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Mystery of Killester

Apologies for the absence – Athens called and archaeology of the Classical kind took over my thoughts (and baklava, yum!). But Monastiraki Metro Station’s (opened 1895) mirroring of the rounded arcade of the opposite Tzistarakis Mosque (built 1759 and now a museum) and the looming Parthenon (started c.447 BC) provided me with the picture-postcard of architectural and engineering metamorphoses from the ancients to the present-day.

Monastiraki Station on the right mirroring Tzistarakis Mosque on the left with the Acropolis looming large in the centre.

The marblesque magnificence of Greece may seem completely unconnected to Ireland, but key features from Classical architecture crop up in all kinds of places, especially Irish railway buildings. Symmetry, pointed pediments and squared-functionality can be found in workshops, for example. The ‘Parthenons of Practicality’ perhaps? Or perhaps I need to calm down.

Parthenons of Practicality? The Athenian temple and the GNRI's engineering workshops

Unfortunately my jaunt to Killester Station left me with no architectural references as the former station no longer exists. It is on record as being opened in 1845, closing two years later and reopening at the present DART site 200 metres north in 1923, possibly just as a halt. All that can be found at (what one assumes to be) the original site is a car park which slopes down toward the track. 

Car park at Killester looking toward the tracks. 
A silent British Pathe video from 1922 entitled ‘Train Disaster Scenes At Killester’ shows the derailment of a GNRI train from the embankment with the road bridge clearly visible, but a station or platform cannot be seen.


As described in the Bonkers post, I decided to self-consciously walk around a few surrounding streets as there’s usually some kind of archaeological remains to evidence a station’s existence. Happening upon the Quarry Cottages it was clear from the three single-storey, terraced houses with gabled entrances and my beloved semi-architrave windows that these were related to the railways.

Quarry Cottages

Talking with one of the residents revealed that a former railway employee had lived in one of the houses for many years and that internal red brickwork followed the pattern of pre-GNRI railway buildings. The fronts are now pebble-dashed but it is likely that the same red and yellow-accented brickwork lurks underneath.

Or does it? The name Quarry Cottages hasn’t sat well with me so I’ve decided to do a bit more digging (of the desk-based kind). First, let’s look at the current Google Earth image.

Google Earth.

The triangle to the west of Collins Avenue East is the Irish Rail car park which clearly leads down to the current DART train line. Also to the west and above the car park is a golf course – take note of the water pools. The new road bridge is the wider straight road whilst the original bridge is to its right, curving up to Killester Avenue. Quarry Cottages are just to the north of this.

So, all neat and tidy: the station was to the west of the road bridge with the railway workers’ cottages to the north east. But GeoHive's Historic Map 25 inch (1888-1913) map shows the golf course as a disused quarry (look at the location of the pools, remember!) with Quarry Cottages built. There is no station remember - it closed in 1847 and did not reappear until 1922 and this map was created between this gap.

Historic Map 25 inch (1888-1913).
An earlier map, Historic 6 Inch Black & White (1837-1842) however, shows the Quarry working, but with no cottages. The train line is marked in this map as 'Dublin and Drogheda Railway Progress', showing the creation of the railway line is in process - but its architecture is not.

Historic 6 Inch Black & White (1837-1842).
And so a conundrum: were the cottages built for the quarry, or were they named after the quarry but built for the railway? This is a question I am yet to solve – answers on a postcard please!

Please note these are private residences, respect is required. 

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