AN IRISH GENIUS: J H DE W WALLER 1884-1968

JeremyWilliams isfascinatedby theextraordinary

buildinginventions
of
JamesHardressdeWarrenne
Waller
The

acceptance by the IrishArchitectural Archive of a

photographic album documenting about five hundred
Ctesiphon structuresinventedby the ingeniousand neglected
Irishengineer,JH deW Wailer, and built acrosstheworld in
one decade, 1943 to 1953,marks the firststep in thiscountry's
recognitionof hismemory.His contemporaries
were preparedto
accepthis brillianceas an engineer,but theyfailedtounderstand
his obsessionwith transport,communications,self-help,unem
ploymentand famine.Only in the emergencyconditionsof the
twoWorldWars were his abilities readilyappreciated,
andapart
froma shortmemoirwritten in 1982 by his assistant,Andrew
Ross, and publishedprivately,theone book thathasmentioned
him since his death,Mulroy'sArchitecture
ofAggression(1973)
illustratesonly a demountableconcrete tent devised fordesert
warfareand known as a PortablePatrick.There isno reference
to him in the Dictionary ofNatonal Biography or in recent studies

of Irish architecture. Three years ago a history of Locke's

Distillery inKilbeggan (byAndy Bielenberg, 1993), credited
Waller's Ctesiphon warehouse there to an unknown young
Trinity graduate,JacksonOwens, who was in realityWalter's
assistantandT Burroughs,the architectofWailer'sCtesiphon
ChurchofChrist theKing inKing'sWeston, Bristol (1950)omit
ted all referenceto theirchurch in a historyof Bristolarchitec
turewhich he wrote a decade after itwas constructed.
James Hardress de Warrenne Waller was the eleventh

and

James was born and brought up. He was sent to school in

Hobart and worked as a sheep-farmer inAustralia and then as a

miner back inTasmania.He studiedengineeringfirstinGalway

and then inCork, going also toNew York to study reinforced
concrete.His firstcommissionwas to build a bridgeacross the
Lee as an approach to his alma mater, Cork. His first job was as

residentengineeron the (partiallysurviving)concretebridgein

Waterford.He formeda partnershipinDublinwith a contempo
rary,Alfred Delap. He enlisted with the Corps of Royal
Engineers at the outbreak of the FirstWorld War and was
awarded a DSO and OBE. It was in Salonika

that he started to

studytents:observingone after it had been camouflaged

with a
coatingof cement slurryinsteadofmud, he startledthe inmates
by removing the central post. This was to form the basis of his

firststudies in light-weightconcrete and the inventionof his

Nofrango system.InSalonikahe alsobuilt a jettyout of baskets
filledwith rocks,a systemhe neverpatentedbutwhich has been
usedwidely since.He retumed to England tomarryBeatrice
Kinkead, the daughterof a Galwaymedical professor.On his
honeymoonhe had the ideaof a concretebattleshipand per
suadedtheAdmiralty to realisehis project in Poole.His thou
sand tonne barge (178' long) the Cretarch,was successfully
launched,but justbefore theArmistice and it ended up on a
French inlandwaterway.
With no furtherdemand for ships,he
was commissionedto constructa smallhousingestate in Poole

youngest child of George Arthur Waller and Sarah, n6e

that survives to this day; but a company set up to build houses

Atkinson. His father was born heir to the family home, Prior
Park near Nenagh - an Irish Palladian cube like the demolished
Bowenscourt - but had left Ireland and a job as a brewer in

throughoutEngland in 'TheWalter System'went bankruptin

1921, snuffedout by thebrickcompanies.
Shortlyafter thisfirstcommercialdisaster,
Wailer was sentby
theBritishGovernment to Iraq.Here he discoveredthemajor
architecturalinfluenceof his life: the banquetinghall of the
sixth-centurypalace at Ctesiphon, the first invertedcatenary

Guinness's (procured through themother being Augusta,

daughter of Hosea Guinness, Chancellor of St Patrick's
Cathedral

in Dublin)

to set up as a farmer in Tasmania. Here

1. THEGREAT
ARCHOFCTESIPHON.
The banquetinghailof thesixthcentury
palaceatCtesiphonin Iraqis the firstinvertedcatenaryvaulteverdevised.
Wailer'sdiscoveryof thebuildingin the 1920sled tohisown inventionof a
which he named 'Ctesiphon'.
buildingtechnique

2. WAuER's

CTESIPHONBUILDINGTECHNIQUEILLUSTRATED.
An

inverted catenary

arch (shapedon thebasisof a curveformedby a chainhangingfreely)was setup

using temporary
wooden ribs.This framewas thencoveredwith hessian towhich
plasteror cementwas appliedto formthe roofing.
The techniquepermittedlarge
areastobe coveredwithout the inconvenienceof supporting
pillars.

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AN IRISHGENIUS: J H DE W WALLER 1884-1968

His initialexperiment
of Salonikathathe christened'Nofrango'.

vault ever devised (Fig.1).Waller regardedits unknowncon

structor as his progenitor and named his system after the
palace'sunpronounceable
name.
His next commissionwas to prove coincidentallylogical:he
was given the jobof directingfourthousand
workmenbuildinga
railwayacrossnorthem Spain linkingthe Bay of Biscay to the
Mediterranean.Here he came into contactwith the building
traditionof theSassanians,which, havingbeen importedby the
Moors, was still flourishingand inspiring,at thatmoment,
Gaudi's final design for the Sagrida. At

with this method was a chicken-house

?330 per unit to build (Fig. 8). The

was a success but was never repeated.

Only twice during Waller's professional practice in Ireland did

he receivecommissionsthat stretchedhis capabilities.The first

the same time he made

was the pier at Foynes - he believed that the Shannon Estuary

made the finest natural harbour inWestem Europe - where he

in Spain he promptly lost in Ireland on a

bus companyservingcommutersfromClonmel toDublin.This

failure led him to concentrateon his engineeringpartnership
based inDublin and to codifyhis inventions,althoughhe never
losthis interestin transport:
he publisheda studyon thewear
and tearof Asphalt. 'Coverbond',
a newmethod of reinforcing
concrete

that he had devised

developedhis experiment in constructing the pier at Stavros

with hessian cylinders filledwith concrete, extending his
Nofrango techniques.The second commission,inDublin, was
the extension of Jacobs' factory as amultistoried Nofrango struc
ture with wide spans and horizontal fenestration. The architect
and builder of this project were brothers, George and Walter
Beckett, who were part-time Methodist missionaries as well as

being successfulentrepreneursand both neighboursin Foxrock

in Salonika, was followed by a

light-weightconcretesysteminspiredby the slurry-covered

tents

I~b.J

street still exists in good

condition, recognisableby thewide overhangsof their slightly

saggingflat roofs.Likemuch ofWaller's output the experiment

friends that led to commissions forty years later from the

Spanish companyIberlar- the only constructionfirmever to
perfectlyexecutehis conceptions.
The money he made

in his back garden; next

was an entire street inRialto commissioned by Dublin

Corporationin 1928 of terracedtwo-storiedhousing that cost

(like their cousin Samuel). Walter

aE^:

became such an enthusiast

3. A COESIpHoN ROOFUNDERCONSrRUCr10N.The workman is applying the liquid concrete or plaster to the hessian support which is draped betwen wooden arches. The weight
of the concrete caused the hessian to sag which gave a corrugated appearance to the surface that was both pleasing and practical as it reinforced the strength of the shell.

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AN IRISHGENIUS: J H DE W WALLER 1884-1968

forNofrango thathe commissioneda privatehouse,presumably

to his brother'sdesign.This surviveson GordonAvenue but is
now deprivedof its IrishnameTeachBeag (it is now known as
Balmoral)and its concaveNofrangopitched roof.The Becketts
were probablyresponsiblefor the staffquartersthatWaller con
structedatRosapennaHotel inNorth Donegal for the entrepre
neurialEarl of Leitrim.This remainsthe core of the present
hotel after its timberpredecessorwas destroyedby fire.The
remainderofWaller's Irishworks of this periodwere minor
schemesforManningRobertson,themost modest being a ?225
house. The client was the writer C P Curran. Set on the moun

tains aboveDublin at Ticknock, this survivesalongwith two

neighbours.Robertson also deployedNofrango in two council
estates:one inCarlow, theother inWexford.
Waller's interestin cheaphousingwas linkedto his concem
for the unemployed,which at .thistimewas increasingto crisis
level.With PatrickSomerville-Large
andHugh Delap, his part
ner's son,he foundedtheMount StreetClub.Waller organised
the renovationof aGeorgianhouse, deviseda currencyknown

4. j H DEW WALLER (1884-1968): Modelfarrn

Buildings, Spain. Waller

used the

Nofrangoprinciplein theconstructionofCtesiphonbuildingsinmany partsof

AfricaandEurope.

as a tally, acquired a farm to provide food and logs to provide

fuel. But he was never able to weld the club into a building
team. That had to await Waller's commissions in the Third

World where survivalwas thecrucialissue.

In 1939 survival was far more relevant in England than in
Ireland. Waller
tried to enlist at the declaration of war, was

deemed too old, and insteaddecided to contributeto thewar

effort as an engineer working

in London. Here, working

in his

Victoria Street offices disruptedby air raids,he was commis

sioned directly by his best clients, theWar Office, to design
portablehuts,warehousing,and aircrafthangars.These did not
have to be submittedto the scrutinyand scepticismof countless
committeesbut insteadhad tobe erectedquicklyby semi-skilled
labourand had to be defensibleand bomb resistant.In these
conditions,usinghisNofrango techniques,he reinterpretedthe
invertedcatenaryvaultinginventedby theSassanianswhich he
had firstencounteredatCtesiphon in Iraq.
His earliestnon-militaryclientswere farmers.The firstwas
AlistairMcGuckian who subsequentlyset upMasstock, the
intemational company than has done so much

5. J H DEW WALLER:Model of a garage budding forWJ Thompson inMallow, Co

Cork (1948). The single parabolic vault had a span of sixty feet. Wailer put the

experience
which he hadgainedindesigningaircrafthangarsandothermilitary
structures for theWar Office during the Second World War

to later use in

industrial
andcommercialbuildingssuchas thisone.

to develop agri

culturein theMiddle East.A vaultedcattle shed, twohundred

feet long,builtwithout reinforcementin 1941 atMassarene,was
demolished

five years ago. His next

Irish commission was an

experimentalfarmeastofMallow for theBallycloghCooperative.

This survives but ismuch mutilated. The first sight of this cluster
of parabolic vaulting set, not in the Arabian desert, but in the

_zI~

lushpasturesof North Cork (the IrishcounterparttoHassan

Fathy's contemporary village of Gouma in Kamak) must have
been so startling that it had to be conventionalised; yet enough
fragments remain to show how much we have lost.
This farm led to several untraced creameries and two garages

in nearbyMallow for the Ford agent,William Thompson (Fig.

5). The earlier (1948) in Shortcastle was a single parabolic vault
spanning sixty feet and springing from a concrete frame struc
ture that served as a car showroom to the street. This was

6. j H DEWALLER:Model for a Cow Shed. This is probably one of the buildings for
agriculture shown byWaller at the Spring Show. The model of the military-look
ing farmer at the entrance to the shed was probably one that had been used by
Waller in the display of some of his military projects during the war.

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AN IRISHGENIUS: J H DE W WALLER 1884-1968

topped in execution by a first

block.The
flooradministration
later garage

(195 1) on

the

Cork Road consisted of two

adjoiningparabolicvaults,one
terminating in an apse.This
has been demolished, a fate
shared by many

of his Irish

commissions.The most ambi

tiousof his agriculturalstruc
turesof the time,built forLord
Dunraven at Adare Manor,
partiallycollapsedduringcon
struction and was dismantled
in secrecy.Also vanishedare a
precast concrete factory in.
Coleraine, warehousing in
Waterford forClover Meats
and a golf club in Cootehill.
This was for a chicken farmer,

7. DIsPLAY
STAND
OF
WALLER
BUILDINGS
at theRoyalDublinSociety'sSpring
Show. 1950s.The exhibitionofCtesiphonBuildingsforAgricultureand
Industry
was sponsored
by aCavanchicken-farmer
forwhomWailer had
designeda golfclub.

I P Gannon. who snonsored an

villas. model

exhibitionof models at theRDS SpringShow of a Ctesiphon

vault, summarily
destroyedat the end of the show (Fig.7).The
modelsmade by an assistant,A C Aston, no longerexist.The
economyofWalter's systemled to oppositionfromthebuilding
trade, spearheadedby the Plasterer'sUnion; and his next
patronswere entrepreneurstakingadvantageof the lack of
organisedlabouron theAfricancontinent.
Waller's survivingwork in Irelandincludesamodest apple
storenear Bray for his friendPatrickSomerville-Large,
whose
securitywasmuch testedbyout of boundpupilsof a localschool
- itwas my own firstexperienceof one ofWaller's structures.
Then there are several largeagriculturalstructuresbuilt for
Denis Baggaley

death by his daughter,Beatrice

Carfrae. The photographs
record his Irish and English
prototypes;the largefactories
built for Roberts in South
Africa, forTaylorWoodrow in
Nigeria, andVan den Bergh in
Zimbabwe as well as further
inKenya and
factories
Tanganyika;villagehousing in
the Belgian Congo, in Egypt
and India (where Nehru is
shownvisiting the instituteset
up at RorkreebyWailer's erst
whileGermanpartner,Dr Kurt
Billig);models of accommoda
tion for the Palestinian
refugees presented to King
Abdullah; experimentalstruc
turesinAustralia;and holiday

at Grange near Trim and now owned by the

farms and an air

port designed by JulioCalderon de Guzman and Fernando

Moreau Barbera in Spain.There are churches in Plymouth,
Carmarthen,Bristol,Nigeria and Cyprus,whereWaller also
designeda grain store.Faminewas his lastgreatpreoccupation
and in his battle againsthunger he transcendedall divisions
class,creed,raceand state.
In 1993, a proposalforan exhibitiondevoted toWaller under
the auspicesofUNESCO failedto gain thenecessarysupportof
the Irish government and had to be abandoned; it is to be hoped

that thisdecisionwill be reconsidered.

JEREMY
WILLIAMS isaudwrofA CompanionGuide toArchitecture in
Ireland1837-1921 (Dublin1994)

state.His most significantcommission,the

Whiskey BondedWarehouse forLocke's in
Kilbeggan,is sited likea colossalcongested
black jelly fish on a small island. It still star

tles visitorswho, emergingfroma tourof

Ireland'soldest distillery,come face to face
with a possibleMartian invasion.But after
forty-fiveyearsit stillperformsits function.
The SeagramChivasDistillery in Paisley
wasWaller's lastCtesiphonstructure.
Due to
his fear that he would die and leave his wife

penniless,he negotiatedan agreementwith

Seagrams in Canada to sell the patent of his

systemforan annualpension transferable

to
was honouredby
hiswidow.This agreement
the companywho used his systemfor their
distillerybut neverdeployedit again.
Waller retiredtoDevon where the album
(now in the IrishArchitectural Archive)
was discovered twenty-fiveyears after his

8. jH DEW WALER

(1884-1968):

Housing schene, Rialto, Dublin. 1928. The scheme was part of an entire

street,LoretoAvenue,which is still intact,commissioned

byDublinCorporation.

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