{"id":1342,"date":"2012-03-22T12:55:48","date_gmt":"2012-03-22T12:55:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tuppenceworth.ie\/blog\/?p=1342"},"modified":"2015-08-26T23:29:53","modified_gmt":"2015-08-26T22:29:53","slug":"no-95-merrion-sq-lets-ask-some-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tuppenceworth.ie\/blog\/2012\/03\/22\/no-95-merrion-sq-lets-ask-some-questions\/","title":{"rendered":"No. 95 Merrion Sq: Let’s ask some questions"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"20120322-083257<\/a><\/p>\n

Number 95 Merrion Square- known as Apothocaries’ Hall- is a listed building. It is, depending on which property website you read, sale agreed <\/a>or was sold<\/a> to an unknown foreign<\/del> overseas buyer last November. It stands on the corner of Merrion Square, facing the Oscar Wilde statue, at the end of the Nassau Street\/Clare Street tourist trail. It was one of the Square’s first buildings, finished in the 18th Century as part of the square’s transformation into the city’s most desirable address.<\/p>\n

Currently, it has a number of broken window panes, a poorly maintained front portico, a damaged front door and broken guttering. There may be other issues inside the building, but these are the degradations visible from the street.<\/p>\n

I regularly walk past Apothocaries’ Hall. A few weeks ago, I noticed the broken glass and general air of neglect. I’ve always particularly liked that corner of the Square- it’s near TCD and it used to have Green’s bookshop next door. The Hall has a slightly eccentric first floor greenhouse and some really attractive stained glass windows (now almost hidden under layers of grime).<\/p>\n

I felt I ought to do something about it. Standing on the side of the road, I took some pictures and then looked up on my phone whatever I could find out about the Building’s history. I also looked the building up on Google Street view<\/a>. It looked a lot happier then, and was clearly occupied when the Google car passed it by.<\/p>\n

Because I’m a lawyer, I also looked up if there was any legal protection for the building. It is on the Dublin City Council listed buildings register<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Section 58(1) of the Planning and Development Act 2000<\/a> says;<\/p>\n

58.\u2014(1) Each owner and each occupier shall, to the extent consistent with the rights and obligations arising out of their respective interests in a protected structure or a proposed protected structure, ensure that the structure, or any element of it which contributes to its special architectural, historical, archaeological, artistic, cultural, scientific, social or technical interest, is not endangered.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This fundit proposal is to commission freelance journalist Gerald Cunningham<\/a> to write a feature article on Apothocaries’ Hall- its history and its current state. I have agreed the rate with him for this article.<\/p>\n

He will write a feature article on the topic. He will then be free to have that article published -for pay or otherwise, at his own discretion- to the widest audience possible.<\/p>\n

When we see our built environment being degraded as we walk around our depressed home towns and cities, it is hard to know where to start a fight back.<\/p>\n

The first thing we need to do is to start a conversation about the value of what we have.<\/p>\n

Please back this fundit.ie project<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Let owners of listed buildings know that Dubliners don’t stand silent if we see our shared heritage being lost.<\/p>\n

Let’s shine a light on this one spot. Let’s make a difference.<\/p>\n

\"20120322-091511<\/a><\/p>\n

\"20120322-091013<\/a><\/p>\n

UPDATE: Hello all. Thanks to all the excellent people who chipped in on the Fundit proposal, this article is currently being researched and written.<\/p>\n

If you have any information about Apothocaries Hall’s past, present or future please do give Gerard Cunningham, who is the journalist writing the piece, a call on 086 6073060. He’d love to hear from you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This fundit proposal is to commission freelance journalist Gerald Cunningham (http:\/\/www.faduda.net) to write a feature article on Number 95 Merrion Square West, Apothocaries’ Hall- its history and its current state. I have agreed the rate with him for this article.","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1338,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[633],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-apothecaries-hall"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuppenceworth.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuppenceworth.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuppenceworth.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuppenceworth.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuppenceworth.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1342"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuppenceworth.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1357,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuppenceworth.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1342\/revisions\/1357"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuppenceworth.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuppenceworth.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuppenceworth.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuppenceworth.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}