Sei sulla pagina 1di 1

THE PREQUEL PROGRAMME

ORMSTON HOUSE
9-10 Patrick Street,
Limerick,
Ireland.
Composed by John Logan for The Prequel Programme www.prequel-ormstonhouse.com
Page 1 of 1 info@ormstonhouse.com

Who designed Ormston House?
By John Logan
Sometime in the 1860s or 70s, three redbrick houses, 9, 10 and 11 Patrick Street, each two bays
wide and four stories high over a basement, were demolished. They were of the type built between
1760 and 1840 that defined the New Town Pery streetscape and of which a few survive in Patrick,
Ellen, and Rutland streets. They were replaced, probably in the early 1870s, by the single building
now known as Ormston House. Michael Egan, who commissioned it, needed modern premises for
his thriving drink and food business: a ground floor uncluttered by load-bearing walls to take
counters, display cases and storage shelves; expansive, steel-shuttered, plate-glass windows to
reveal its riches to passers-by; upstairs stores and accommodation for a band of shop assistants. As a
result, the Patrick Street and Ellen Street corner got a new landmark, a small-scale Venetian palazzo.
Its door and window frames of finely carved limestone; blue and cream mosaic medallions carrying
the initials of its owner; brightly painted plasterwork, and Corinthian pilasters separating arched-
openings grouped in twos and threes, all contrasted with the repeated rectiliniar rhythms of its
brown bricked, unadorned neighbours. The style, hinting at the opulence of the exotic goods within,
also appealed to the owners and presumably the customers of other fashionable city businesses
such as Todds, McBirneys and Cannocks, whose shops survive (though rebuilt and remodelled) as
Brown Thomas, Debenhams, and Penneys.
It is not known who Michael Egan employed as his architect. A possible candidate is William Fogerty,
a Limerickman, who would be elected president of the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland in
1876. His practice was the most successful in the mid-century city and he designed for most of its
leading businesses. However, there is no documentary evidence to support the suggestion that he
designed for Egan and if Fogerty was known to favour the architectural style deployed there, any
one of a number of his talented contemporaries could easily have done the same. It would be
wonderful if the interest generated by the Prequel Programme brought to light clear evidence as to
who actually designed Ormston House.

Potrebbero piacerti anche