26 June 2017

Two Victorian villas at the heart
of the campus at Villiers School

Tivoli, built by William Henshaw Owen in 1838 for Sir Croker Barrington (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

Patrick Comerford

I spent most of Saturday at the Diocesan Synod for Limerick, Killaloe and Ardfert in Villiers School on the North Circular Road, Limerick. I was writing on Saturday morning about the original Villiers School buildings in Henry Street, and later on Saturday about the Villiers Almshouses, which were endowed too by Hannah Villiers.

The school moved in 1952 from Henry Street to the North Circular Road, and today Villiers School stands on a campus with two large, former Victorian villas that are part of the social and architectural history of Limerick, Tivoli House, which was originally built as Woodville House, and Derravoher, previously known as Riverview and Lansdowne Cottage, and originally built as Glendower.

The origins of this Limerick suburb can be traced back to the early 19th century, when building Wellesley Bridge (1824-1835), later renamed Sarsfield Bridge, opened up tracts of land that had previously undeveloped on the northern banks of the River Shannon, and the new bridge enhanced the value of the Barrington families property along what became the North Circular Road.

The key figures in the development of suburban housing along what opened up as the North Circular Road were Sir Matthew Barrington (1788-1861) of Glenstal Castle, his son, Sir Croker Barrington (1817-1890), and Lord Lansdowne.

Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice (1780-1863), 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne, was the son of a former Prime Minister, and had inherited the family titles along with extensive estates in Wiltshire and in Ireland, including over 1,500 acres in Co Limerick. His father, William Petty-FitzMaurice (1737-1805), 2nd Earl of Shelbourne and Marquis of Lansdowne, built Shelbourne House on the North Circular Road around 1790. The Greek Revival house is now part of Ardscoil Rís on Lower Shelbourne Road. The Lansdowne names and titles are remembered in a number of street-names in this part of Limerick, including Lansdowne Park, Lansdowne Gardens, Shelbourne Road, Shelbourne Park and Shelbourne Avenue. The 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne was a Liberal politician who had a successful political career over half a century, and was Chancellor of the Exchequer (1806-1807), Home Secretary (1827-1828), and on three occasions between 1830 and 1852 was Lord President of the Council.

Alongside Lansdowne and Barrington, a key figure in the early development of this Limerick suburb was William Henshaw Owen (1813-1853). He was one of the 17 children of the architect and engineer Jacob Owen (1778-1870). The younger Owen joined his father at the Board of Public Works and was sent to work in Limerick in 1836. He oversaw the building of Thomond Bridge (1836-1840) to designs by James Pain and his brother George Richard Pain, and designed Mathew Bridge (1844-1846). His other architectural works in Limerick include the Savings Bank (1839), to designs by Thomas Deane, on the corner of Glentworth Street and Catherine Street.

The site of Villiers School is one of the first plots of land recorded on the new North Circular Road. In 1838, Sir Croker Barrington commissioned Owen to design a house to be named Woodville House.

Two years later, in 1840, Croker Barrington married Margaret Lewen of Fort Fergus, Co Clare. The house was known as Tivoli by the time it appeared on the first edition of the Ordnance Survey, which was surveyed in 1840 and published in 1844.

Later, Tivoli Cottage was the home of Lieutenant-Colonel Francis Hugh Massey Wheeler (1791-1871), a retired officer of the Indian army, who was leasing it from Sir Matthew Barrington at the time of Griffith's Valuation. Wheeler was a retired colonel in the Indian Army. His first wife, Maryann, died in 1860, and in 1861, he married his second wife, Emily Delmerge (1837-1909), from Gort, Co Galway in Saint Munchin’s Church, Limerick. Colonel Wheeler died at Tivoli House on 15 March 1871. His two daughters, Constance (1865-1947) and Eveline Wybrants (1866-1953), later lived at 72 Grosvenor Road, Rathmines, Dublin, where they died.

From the 1930s, Tivoli was the home of the Daly family, prominent Republican family in Limerick associated with the events during the 1916 Rising, the War of Independence and the Civil War. Since 1952, the house has been the centre of Villiers School.

This is a detached, three-bay two-storey over basement house, with a five-bay side elevation and a four-bay, two-storey wing built on to the south east around 1955, and a further three-bay two-storey annexe to the west built in 1985.

Derreavoher was built in 1839 by WH Owen, who wanted to name it Glendower (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

The neighbouring house on the school campus, Derravoher, dates from 1839, when a 999-year lease was signed on 17 February 1839 by Croker Barrington’s father, Sir Matthew Barrington, and WH Owen. In a romantic assertion of his Welsh ancestry, Owen wanted to name his new home ‘Glendower,’ recalling Owain Glyndwr, the 14th-15th century Welsh prince who became a hero figure in 19th century Welsh nationalism. However, his chosen name did not survive, and the house has since been known by many other names.

Barrington’s terms in the 1839 lease were strict. He insisted that only one house could be built on the site, and he allowed no ‘noisome noisy or offensive trade or business whatsoever.’

Owen’s design for his own house is picturesque and has been described as showing ‘a flair for Welsh Gothic detail.’ This is a detached, three-bay, two-storey house, designed on an L-shaped plan with single-bay two-storey gabled projecting breakfront abutting a single-bay two-storey gabled projecting end bay.

The principal front boasts has as its centrepiece a projecting breakfront with a Tudor-headed arcaded open porch.

A drawing room in the south-west corner opens out onto a Tudor-headed arcaded loggia allowing sheltered views overlooking the terraced lawns. The dining room on the south-east corner includes an unusual triangular-plan bay window. The rooms on the first floor are partly accommodated within the roof space with a small number lit by jettied oriel dormer windows. The roof itself is an interesting ornamental feature in the house, with scalloped and sinuous open work bargeboards decorating each and every gable and gablet.

Owen later emigrated to the US and died suddenly in San Francisco on 1 June 1853. Meanwhile, the picturesque suburban villa he built for himself on the North Circular Road, went through many names over the course of its history, from Glendower to Lansdowne Cottage, Riverview and, finally Derravoher.

The house is named as Lansdowne Cottage on the first edition of the Ordnance Survey. In 1843, a marriage report in The Gentleman’s Magazine notes that Hugh Fennessy had been living at Lansdowne Cottage. In 1846, it was the home of William Smyth, described as a Constitutional Court Proctor.

Griffith’s Valuation names the house as Lansdowne Cottage in 1853, when it was the home of Richard Goff, Manager of the National Bank, who leased the house from William Charles Burgess.

The house was leased in 1863 to Francis Cherry Sikes, a Quaker who had a grocery shop at 112 George’s Street, Limerick. Sikes renamed the house ‘Riverview’ because of its commanding vistas overlooking the River Shannon. He died in 1865, and his widow Eliza continued to live in the house until she died in 1892.

By 1911, Sir Alexander William Shaw (1847-1923), the owner of Shaw and Sons of Mulgrave Street, was living at Riverview. Shaw was a bacon manufacturer, one of the founding members of Limerick Boat Club and the founder of Limerick and Lahinch golf clubs. He turned the family firm, WJ Shaw and Sons, into one of the largest bacon curing businesses in Europe. He became one of the most prominent business figures in Limerick, was High Sheriff of Co Limerick in 1898-1899, and was knighted for his services to Irish industry.

Shaw was a keen sportsman and took part in rowing, rugby, athletics and hurling, but golf became his main interest as a result of his many business trips to Scotland. He seems to have been responsible for changing the name of the house to Derravoher: an obituary of his son, Captain Gordon Thompson Shaw, in 1918, refers to him the ‘youngest son of Sir Alex. and Lady Shaw, Derravoher, Limerick.’

The Ray family, who had returned from Santa Barbara in California, leased the house in 1928, and lived there until 1943. James Ray (1885-1950) was the director of O’Mara’s Bacon Company. In 1943, when George Edward ‘Ted’ Russell (1912-2004) moved into the house. He was elected to the Senate in 1969 and bought the house outright in 1979. His widow continued to live at Derravoher until 2011.

Derravoher, set in mature landscaped grounds, was bought by Villiers School in 2012. The house was restored in 2014-2016 for Villiers School under the supervision of Gráinne McMahon, who was project architect and project planner. This restoration work included reinstating the natural slate roof and repairing its decorative timber work.

A limestone flagged path now links Derravoher to the classrooms in Villiers School and Tivoli, the neighbouring Victorian villa. Many modern additions mean Tivoli has lost its original appearance as a detached country house, but this house too has retained many of its important, original features.

A mug of coffee in the sunshine at Villiers School at the weekend (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

2 comments:

Unknown said...

From: David Edge, Loppington, Shropshire,England,
Have you found the very good plan of Shelbourne House in Auction Brochure 1889 in NUI Archivces?
I am very interested in Revd. Joseph Gabbett one time occupier and Chancellor of St. Mary's Cathedral.
Is it possible to establish email contact please?
many thanks.

Patrick Comerford said...

Thank you for your comment. I do not post my email address online. However, if you send a message through my Facebook page I can send you my personal email address. Or you can post a second comment with your email address, and I an ensure it is not published online, maintaining your privacy. Patrick