ABSTRACT
he great era of building occurred during the second half of the Victorian age, where Dublin's principal streets were gradually lined with 'new and handsome buildings', from banks to insurance offices and libraries. Like other cities on the islands, Dublin's historic urban fabric is characterised by a medieval core, a Georgian heart, and a Victorian periphery. The bourgeois houses are also representative of Dublin's shifting urban politics during the nineteenth century, which propelled a form of 'Unionist flight' to the suburbs. Compared to the eighteenth-century townhouse, which was erected mainly by speculative builders, architects' increasing involvement in domestic design is reflected in Dublin's Victorian streetscapes. Despite the possibilities afforded by an increasingly mechanised age, geology still played a role in influencing the character of Dublin's domestic architecture. In the Victorian age, the semi-detached house first made its appearance on a large scale.
