Nearly a century of gentlemen's tailoring in an 18th century house in Cavendish Row in central Dublin ended at the weekend. The building has been sold and Desmond Leech, who has worked in the firm of tailors for 50 years, intends to finish off current orders from his home in Beaumont before considering the future.
Mr Leech (66) began training as a tailor in early March 1952 when the business was owned by the late Mr Michael Hawkins, whose father, Mr William Hawkins, had set it up in 1916.
Still working with Mr Leech is 86-year old Patrick Murphy, who joined the company in 1959. The two men continued working together at Cavendish Row after Michael Hawkins retired in 1992.
At one stage, 25 staff were employed. The Hawkins family lived on the upper floors of the house, and the tailoring took place in the former drawingrooms on the first floor. Ready-made clothes were sold in the basement.
"Most of the people who come to us are gentlemen," explains Mr Leech. "They won't be pushy, but take the clothes as we have them ready.
"Then as now we have done a fair amount of work for the medical profession and the judiciary. They're people who appreciated fine craftwork."
He has also specialised in clothes for members of the hunting fraternity, as well as for participants in show jumping and dressage events. "It's all specialist stuff that no one else now is really capable of," he says.
Commissions during the past decade have included clothes for many period films such as Michael Collins and for theatres, including the Gate. "I remember old Lord Longford outside that theatre collecting money," recalls Mr Murphy.
"We never used to do that sort of tailoring work," adds his colleague. "Old Mr Hawkins maintained that theatrical people would never pay you."
Mr Leech has not been troubled by similar qualms; he has just finished working on costumes for the Gate's next production, The Bear by Brian Friel, and is to make the clothes for Frank McGuinness's forthcoming play about Mícheál MacLiammóir and Hilton Edwards.
He remembers that one of his very first jobs as an apprentice was to deliver clothes to the MacLiammóir/Edwards household in Harcourt Terrace, where on the same occasion he also met Siobhán McKenna.
Customer loyalty means that third and fourth generations of the same family have come to Cavendish Row to have clothes either newly-made or repaired. Some items returned for the tailors' attention date back to the 1930s.
While the average cost of a suit is now €750 to €900 depending on fabric, there has been no shortage of new orders and the two men have enough work to keep them busy for the next 10 weeks.
Unable to find affordable premises in the city centre, Mr Leech expects to be based at his home in Beaumont, and remarks that long-standing customers "are going to be traumatised when they get the news that we've shifted."
However, he says the northside location will be convenient for his overseas clients flying into Dublin Airport. "We'll get rid of all the jobs that have built up, and then review the situation."