Papers of James Meenan – Move of UCD to Belfield

8 U.C.D. and the Future

Indeed, quite close to the College, the whole area south of Harcourt Road stretching to the Canal and extending from Peter's Place to Charlemont Street is essentially an area in poor condition which will have to be cleared and the inhabitants rehoused either elsewhere or in flats on the same site.

Further, the shopping streets within this general area, Merrion Row, Lr. Leeson Street, Charlemont Street, are of relatively low value as compared with principal shopping streets in a capital city -- a consideration, if any such streets had to be acquired for university expansion.

It is not of course suggested that the public squares named above should be built on, but that buildings in their vicinity should gradually be acquired for university and other cultural and educational requirements.

Misleading Comparisons

In its Report (p.34) the Commission says -- 'in the English and Danish universities we visited we found that the authorities were dealing with problems similar to that of Dublin.' The universities visited were Birmingham, Manchester, Nottingham, Reading, and in Denmark, Copenhagen and Aarhus. The commission also made use of information supplied by the universities in Wales, Edinburgh, Exeter, Liverpool, Sheffield and Southampton. We believe that it is misleading to assert that the problem in Dublin is similar to that in these cities. Only one capital city was visited -- Copenhagen -- where the old university was situated in the densely built-up old part of the city. In this case we are told also (Report p. 34) that 'details of the area of the sites of the University of Copenhagen are not yet available to the Commission.' Aarhus is a provincial University of 1800 students.

The conditions in the British industrial cities bear no comparison with those in Dublin. A description written about those very universities mentioned by the Commission -- 'buildings frequently dingy and cramped and sometimes sordid, set in an environment of smoke and slums' -- could never be applied to Dublin. Overcrowding of incompleted buildings we have -- and that can be relieved on the present sites -- but sordidness and smoke and slums we most decidedly have not in our general university area.

In none of the cities mentioned by the Commission is there a cultural and educational complex such as we have in the university area of Dublin. Those few British universities which are moving out to a campus site in the suburbs are in no case leaving an area which houses a second university with a worldfamous copyright library, a National Library, Gallery and Museum and the headquarters of so many professional institutes.

Dublin's great good fortune in the matter of its centrally situated university area has frequently been the subject of envious comment. We have quoted two such recent comments in our Appendix J.

Further, as the authorities of U.C.D. have frequently pointed out, the College may be regarded as the direct successor of Newman's Catholic University. The present site is associated both with Newman's effort and other Irish aspirations after university education.

Taking the above facts together, a university in any other capital Dublin|city would

Dublin's University Area 9

consider itself very fortunate in having such opportunities for development, nor would powers of compulsory purchase be denied to it, if required.

The Cultural and Educational Complex

The existence of the many institutions in this area must be taken into account:

1. The principal museums, galleries, and the National Library. 2. Trinity College, Dublin. 3. Various other cultural, professional and educational bodies (e.g. Institute for Advanced Studies, Catholic Central Library, Royal Irish Academy, Royal College of Physicians, Royal College of Surgeons, Royal Institute of Architects, Royal Society of Antiquries). 4. Several university hostels, under Catholic ecclesiastical control (see Appendix D for a list). 5. A great deal of other property under esslesiastical and/or educational control. Much of this consists of schools inadequately housed in converted dwelling houses and falling below modern standards and requirements for such schools (See Appendix D.) 6. The Houses of the Oireachtas, which are inadequately provided for, and Government offices which are expanding.

This whole complex of Government, university, cultural and educational establishments should be considered as a whole and no one aspect of it (such as the needs of U.C.D.) can be properly studied without taking into consideration all the factors involved in the planning of this area. One can, however, say straight away that to dismember this complex, by removing U.C.D. from it, is the least happy of solutions.

If the removal of U.C.D. from the area presented a final solution to the other conflicting problems that exist within it, then there would be that much extra to recommend the move. But it does not present such a solution. Now is the time to ask what is the final solution to be aimed at in providing adequately for the needs of:

The Houses of the Oireachtas The Government departments The National Museums and Gallery The National Library The National College of Art The Institute for Advanced Studies The many schools in the area Trinity College

Government Offices

One possible solution to many of these problems would be a Government decision to remove the Houses of the Oireachtas and at least some of the Government offices to another site. Kilmainham has often been mentioned, and the site there is large enough to provide for a single solution. The difficulty

66 U.C.D. and the Future

Appendix F

DETAILS OF THE HARCOURT STREET STATION SITE

Taken from the advertisements of sale which appeared in the national press during April and May 1959

The whole block was to be offered first as one lot and failing a sale as such, then, in the following six lots:--

LOT 1 A warehouse premises of 17,460 sq. ft. approx. together with uncovered space of 34,740 sq. ft. approx. This property is leased to The Irish Dunlop Co. Ltd. for a term of 10 years from the 1st March, 1953, subject to £1,600 per annum. The tenants are responsible for all rates (R.V.., £360) and repairs. Held by Vendors in fee-simple.

LOT 2 Ground and buildings thereon at Adelaide Road leased to Auto Services Ltd. for a term of 21 years from the 1st January, 1949, subject to £400 per annum. The tenants are responsible for all rates (R.V. £320) and repairs.

LOT 3 Ground and buildings thereon at 57b Harcourt Street (corner of Harcourt Road and Harcourt Street) leased to Auto Services Ltd. for 99 years from the 4th September 1945, subject to £255 per annum. The tenants are responsible for all rates (R.V. £270) and repairs. These premises now comprise a modern Garage and Filling Station. Held by Vendors, in Fee-simple.

LOT 4 Building at Hatch Street, leased to Messrs. Wilson & Co. Ltd., for a term of 99 years from the 17th December 1957, subject to £156 per annum. The tenants are responsible for all rates. Held by Vendors, in Fee-simple.

LOT 5 Vaults under the station. These vaults extend to about 80,100 sq. ft. leased to Messrs. W. & A. Gilbey Ltd., for a term of 42 years from the 29th September 1926, subject to £1,000 per annum. The tenants are responsible for all rates (R.V. £280) and repairs.

The tenants have liberty to surrender their tenancy every seven years, calculated from the 29th September 1926 -- i.e., next date, 29th September 1961. Held by Vendors, in Fee-simple.

LOT 6 Station Premises, Complete Vacant Possession, Entrance from Harcourt Street and Adelaide Road.

Covered Area, 27,500 sq. ft. approximately. Uncovered Area, 63,500 sq. ft. approximately.

These extensive premises, with their distinctive and valuable frontage to Harcourt Street, comprise one of the most important properties to come on the market for many years. Its prominent location on a main thoroughfare, within a few hundred yards of the city centre, makes this a city landmark, with exceptional advertising value. Held by Vendors, in Fee-simple.

At the public auction on 12th June '59, the whole of the above property was sold as one lot for a sum of £67,500.

Appendices 67

Appendix G

Extract from an address of SIR ERIC ASHBY, D.Sc., Sc.D., LL.D., D.L.C. sometime Vice-Chancellor of Queens Univerity, Belfast, to a Symposium on the Design of Teaching Laboratories in Universities and Colleges of Advanced Technology, held on 14th March, 1958, at the R.I.B.A., London.

Before I take visitors round my university I always explain that we are desperately short of space. Then as we walk round I am always dismayed and embarrassed to find most of the laboratories empty. This is the unsolved problem. As teaching laboratories are designed at present, the efficiency of plant-utilisation (as the Americans would call it) is deplorably low.

Here are some figures to illustrate the problem. The largest laboratory in a science department is the elementary laboratory. It is academically more efficient and it saves the time of the teaching staff if all elementary students can do their practical work at the same time. But the elementary class in (say) chemistry does only six hours practical work a week for two terms. In other science subjects the amount of elementary practical work may be even less. Now the university is 'open' from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on five days a week and from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays. This menas that the 'plant' is available for its purpose for a 44-hour week. There are about 23 working weeks in the year. If we subtract lunch hours over 23 weeks it leaves us with a net availability of 897 hours per year. These laboratories are occupied by students for only 108 hours a year; a 'plantutilisation-efficiency' of 12 per cent. For 88 per cent of the university's opening time those laboratories will be empty.

The Scottish universities and some universities in England still have large elementary classes. Other English universities begin their courses at the post-intermediate stage, and it might be thought that the problem of inefficient utilisation vanishes beyond the elementary stage of teaching. But this is not so. Many advanced courses do not require more than 12 hours a week in the laboratory for 22 weeks. This amount of 264 hours a year: a 'plant-efficiency' of 29 per cent. In brief, it is only the honours student in the last year of his course who occupies the laboratory for anything like most of the time it is available.

Let me illustrate this problem by one detailed example. In concerns a modern geology separtment, and I include now not only the classes for geologists but all held in the laboratories. The buildings contain (in addition to private rooms, lecture rooms, workshop and stores, and a seminar-library room) three main laboratories: one for elementary students and two (one for palaeontology ad stratigraphy, and one for petrology and mineralogy) for advanced students. The use of the laboratories is summarised in the accompanying table.