Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 8 November 2012

“Technical Memories (Part 34) –Overarching Narratives”

Continuing on from last week, there are some interesting insights in the newspapers such as the Cork Examiner into housing and urban renewal in Cork in the mid 1920s. At a Council meeting on 19 September 1924, the principal business was to discuss the allocation of houses at a former Cattle Market site on College Road, which became known as Wycherley Terrace in time.

The architects Messrs. O’Flynn and O’Connor wrote to the Council’s housing committee stating that the Cattle Market housing scheme was ready for occupation. They were to be allotted to applicants in each city ward area in proportion to the number of proposals received from those areas. The secretary of the committee noted they had received 286 applications for the forty houses, and they were to be allotted according to the number of applications from each ward. The three areas of the North West Ward were be entitled to 19 houses, there been 138 applicants from those areas. The centre ward, with 89 applications, would be entitled to 13. The south ward was entitled to five houses, the number of applicants been 38, and the North East ward, from which 21 applications had been received, was entitled to three houses.

Cllr O’Riordan protested against the unfairness of the allocation so far as the north east ward was concerned, and another Cllr Horgan supported the protest, saying that it was something like ‘jerrymandering’. The chairman said the spirit of the Council’s decision was that the applications should be segregated, and the most deserving picked out in each area. The houses should then be given to the people who required them most. That cases where five or more lived in one room should be selected. Despite the councillors’ interventions the majority of the Council voted for the decision that the houses be allocated in proportion to the number of applications received. The councillor representatives of the different wards were to select the tenants for the houses allocated to those wards.

The culverts of the city are referred to in October 1924. Very little is known on the city’s culverts, many of which in the past straddled river channels of the Lee. Many in time became main streets in the city such s St Patrick’s Street. On the 14 October 1924, Mr Ryan, the Council’s Building Inspector, submitted a report to the City Councillors on the condition of the underground arch under St Patrick Street. He drew the Corporation’s Public Works committee to a number of defects. There was a noticeable increase in the tendency of the arch stone to slip. The side walls forming the abutments of the arch were in a wretched condition; in parts they resembled more a heap of stones loosely tipped from a cart than a wall systematically built. A considerable amount of silt helped to save those side walls from the scouring action of floods, and by its weight to retain them in position. The loose open joints of these walls admitted the free tunnelling of rats to adjoining premises. The continual working of the tide through these walls removed a certain amount of subsoil, and this the architect proposed would eventually lead to a subsidence of the adjoining ground with the drainage connections.

The unbraced concrete foundation of the pavement and the wood blocks above, both of which were atop the foundation over the arch saved it to a great extent. As the high tide level was much higher that the crown of the arch, the tide removed supporting soil. An amount of timbering or bracing had been fixed in the archway. The archway was the main sewer of the city, and received the sewage from all the sewers in the side streets; it’s bed was the old river bed and even if in good condition, it was self cleansing. The city’s tram lines were directly over it in places, and an amount of inconvenience would be experienced by the failure of any part of the arch.

On the subject of a culvert on Sheare Street, the architect noted several defects; “The crown of the arch is close to the surface of the road….The arch is affected by the impact of heavy laden lorry wheels. The arch varies in sectional area, and the change from one section to another is made by direct offsets, which slow down the flow and exposes the masonry to the scouring action of the floods. Where the sectional area of the arch is wide, as in spanning 16 to 20 feet, two lorries can travel abreast, transmitting practically all their weight to the arch”. The architect proposed that the arch be replaced with a new one of smaller span; that arch would be stronger and the weight transmitted to it less and it could have also be possible to obtain a greater depth between the road surface and crown of arch, which would facilitate the laying of gas, water of electric conduits, where they had to cross the arch. The architect concluded with options for replacing the archway with a pre-cast concrete pipe, a small brick sewer or concrete culvert.

To be continued…

Caption:

666a. Grand Parade Culvert, exposed February 2005 (picture: Kieran McCarthy)