The ESB has a chance to atone for what was probably the worst single crime perpetrated on Georgian Dublin, writes Frank McDonald, Environment Editor
The ESB's planning application for a major office development in Leopardstown opens up the intriguing possibility that the damage it did to Dublin's "Georgian Mile" more than 30 years ago could be undone.
For it was in the late 1960s, in the teeth of bitter opposition from conservationists, that the ESB demolished 16 Georgian houses in Lower Fitzwilliam Street to build its new headquarters on the site, sanctioned by the late Neil Blaney, then minister for local government.
The board claimed that the late-18th-century houses were structurally unsound and commissioned Sir John Summerson, an English architectural historian, to condemn them in ringing tones. The doomed terrace, he said, was "simply one damned house after another".
Nearly 1,000 Dubliners packed into the Mansion House in January 1962, to protest against the plan. Seán Keating, the artist, warned that if the ESB got away with it, "the next move will be to feed the books in the Library of Trinity College to the boilers of the Pigeon House".
The board was undeterred. It proceeded to hold an international architectural competition for the design of its new headquarters, won by the up-and-coming practice headed by Mr Sam Stephenson and Mr Arthur Gibney, who were both still in their 20s at the time.
The Fitzwilliam facade, done in a refined, buff-coloured pre-cast concrete, was modulated to mimic at least the proportions of the 18th-century houses it would replace. But there was no doubt that it would - and did - break the rhythm and integrity of the "Georgian Mile".
For that reason, planning permission was refused by Dublin Corporation.
But on September 30th, 1964, the day before the new Planning Act came into force, Mr Blaney signed an order granting permission, and part of Georgian Dublin vanished.
But if the ESB had triumphed then, it later developed pangs of conscience. In the 1980s it restored an entire Georgian terrace in Upper Mount Street and funded the restoration of No 29 Lower Fitzwilliam Street as a furnished 18th-century house, open to the public.
In recent years the ESB canvassed the views of conservationists about the idea of re-fronting its Fitzwilliam Street office building with a Georgian replica facade. But the floor levels could not have been reconciled, so the proposal was eventually dropped.
However, if the board were to evacuate the city centre for Leopardstown, it would be possible to rebuild the 16 houses - both inside and out - thereby reinstating Lower Fitzwilliam Street and atoning for what was probably the worst single crime perpetrated on Georgian Dublin.