{"id":417654,"date":"2026-04-26T00:00:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T00:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/417654\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T00:00:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T00:00:17","slug":"landmark-buildings-finally-get-proper-credit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/417654\/","title":{"rendered":"Landmark buildings finally get proper credit"},"content":{"rendered":"

PRIDE in a family member\u2019s profession can be justified: A nurse, or doctor as a parent,\u00a0 for example, will have touched many lives, for the better.<\/p>\n

So it is, too, with architects, at least the good and the great ones; the bad ones, as the cliche goes, just advise clients to plant ivy to cover their mishaps (while doctors bury their mistakes).<\/p>\n

Among the great and the good are Cork\u2019s Hill architectural dynasty. The family\u2019s creative construction output spans three generations and 130 years, but while their buildings are generally admired, they often largely go unattributed, or incorrectly attributed.<\/p>\n

\"SchoolSchool of Science and Art, now the Crawford Gallery\/former Custom House, was substantially added to by Arthur Hill. This early 1960s view was before the current Opera House was built directly alongside the gable (photo: courtesy Crawford Art Gallery)<\/p>\n

Up to now, that is, until the publication of The Hill Architects: A Cork Architectural Dynasty, a 320-page, lavish, lovely book from specialist publishers Gandon Editions that has, in some ways, been 20 years or more in the making.<\/p>\n

Sadly, its eventual issue late last year came just a bit too late for the redoubtable Myrtle Allen, nee Hill, she of Irish culinary and hospitality renown and who died in 2018.<\/p>\n

As this journalist knows, Myrtle carried the pride of being a Hill, her father, Henry Houghton Hill, having been the last of the Hills to practice architecture in Cork.<\/p>\n

When he died, in 1951, it ended a remarkable lineage that had stretched back to 1827.<\/p>\n

Several times over the years, when the Irish Examiner pages referred to a building\u2019s Hill genesis \u2014 be it a bank, a hotel, or a home \u2014 a hand-written note would arrive in the Examiner office from Myrtle\u2019s beloved Ballymaloe House, expressing her personal thanks for the acknowledgement and for keeping the HHH name in print.<\/p>\n

\"MyrtleMyrtle Allen, nee Hill, at Ballymaloe House in 2013 Picture: Denis Minihane.<\/p>\n

Here we go again. Only, this time with the joint certainty and authority of the scholarship of historian Dagmar \u00d3 Riain-Raedel, and the long commitment of Richard Wood, of Fota House repute, and who organised an exhibition and conference on the legacy of the Hill dynasty at Fota House in 2005, for Cork\u2019s year in the sun as European Capital of Culture.<\/p>\n

Wood recalls that Myrtle Allen had often told him she had regretted not following in her father\u2019s footsteps, and hopes that a book such as this might come out by her 90th birthday.<\/p>\n

She lived to 94, and while this publication eluded her, her imprint remains in its exceptional presentation. As it does in one of two aptly-chosen anecdotes, such as her recall of her father, Henry Houghton Hill, opening a copy of the Cork Examiner the day after the burning of Cork in December 1920, only to ask his wife if she wanted the good news, or the bad news, first?<\/p>\n

The good news was valuable rebuild commissions for Cork\u2019s architects, including his own practice.<\/p>\n

\"CashCash cow? Henry Houghton Hill got the commission for Cash’s (now Brown Thomas) after the Burning of Cork in December 1920, built\u00a0 1925-26 (photo: Examiner Archive)<\/p>\n

Turns out, HHH got the commission to design Cash\u2019s, now Brown Thomas, and, ironically, it was news to this reporter to discover that Hill also designed the fa\u00e7ade of 95 Patrick St, the former offices of the Cork Examiner, with three generations of my own family having worked inside the same Patrick St\/Academy St building. Didn\u2019t ever know who to thank for its peculiar cocoon. I do now, albeit a bit late in the day.<\/p>\n

\"CorkCork College of Commerce,\u00a0 (now Cork College of Further Education & Training), Morrison\u2019s Island, Cork \u2014 designed by Henry Houghton Hill, 1937 (photo: John O’Regan) with further floor added by O’Riordan Staehli architects in 2000<\/p>\n

Other buildings of HHH\u2019s output include the Coliseum, the Arcadia, the School of Commerce, and AIB at 63-66 South Mall, that neo-classical bastion of banking, which he had worked on with his father, Arthur Hill, and with its vast central banking hall dome.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"MyrtleMyrtle Allen launched Dr Tom Spalding’s Guide to Cork’s 20th Century Architecture in 2010:\u00a0 Her grandfather Arthur and her father Henry Hill were architects\u00a0 for No 66 South Mall. Picture: Dan Linehan<\/p>\n

But, which Hill family member did which building across Cork, and beyond the county, over 13 decades?<\/p>\n

There was a William Hill; a William Henry Hill; a Richard Arthur Hill; and a William Henry Hill 11 on one side of the family tree (there were two Hill practices).<\/p>\n

On the other, a Henry Hill; an Arthur Hill, and his son, Henry Houghton Hill.<\/p>\n

\"SixSix of the best: the Hill family had six architects across three generations \u2013 William Hill (1798-1844), Henry Hill (1807-1887), William Henry Hill I (1837-1911), Arthur Hill (1846-1921), William Henry Hill II (1867-1941), Henry Houghton Hill (1882-1951) (photos courtesy Hill Archive)<\/p>\n

Interestingly, HHH was the only one of six architects in the clan to receive formal training in the profession, getting a RIBA Silver Medal for a paper referring to \u2019a tidal wave of progress\u2019\u2026 just before the First World War.<\/p>\n

\"ArthurArthur Hill oversaw much of the 1902 Cork International Exhibition, including the concert hall,\u00a0 held on the south bank of the River Lee (now Fitzgerald\u2019s Park \/ UCC Mardyke Sports Grounds) (photo: Examiner Archive)<\/p>\n

In a foreword to this labour-of-love book, Colin Hill, a grandson of William Henry Hill, relates walking\/research tours of Cork city with historian\/author Dagmar \u00d3 Riain-Raedel and his cousin, the redoubtable Myrtle. She acknowledged \u201cthe gentle rivalry\u2019 between the family\u2019s two design firms and, as she swung a stick at various sides of Cork\u2019s streets and buildings, would assert, \u201cThat\u2019s a Willie,\u201d \u201cThat\u2019s an Arthur.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"HiberniaHibernia and Victoria Buildings by Arthur Hill 1883\/1898, (now Isaacs hotel, Isaacs restaurant and other occupiers on MacCurtain Street. (Photo: Neil Setchfield)<\/p>\n

Even admirers of hilly city Cork\u2019s fairly small trove of decent design and build heritage (other families with enormous contributions to classical design included, of course, the Pain brothers, and the Deanes, who got some of the grandest commissions) will struggle to keep up with which Hill to correctly credit for a favourite building, little or large.<\/p>\n

\"AA number of Cork city’s ESB sub-stations were drawn by Henry H Hill\u00a0 1948-50 (photo: John O’Regan)<\/p>\n

Little matter. This book lays lots out, with clarity and authority. Most helpfully, a Hill family tree is sketched on p13, and it\u2019s little surprise to see a raft of Ballymaloe enterprises acknowledged on a dedication page to Myrtle Allen (1924-2018) as \u2018generous\u2019 sponsors.<\/p>\n

\"StSt Mary Shandon,\u00a0 Shanakiel Road, Cork \u2014 designed by William Henry Hill Snr, 1879 (photo: Examiner Archive)<\/p>\n

The first 150 pages, Changing the Face of Cork: The Legacy of the Hill Family, are authored by Dagmar \u00d3 Riain-Raedel, with Richard Wood highlighting the Hill architectural archive, with sketches, drawings, floor plans, and elevations of buildings. Many are familiar, some were never built, with coloured images\/water colours, some so lovely you\u2019d want to cut them out and frame them (don\u2019t).<\/p>\n

This book arrived, unbidden, to this writer just a week ago, prompting the recall of Myrtle Allen\u2019s several kind notes (we never met) and inspiring all sorts of walks down memory lane and into so many buildings that I\u2019ve visited (including Arthur Hill\u2019s own remarkable former home, Redgarth, on the Douglas Road), or along streetscapes like MacCurtain Street, which is chock-full of red brick Hills.<\/p>\n

\"Redgarth,Redgarth, the former private home of Arthur Hill, on the Douglas Road<\/p>\n

These include Arthur Hill\u2019s Victoria and Hibernia Buildings (now Isaac\u2019s etc) and, the icing on top, the 1897-completed Metropole Hotel, an elaborate confection in brick offset by white limestone.<\/p>\n

Ironically, this \u2018temperance hotel\u2019, proudly commissioned by the Musgrave family, only started serving alcohol in the 1950s\u2026.and it was where this writer had a teenage summer bar job over 50 years ago, knowing the bottle store better than its brick bay windows, art nouveau mosaics, and turret.<\/p>\n

Is there anything new under the sun?<\/p>\n

When designing the Metropole (to be in best Youghal brick) in 1893, Arthur Hill wrote that \u201cthe situation will be further enhanced by the electric tramway system about to be introduced into the city, as the route proposed to be taken will pass by the hotel door\u201d.<\/p>\n

What might, some day, in the near or distant future, pass by the same hotel\u2019s front door?<\/p>\n

Yes, you guessed it:, MacCurtain Street is a stop on the proposed route of the Cork LUAS.<\/p>\n

\"HillsHills brought to book: three generations of a family have left their mark across Cork city.<\/p>\n

What goes around, comes around, in it own sweet time. This long overdue book has, thankfully, arrived at least.<\/p>\n

The Hill Architects: a Cork Architectural Dynasty, 1827 \u2013 1951 is sumptuously illustrated and is published by architecture and art specialist Kinsale-based Gandon Editions, who have produced 400 titles since the 1980s; 320pp, \u20ac39, available via bookshops or from gandoneditions.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PRIDE in a family member\u2019s profession can be justified: A nurse, or doctor as a parent,\u00a0 for example,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":417655,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[307,304,305,306,79,308,93,61,60],"class_list":["post-417654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-cork-news","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/417655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}