html> Archers / EWL Building. This building, now demolished, was a former garage. This building, now demolished, is a former garage.

Former Archers Garage, Dublin - demolished June 1999

This building, then apparently disused when these photgraphs were taken by me in 1998, stood on the corner of Sandwith Street and Fenian Street in Dublin. It was a former garage. The architect and date of construction were at that time unknown to me, but it deserved a place here in the first version of the Art Deco Ireland page for the assured way it turned the corner, with a low tower.

Little did I then realise how soon this page would need updating, and not with good news. 

Former Archers Garage Dublin - demolished 1999    Photograph 1998

 

Additional information June 1999 

This building has been razed.

A photo in the Irish Times newspaper (9 June 1999) illustrated it as a heap of rubble. Whatever degree of "protection" it had, it is gone.

News November 1999

 

Thanks to a correspondent here is much new information about this garage. The architect for Archer's Garage, built in 1949 for Dick Archer (who had other garages as well and was the first agent in Ireland for Ford motor cars) was Billy Baird (d.1998) of Kaye Parry Ross Hendy . The builders of Archer's Garage were Messrs A Panton Watkinson, better known, apparently, as specialist shopfitters and painting contractors. The engineers were Thomas Pearson and Co , a leading firm in the history of early reinforced concrete design in Ireland. The project engineer for Archer's Garage from Thomas Pearson and Co was Jackson Owens. Jackson Owens is still alive and well. He was greatly saddened by the demolition, but he was also extremely curious to know precisely how the demolition had proceeded and whether some parts, particularly the corner 'drum' office/column had been hard to shift - it was!

Click to see photos taken of the garage after demolition..

The developer is now supposed to reinstate this building, as it was protected.

It still remains a heap of rubble as of June 2000. Plans for an office complex wrapped around the partially reinstated garage have been published. March 2001 newspaper reports suggest building work has begun on the site, suggestion is that the former garage will be reinstated as a restaurant with apartments. August 2001: Building works are indeed in progress on the site and the exterior is almost up to the roofline. January 2002 : Building work seems to be suspended due to a dispute about access to light.

News from 2004 and 2005

January 2004: with much of the external structure complete, the works seem to be still in suspense. Coming up to five years now since Dublin Corporation promised rebuilding. Views of the return of Archers.

  • Reopened 2005