Frustrated watching Werburgh Street sites rot, a guerilla architect anonymously posts plans for them

A white sign was fixed to the green fencing around an empty site on the corner of Werburgh Street and Little Ship Street – near Dublin Castle.

“I do not like how the wider area in which you are now standing is in semi-public ownership, yet left to rot for over one hundred years,” it read.

It was anonymous, and the subject of its ire was a site just outside the old city wall, downhill of St Werburgh’s Church and a gravelly car park.

The small plot of land is a stony vacant lot. On Monday, it had some bags and a skip filled with weeds and the rubble from some demolition works.

Two construction workers in high-vis jackets nattered to each other by a small stone wall, which cut through the site.

They had been taking the wall apart by hand, lowering it. Another wall, which ran along the footpath was completely flattened.

Pedestrians could now see into this historic piece of land, which the anonymous message and a series of corrugated plastic boards helped to elaborate on.

The boards showed a presentation with illustrations, maps, short texts and a photograph of a model wooden mill.

They told the story of this site: what it looked like as part of a Viking settlement, how it evolved in the mediaeval period, and what became of it in the last century.

Flowing through the old 3D maps of Dublin was the Poddle River, now a mostly subterranean waterway.

And at the heart of this presentation was a large illustration of a new, modern mill on the vacant site.

It was a speculative portrait: a vision of Little Ship Street in one possible future, one conscious of its past. Its title is “Proposal: A Centre for Sustainable Construction.”

Dublin City Council is considering a future use for this space, but their thinking is somewhat simpler.

It’s intended as a new public space, said Fiona Cooper, a senior executive planner in the Planning and Property Development Department, at a meeting of the South East Area Committee on 8 July.

The council intends to put forward a proposal for the site, through its internal planning process known as Part 8, next year, she said.

That’s just one of the council’s plans for the wider area – which also include turning St Werburgh’s Church into a music venue and improving pedestrian links between Werburgh Street and Dublin Castle.

Guerilla presentation

The creator of the guerilla proposal didn’t leave his name.

But in the brief text, a manifesto of sorts, he said this was a student architecture project.

The text lamented how unlikely it was that Dublin would see anything built in the city that could match its Georgian streetscapes, and cast doubts on whether any young architect would be able to build something in the city.

This, the author said, was due to regulators, a developer-led planning system, and a lack of ambition by the council.

The text invited pedestrians to take a look at his proposal for the vacant site, and was signed off with an email, which referenced Howard Roark, the uncompromising architect in the 1943 Ayn Rand novel, The Fountainhead.

On Wednesday, the architect behind the email wrote back, saying his name was Kevin Barry.

He had just graduated from a master’s of architecture in UCD, he said, and his thesis proposed a new Department of Husbandry on the grounds of Dublin Castle.

One of his major concerns was that something inappropriate like an office block would be developed in this area, he said.

Two days later, on Friday at midday, his face popped up on a Zoom call.

From Cavan, and currently living in Brighton, Barry pinned his project onto the fences back in May, he says.

It is the heart of the city and where the Vikings set up, he said, and walking around last summer thinking about his thesis.

He spent time reading abouts its history: the construction of Dublin Castle, the satirist Jonathan Swift, how the Georgian city was constructed alongside the Poddle, he said. “And then the Poddle was covered over.”

Castle Street, Werburgh Street and Ship Street had a large community of locals around the 18th and 19th Century. But that has largely diminished, he says. “All gone, swept away and the river is completely forgotten about.”

After reflecting on the past and the present, he decided to try to envisage a better future for the area, he says.

A modest proposal

His idea, which suggests uncovering the Poddle, examines the redevelopment of this site in a way that would nod to its rich history.

Ship Street had got its name from formerly being a sheep market, a detail still evident on its street signs, which bear the original Irish name Sráid na gCaorach, he says. “That was literally outside the Castle gates, so they didn’t need to pay any tax.”

Next to that market was a threshing mill known as Pole Mill, the presentation says.

At the heart of his proposal was an idea to rebuild that mill, he says. “It was on the corner, and you would be able to use the Poddle productively. You could make a mill to thresh corn.”

Being a thesis, naturally Barry wasn’t constrained by budgets or regulations, so it was an opportunity to be outlandish in his vision, he said. “It is obviously quite fantastical. But it’s not too far off of what could be possible.”

The other question at the heart of Barry’s presentation was whether it was possible to get a bit of a population back on Werburgh Street and Ship Street, Barry said. “And how do we do that without destroying the landscape?”

The church is going to be developed into a music venue with a capacity for 250 people, according to a 2023 report by the former council chief executive Owen Keegan.

In Barry’s proposal, its former tower would be rebuilt, he said. “Could you imagine putting a few apartments up there? I’ve seen it done in other European cities, with churches being converted into housing.”

“It’s council-owned,” he says. “It’s possible. It’s not ideal and it’s an old historic building, but it is getting a question going around: what can be done here?”

The current plan

Dublin City Council’s development plan for 2022 to 2028 includes a vision for this area.

This includes a commitment to support the cultural and ecclesiastical use of St Werburgh’s Church, improving access both into the 18th century building and its graveyard.

The plan also promises to improve access into Dublin Castle via Werburgh Street and seek the development of a new “square” or space to the south of St Werburgh’s Church.

Any proposal for Ship Street should provide an open plaza and prioritise pedestrian movement, the plan also says.

Independent Councillor Mannix Flynn says children in the area need a playspace, and that strip of land on the corner of Little Ship and Werburgh Street could be used for that, Flynn says.

The space could benefit people up in Bride Street, Ross Road, Golden Lane, Whitefriar Street and the residents in Smock Alley, he says. “There is something there that should work for the locals.”

At the South East Area Committee meeting on 8 July, Green Party Councillor Claire Byrne tabled a motion asking if the area manager could progress a masterplan for the Werburgh Street and Ship Street Little area to provide housing.

This area, which comprises the land between Castle Street and Little Ship Street consists of four plots of land; two of which the council list as potential development sites in a map provided to councillors, while a third is earmarked for public realm works.

It is a sensitive area, in terms of its heritage, Byrne told the committee. “But it does strike me that there is some potential for at least some in-fill housing on one of those three plots.”

The car park on the Werburgh Street site stands out as an opportunity, she said. “It has such potential for proper mixed-use.”

But this area isn’t being considered for housing, said Fiona Cooper, the council’s senior executive planner in the Planning and Property Development Department.

Cooper’s report said that the plot where the car park has parts that are owned by the council, the Church of Ireland, the Office of Public Works and a private individual.

But a masterplan for the area would look at options for a new development on this particular site, which would be for a mixed-use building, complementing the cultural, tourism and recreational activities in the area, Cooper said.

Byrne raised some concerns about anything that would complement those activities. “The last thing we need in there is a hotel,” she said.

As for the vacant site featured in Barry’s proposal? The council owns it, a council spokesperson said on Tuesday.

The council intends to use it for a new public space, Cooper said on 8 July. “It is hoped to bring forward a Part 8 proposal for this site in 2025, following the production of an agreed masterplan.”