The Killiney Houses of Deane & Woodward Architects

Extract and photographs from ‘The Architecture of Deane and Woodward’ by Frederick O’Dwyer, 1997.
The only reference to Deane and Woodward’s domestic works to be published in the columns of The Dublin Builder appeared in the issue of 15 February 1861. In a piece on house building in Ballybrack, County Dublin, the writer referred in passing to six new dwelling houses being built to their designs, including one for Joseph Robinson, ‘the eminent opera singer’. The foundations had been laid out and the tone of the article suggests that the writer simply made a tour of the many sites in the vicinity and made enquiries from the workmen. Only four Deane and Woodward houses can be identified and it is likely that the writer erroneously included in his tally two neighbouring houses, possibly designed by George Wilkinson (c.1813-90). The reference in the same article to two houses in the course of construction for Mr Boyle is ambiguous, but in fact refers to a development some distance away, unconnected with Deane and Woodward, whose houses are not in Ballybrack proper, but on Killiney Hill.
The development of Killiney in the 1860s transformed a barren hilly stretch of coastline into Dublin’s most fashionable suburb. Those familiar with Killiney today, with its well-planted gardens, abundant shrubs and mature trees would find it hard to recognise photographs of the area when its rocky slopes had little cover other than gorse and the new houses stood out against a backdrop more reminiscent of California than Dublin. Halfway up the summit of Killiney stood the dramatic pile of Victoria (now Ayesha) Castle, from whose ramparts one could view the sweep of Killiney Bay and the Sugarloaf mountain beyond. The similarity with the panorama of the Bay of Naples is recalled in such names as Sorrento Terrace and Vico Road. Victoria Castle and the nearby villa Mount Eagle were built (c.1837-40) by the local proprietor Robert Warren, apparently from the designs of his nephew, the architect Sandham Symes (1808-94).
In 1844 Brunel’s atmospheric railway linked Dalkey with the Dublin to Kingstown (Dun Laoghaire) line. By 1854 it had been replaced by conventional track and extended southwards along the coast to Ballybrack. The section to Wicklow was opened in the following year. Warren could now embark on a second development, on a less grandiose scale, and in 1857 he offered for sale a piece of land on the slopes below Victoria Castle, employing the engineer Joseph Lee to draw up a map which he then had lithographed. The purchaser was Joseph Hone (1804-65), solicitor and elder brother of Thomas Hone, on whose ground Balnootra [qv] was built. A plan (now in the National Library of Ireland) was drawn up by Wilkinson, showing suggested villa building lots. Hone built two adjacent houses South Hill and Palermo (as well as nearby Temple Hill for himself), but sold an adjoining three-acre site to Robert Exham (b.c.1810), the Cork-born wine merchant, in 1860. Exham’s father had witnessed the sale of the Dundanion estate to Sir Thomas Deane in 1823. His uncle was acting secretary of the Cork Savings Bank during the period of Deane’s trusteeship.
Exham decided to divide his site into three plots, retaining one for his own use and selling leases in the other two, with the stipulation that each house should cost a minimum of £1,500 to construct. The purchasers were Joseph Robinson, conductor of the Antient Concerts Society, and William Bewley, a Dublin merchant. Robinson’s brother Francis bought a site directly from Hone, which lay to the south-east of the others, separated by a road and bordering the railway. There was a minimum cost stipulation, again of £1,500 and an option, not exercised, to halve the plot of almost two acres and build a second house of similar value. Deane and Woodward were engaged as architects for all four houses. They had been employed at the Antient Concert Rooms in 1859, of which Exham and T.N. Deane’s brother-in-law Joseph Manly were committee members.
Category:Killiney Hill Road
Category:The Houses