Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 30 May 2013

Technical Memories (Part 56) – Air Raids and Housing

Following on from last week, the city’s preparations for World War II make interesting reading in the Cork Examiner. At a meeting of Cork Corporation on Tuesday evening, 24 October 1939, a report by City Manager, Philip Monahan, was presented to the councillors on possible air raid precautions. These carried an estimated cost of £107,490.

A proposed scheme of precautions divided the city naturally into four sections-(1) medical, (2) engineering, (3) fire prevention and (4) civilian training. Medical precautions involved the securing of additional hospital accommodation and the establishment of first-aid posts and first aid depots. The former were to be for the treatment of casualties and the latter for the housing of first-aid services, such as ambulances and first-aid parties. Engineering precautions involved the establishment of posts for the repair of damaged roads and the creation of posts to decontaminate gas-infested areas. Fire prevention entailed the establishment of additional fire brigade stations and the recruitment of auxiliary firemen. Civilian training involved the establishment of an air warden and messenger service. Air wardens were to patrol small districts under district and area wardens. Their duties were to assist residents in their districts in all air-raid precaution work, such as darkening windows and fitting gas marks.

In the report it was proposed that medical precautions should be under the Corporation’s Medical Officer of Health, engineering precautions under the City Engineer, fire precautions under the Chief Officer of the Fire Brigade and civilian training under the Housing Superintendent, and all being responsible to the City Manager. The Minister of Defence had divided the city into three areas- one south of the North Channel of the Lee, the remainder of the city being divided into two areas by a line running through St Patrick’s Bridge – areas to the north west and north east of St Patrick’s Hill respectively. In each of these areas a depot for each of the four branches of air-raid precaution work was proposed. For the north-west area the depots were to be on MacCurtain Street and between Dillon’s Cross and St Luke’s, while for the South side, the Corporation Yard, Anglesea Street, and the Municipal Baths, Eglingon Street, were to be used.

The different Corporation officers gave an estimate of the cost of their proposals, in total £107,490. The Minister of Defence accepted responsibility for the provision of fire fighting equipment over and above the normal requirements of the city and to pay seven-tenths of cost of other approved expenditure on air-raid precautions. No specific instructions were received as to the construction of air-raid shelters. The estimate included provision of air-raid shelters for 30,000 households in different parts of the city and cost was based on the assumption that steel and timber was not readily available.

The observations by the councillors were multiple but zoned in on the point that the Corporation should not be charged at the full price for the lighting by the ESB as the lighting would be turned off due to curfews. The entire scheme was referred internally again to committees. I’m uncertain as to how much of the above scheme was adopted as I have not managed to trace the outcomes in the media of the time.

There was also an observation by one councillor that if the Corporation were going to spend over £100,000 for putting people safely underground, they should get money as well to house people safely over ground. Corporation housing construction continued apace in the late 1930s with vast slum clearance projects and new Corporation housing schemes being developed in Spangle Hill and Greenmount. Local Studies in the City Library have a great set of aerial photos of the city from 1945 which show the layout of the city and also newly built housing in its suburbs. In one, one can see the Crawford Municipal Technical Institute and just to the north, the Corporation housing scheme of Greenmount.

In the Cork Examiner on 28 October 1937, plans were published for a social housing scheme in Greenmount comprising two hundred and seventy houses occupying thirteen acres of land situated between Green Street, Barrack Street, Tower Street and Friar’s Walk. The area was in the ownership of the Presentation Brothers Order. The Brothers afforded the Corporation the opportunity to acquire the land. Pre to development the land was used as pasture, though there were some 30 farm buildings and old cottages on parts of it. They were cleared as part of the scheme. The new houses were to be of the usual type of Corporation dwelling, complete with bathroom and hot and cold water, and in addition a large size garden front and rear. In addition to two main thoroughfares, there was to be eight cul-de-sac entrances twelve feet wide to the different blocks of houses, ending in a circular turning which was to enable motor cars, horse-drawn carts and other vehicles to turn. The scheme represented the first big scheme, similar to the Gurranabraher and Spangle Hill development, undertaken on the southern side of the city by the Corporation, and was to allow them to proceed with necessary slum clearance nearby.

To be continued…

Caption:

693a. Aerial view of Cork’s southern suburbs in 1945, showing Crawford Municipal Technical Institute in the fore left and the new developed houses at Greenmount in the centre (picture: Cork City Library).