Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Selected: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, O'CONNELL STREET LOWER, GENERAL POST OFFICE

Name: PAPWORTH, GEORGE
Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, O'CONNELL STREET LOWER, GENERAL POST OFFICE
Date: 1812
Nature: GP exhibits design for 'a Post Office intended to be built in Dublin' at Society of Artists of the City of Dublin, 1812, (no. 107).
Refs: ALEI, III, 546

Name: COCKBURN, PETER
Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, O'CONNELL STREET LOWER, GENERAL POST OFFICE
Date: 1814
Nature: PC tenders for cut stone work of portico.
Refs: Specification, signed by Francis Johnston, & list of tenders for stone and brickwork, 1814, &c. in An Post archives (photocopy in IAA, RP.L.72

Name: DARLEY, FREDERICK [1]*
Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, O'CONNELL STREET LOWER, GENERAL POST OFFICE
Date: 1814
Nature: FD tenders for cut stone work of portico.
Refs: Specification, signed by Francis Johnston, & list of tenders for stone and brickwork, 1814, &c. in An Post archives (photocopy in IAA, RP.L.72

Name: JOHNSTON, FRANCIS
Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, O'CONNELL STREET LOWER, GENERAL POST OFFICE
Date: 1814-1818
Nature: FS laid 12 Aug 1814 (but Freeman's Journal says 'first stone' laid in Dec 1814). Opened 6 Jan 1818. Cost: £50,000.
Refs: Drawings, dated 1814-1817, in IAA, Murray Collection, nos. 660-699 (see Murray Collection catalogue, pp. 204-211); 2 elevations of principal front, formerly in collection of Mrs Desmond Forde, Seaforde, Co. Down, offered for sale by James Adam & Sons, Dublin, 12 Apr 2006, lot 368 (1 elevation illus.in Irish Architectural Drawings (1965), p.8, no. 17); specification, signed by FJ, & list of tenders for stone and brickwork, 1814, &c. in An Post archives (photocopy in IAA, RP.L.72);  accounts, receipts and certificates., 1815, in PRONI, Francis Johnston papers, T3300/19 (see PRONI e-catalogue);  'A letter from Francis Johnston', BIGS 6 (no. 1), Jan-Mar 1963, 3;  Freeman's Journal, 4 Dec 1817;  Dublin Penny Journal 3 (1834-35), 177; 'Annals of Dublin' in Pettigrew & Oulton's Dublin almanac (1847); 'The General Post Office, Dublin, and the Dublin Greco-Roman period', IB 58, 25 Mar,8 Apr 1916, 134-136,170-172; IB 66, 15 Nov 1924, 973;  Christine Casey, The Buildings of Ireland: Dublin (2005), 147-9, Pl.9.

Name: SMYTH, JOHN [4]*
Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, O'CONNELL STREET LOWER, GENERAL POST OFFICE
Date: 1814p
Nature: Figures of Hibernia, Mercury and Fidelity over portico (now, 2020, replaced by casts; originals in OPW store). Also Royal Arms? (destroyed).
Refs: J. Warburton, J. Whitelaw and R. Walsh, History of the City of Dublin (1818), II, 1009; IB 14, 1 Nov 1872, 299; W.G. Strickland, A Dictionary of Irish Artists (1913), II, 392; wrongly given to Edward Smyth in Christine Casey, The Buildings of Ireland: Dublin (2005), 147.

Name: MURRAY, WILLIAM [1]
Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, O'CONNELL STREET LOWER, GENERAL POST OFFICE
Date: 1825
Nature: Proposed outbuildings. Proposed cupola.
Refs: Drawings in IAA, Murray Collection, 92/46, nos 700-703 (see Bernadette Goslin, 'A History and descriptive catalogue of the Murray Collection of architectural drawings' (MA thesis, University College, Dublin, 1990), 209); design for cupola (probably 92/46, no.703) exh. RHA 1831, no. 246

Name: PARKER & UNWIN #
Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, O'CONNELL STREET LOWER, GENERAL POST OFFICE
Date: 1904
Nature: Proposed additions.
Refs: Drawing in RIBA Drawings Collection, see Jill Lever, ed., Catalogue of the Drawings Collection of the Royal Institute of British Architects: O-R (1976), 29

Name: LYNN, WILLIAM HENRY
Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, O'CONNELL STREET LOWER, GENERAL POST OFFICE
Date: 1904
Nature: Remodelling of Northern Bank head office adjoining GPO in Henry St fo form extension to GPO.  Transfer of Northern Bank offices to premises in Upper Sackville St 'lately vacated by Standard Insurance Company, who have acquired new offices in Dawson Street'  to take place on 12 Dec 1904. Contractor: James Beckett.
Refs: Irish Times, 3 Dec 1904.

Name: COCHRANE, ROBERT
Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, O'CONNELL STREET LOWER, GENERAL POST OFFICE
Date: 1904-05
Nature: Additions to accounts department. Estimated cost: £1,161.
Refs: IAA, PKS 0840, 0902, B20/18, B21/33, A08 (Jun 1904)

Name: PENTLAND, JOHN HOWARD
Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, O'CONNELL STREET LOWER, GENERAL POST OFFICE
Date: 1905-1915
Nature: Extensions into Henry St and Prince's St.. Contractor: Alex Hull & Co., Ringsend. In progress 1910. New neo-Grec public office. Contractor: J. & W. Stewart, Dublin & Belfast. (Public Office destroyed in Easter Rising, 1916, a few weeks after opening) .
Refs: IAA, PKS 0957, B21/33, A09 (Jul 1912); IB 47, 20 May 1905, 358; 52, 19 Feb 1910, 117; 57, 13 Mar 1915, 130; 67, 4 Apr 1925, ?; Frederick O'Dwyer, 'The architecture of the Board of Public Works 1831-1923', Public Works: the architecture of the Office of Public Works 1831-1987 (AAI, 1987), 26;  Christine Casey, The Buildings of Ireland: Dublin (2005), 147.

Name: COCHRANE, ROBERT
Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, O'CONNELL STREET LOWER, GENERAL POST OFFICE
Date: 1908
Nature: Additions, with H. Allberry. Contractor: Alexander Hull.
Refs: IAA, PKS 0902,B 21/33, A08 (Jul 1908)

Name: SHEPPARD, OLIVER *
Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, O'CONNELL STREET LOWER, GENERAL POST OFFICE
Date: 1911-12
Nature: Bronze figure of Cú Chulainn in central opening of portico arcade.
Refs: Christine Casey, The Buildings of Ireland: Dublin (2005), 148.

Name: BYRNE, THOMAS JOSEPH
Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, O'CONNELL STREET LOWER, GENERAL POST OFFICE
Date: 1924-1932
Nature: Leader of design team responsible for restoration, principally assisted by J. Fairweather. (Other members of the team were H.G. Leask, W.H. Cooke and D.M. Turner.)  Ceremonial reopenin g, 11 Jul 1929.
Refs: IAA, PKS 0063, 0064; perspective view of proposed Henry Street facade, Irish Times, 3 Jul 1924(illus.), 6 Nov 1924(illus.), 11 Jul 1929(illus.);. IB 69, 25 Jun 1927, 478; 71, 20 Jul 1929, 663; F. O'Dwyer, 'The architecture of the Board of Public Works 1831-1923' in C.O'Connor and J.O'Regan, eds., Public Works: the architecture of the Office of Public Works 1831-1987 (1987), 32;  Christine Casey, The Buildings of Ireland: Dublin (2005),147;  John Byrne and Michael Fewer, Thomas Joseph Byrne, Nation Builder (South Dublin Libraries, 2013), 67-77(illus.).



Name: TURNER, DENIS MAHON
Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, O'CONNELL STREET LOWER, GENERAL POST OFFICE
Date: 1924p
Nature: DMT member of design team  for reconstruction of same headed by T.J. Byrne.  For Office of Public Works
Refs: Christine Casey, The Buildings of Ireland: Dublin (2005),  147.

Name: LEASK, HAROLD GRAHAM
Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, O'CONNELL STREET LOWER, GENERAL POST OFFICE
Date: 1925-1932
Nature: In destroyed area, 1916. Reconstruction 'very largely Leask's work'(Oibre) but according to Casey design team was 'headed by T.J. Byrne' and 'comprised H.G. Leask, W.H. Cooke, D.M. Turner and J. Fairweather, who reportedly had the greatest input'.
Refs: Oibre 7 (May 1969), 11;  Christine Casey, The Buildings of Ireland: Dublin (2005), 147-149.

Name: FAIRWEATHER, JOHN MATTHEW
Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, O'CONNELL STREET LOWER, GENERAL POST OFFICE
Date: 1929
Nature: Assists in reinstatement and extensions.
Refs: IB 71, 20 Jul 1929, 663; 91, 26 Nov 1949, 1096.

Name: COOKE, WILLIAM HENRY HOWARD
Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, O'CONNELL STREET LOWER, GENERAL POST OFFICE
Date: 1929
Nature: WHHC assisted in restoration
Refs: IB 71, 20 Jul 1929, 663

Name: FAIRWEATHER, JOHN MATTHEW
Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, O'CONNELL STREET LOWER, GENERAL POST OFFICE
Date: 1934
Nature: New clock on entrance front, set in deep plinth between ground and first floors. Bronze case 'in a modern rendering of the Graeco-Roman style'.  Clock face has 'chapters and minute divisions in stainless steel on a ring dial of satin-faced glass to facilitate internal illumination at night'.
Refs:  Irish Times, 9 Nov 1934.

Name: LEVER, JAMES *
Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, O'CONNELL STREET LOWER, GENERAL POST OFFICE
Date: ?
Nature: JL employed in building same.
Refs: IB 70, 31 Mar 1928, ?