of Artists of the City of Dublin, the Hibernian Society of Artists and the Artists of Ireland. These included a design for a villa at Mount Annville, Co. Dublin. The address given in the Hibernian Society of Arts catalogue of 1814 is 21 New Sackville Street, and in the Artists of Ireland catalogue of 1819, 42 Dorset Street.(2) A printed, hand-coloured map of Dublin by 'J. Cooke' and dated 1821 is in the Rosse archives at Birr Castle.(3)

Cooke was the architect of the Dublin Oil Gas Station, Pearse St, built 1824.(4) An elevation of a 'concerns' in Hendrick Street, signed and dated 1820 is among the Wide Street Commissioners Maps in the City Archives,(5) and a plan for offices 'for a house belonging to - Lyons Esq'(6) signed 'James Cooke, 21 New Sackville Street' and dated 1814 is among other architectural drawings connected with the Lyons family estate at Ledestown, Co. Westmeath, in the National Library of Ireland.(7)

According to the entry on Cooke in Peter Eden, ed. Dictionary of land surveyors and local cartographers of Great Britain and Ireland 1550-1850 (1979), II, 111, Cooke worked as a surveyor in Cos. Cork, Dublin, Meath and Westmeath.

Cooke was a subscriber to William Stitt's The Practical Architect's Ready Assistant; or Builder's Complete Companion(Dublin, 1819).



References



(1) Entries in inverted commas have been transcribed directly from Wilson's directories for 1815-1816,1818,1823-1831; other entries are taken from Mary Colley, 'A List of architects, builders, surveyors, measurers and engineers extracted from Wilson's Dublin Directories, from 1760-1837', BIGS 34 (1991), 18-19.
(2) IALE 1, 145.
(3) A.P.W. Malcomson, Calendar of the Rosse Papers (Irish Manuscripts commission, 2008), 113.
(4) M. Craig, Dublin 1660-1860 (1st edition, 1952), 324; this building later became the Antient Concert Rooms and the Academy Cinema.
(5) WSC Maps, 716.
(6) Presumably John Charles Lyons of Ledestown.
(7) Old ref: A.D.1611.


4 work entries listed in chronological order for COOKE, JAMES


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Building: CO. WESTMEATH, LEDESTOWN ESTATE
Date: 1814
Nature: Plan by JC for 'offices for a House belonging to - Lyons Esq.' among drawings connected with Ledestown estate in NLI
Refs: NLI, A.D.1611

Building: CO. DUBLIN, GOATSTOWN, MOUNT ANNVILLE, HOUSE
Date: 1814
Nature: 'Design for a villa intended to be built at Mount Anville' exh. by JC at Hibernian Society of Artists, 1814.
Refs: ALEI, I,145.

Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, HENDRICK STREET, PREMISES
Date: 1824
Nature: Elevation, signed and dated 1824
Refs: Dublin City Archives, Wide Streets Commissioners Maps, 716

Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, PEARSE STREET, DUBLIN OIL GAS STATION
Date: 1824
Nature: Factory with 7-bay pedimented and pilastered front screening office range for Dublin Oil Gas Co.. (Subsequently became  Antient Concert Rooms and then  Academy Cinema.)
Refs: M. Craig, Dublin 1660-1860 (lst edition, 1952), 324; Christine Casey, The Buildings of Ireland: Dublin (2005), 460.