RETRO WIND SHELTERS IN CLONTARF [DESIGNED IN 1934 BY HERBERT SIMMS]

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 Dating from the 1930s is a number on interesting structures along the Promenade in Clontarf including the wind shelters shown in my photographs.

The shelters were designed by Herbert Simms in 1934. The design and construction such public structures arose from a concern for the welfare of the working class and facilitated a rise in communal outdoor recreation before the advent of modern affordable holidays.

During the 1930s, Dublin Corporation Housing Architect, Herbert Simms, took the dualistic approach to slum clearance of building both new urban blocks and suburban cottages. The flat blocks were considered essential architectural ingredients of the slum clearance project and from 1932 to 1939, twenty-one schemes comprising 1,002 inner-city flats were completed. In 1935 alone 1,552 dwellings were completed.

During the sixteen years he was in office, Simms was responsible for for the design and erection of some 17,000 new homes, ranging from striking blocks of flats in the central city, influenced by new apartment blocks by de Klerk in Amsterdam and J.P. Oud in Rotterdam, to extensive suburban housing schemes such as those at Crumlin and Cabra.



MORE ABOUT SIMMS

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CHANCERY PARK [A NICE LITTLE PUBLIC PARK WITH VERY LIMITED ACCESS]

Today I was more than surprised by the fact that I could enter this nice little park. The park is an extension of Chancery House, a block of Art Deco style council built flats designed in 1934 by the then city housing architect, Herbert Simms.

My understanding has been that the park was locked most of the time because of anti-social activity in the area.

Today I discovered that a number of parks in the area have been re-opened to the public but in the case of Chancery Park access is limited to a few hours a day [8 hours Mon-Tues and 4 hours on Fridays with no access at weekends].

Maybe if enough people visit the hours may be extended.

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CHANCERY HOUSE [ONE OF HERBERT SIMMS’S BEST DESIGNS]

This is a fine example of social housing at its best.

Chancery House was one Herbert Simms’s smallest schemes as it houses just 27 families. It features a small public park which was refurbished recently. The development was built by G and T Crampton, an old Dublin building firm that is still in business today.

I would describe it as being an Art Deco building and I really like it.