Peter Pearson's Decorative Dublin is a feast for the eye, celebrating the city's decorative surfaces in ironwork, brickwork, stone, glass, plaster, its fanlights, doors and windows…and more.
Category: Architecture/Building
Themes:
Visual and Performance Arts
Download Dublin's Fanlights
The city is full of decorative things whose main function is to delight. Ancient, Georgian, Victorian and modern features are all here. At certain periods everything, even the most practical and mundane coal-hole cover or boot scraper, was decorated, leaving a rich heritage on buildings, pavements, walls, roofs, in gardens and interiors.
The book also includes the fascinating stories of crafts and craftworkers.
Peter Pearson is a historian, conservationist and noted artist with a lifelong commitment to the protection and enhancement of Ireland’s architectural heritage. As an artist, he has had solo exhibitions in Venice, Rome, London and Dublin. His love of older buildings led to his first book, Dun Laoghaire: Kingstown (1981), and later to his activism as a member of An Taisce and the
Irish Georgian Society where he fought to save many historic buildings in Dublin and beyond. He initiated the Drimnagh Castle Restoration Project in 1985 and a survey and plan to save the Temple Bar area. He was a founder member of the Dublin Civic Trust, a member of the Heritage Council and is an honorary life member of the Dún Laoghaire Historical Society.
Born in 1955, Peter was educated at Newpark School and Trinity College Dublin. His bestselling book Between the Mountains and the Sea, Dun Laoghaire–Rathdown County (1998) details the architectural heritage of the county; The Heart of Dublin (2000) charts the origins and planning
of Dublin’s streetscapes from early times to the present day. Peter Pearson's Decorative Dublin (2002) explores the craftsmanship of Dublin, while Of Sea and Stone (Gandon, 2014), records his work as a painter. Peter
lives with his wife, Phil, in Shankill.
'Sumptuously produced and meticulously researched.'
'For anyone unaware of the variety contained within the architecture of Dublin, this book will be an eye-opener.' Full review
'Decorative Dublin offers a lavishly illustrated celebration of the city's "rich legacy of beautiful minutiae" ... (Pearson) writes with enthusiasm and knowledge about his subject.'
'This beautifully illustrated volume contains endless riches.'
'Rich and colourful photographs ... the text is informative and equally rich ... Pearson's is an infectious passion, and the book itself, lovingly laid out, is something of an object of vertu.'
'A stunning and fascinating journey through the streets and history of the capital city'
'This book is an attempt to preserve not only the beautiful minutiae but also the larger decoartive detail of Dublin's unique cityscape'
