Dublin’s harbour walls, the Great South Wall (at Ringsend, 1761-1795) and the Bull Wall (at Clontarf, 1800-1825), were constructed to address the problem of constant silting in Dublin Bay and the mouth of the River Liffey by altering the tidal patterns. Over fifty years following their construction, the Liffey mouth more than doubled in depth and the silt deposits began to form into what’s now Bull Island, just off Clontarf.
Along the Bull Wall promenade, there are a series of structures including these modernist concrete bathing shelters, apparently designed by Herbert Simms in 1934* – Simms is best known as a very prolific Housing Architect for Dublin Corporation. The shelters are simple structures providing screening for swimmers to change, elegant and nicely proportioned and providing a generous public amenity. The pale golden yellow colour conjures some fantasies of scorching, endless summers, even making the steel blue sea look quite warm. (It’s not.)
* I’m still hunting for a second source for that.
