1851 – St. Maries of the Isle Mercy Convent, Sharman Crawford St., Cork

Architect: William Atkins

0008

Published in The Building News, December 7 1850. Constructed in red sandstone with limestone dressings. The proposed spire was never completed. Described at the time of constructed as: “This building now in course of erection, will comprise a house of mercy, affording a home to a number of young women of good character, temporarily out of employment.”

“Saint Marie’s of the Isle, a Convent of the Sisters of Mercy, Cork, of which we give an engraving, is now being erected from the designs and under the superintendence of Mr. William Atkins, architect. The building contains an establishment for 40 nuns, an orphanage for 60 girls, a house of mercy with accommodation for 70 servants, a poor-school for 400 children, and a school for the daughters of the more respectable-class. Under a tower at the north-west end of the front is an entrance for visitors, leading into a spacious gallery, communicating with the receptionrooms, appropriated to the instruction of servants, and the cloister of the convent. The other portion of the ground floor is occupied by the entrance for the sisters, the chapterroom, refectory of large dimensions with an open roof. The choir for the nuns, opening into the chapel, has two cut stone arches filled with screens.

The tower and spire are to be 180 feet high*. The first floor contains the community-room, 40 feet by 22 feet; noviciate, 34 feet by 22 1 feet; private school-room, hospital, cells, &c. The upper floor is occupied by all the sleeping-rooms or cells, with a gallery extending the entire length of the building, intersected by a transverse one. The style of architecture is that which prevailed at the end of the 13th and in the early part of the 14th century, and is being executed with rubble masonry and chiselled limestone dressings. The joists of the ceilings of the principal apartments are open and wrought, resting on templets supported by corbels.

* The upper part of spire is omitted in the view to admit of a larger scale for the rest of the building.” The Builder, December 7 1850.