The Irish Times

Ireland's Georgian cities present a united front, with uniform terraces and squares forming elegant compositions that have brought them world-wide fame. But what lies beneath? Anyone who has been house hunting will have seen some of the horrors to the rear, especially those extensions that were built when no planning permission was required. Gradually, many of these have been pulled down because, quite frankly, a lot of them are unfit for human habitation. Yet the rears of Georgian and Victorian buildings weren't always uniform anyway. As architect Brian O'Donoghue says: "While 18th-century squares in Dublin would have uniform facades, the rears would be built by individual developers and owners, resulting in idiosyncrasies. This is consistent with Georgian trends: the Royal Crescent in Bath has a uniform front, but if you stand behind this you'll see that all the sites were developed individually." In more recent times, extensions have been added to the rears of Irish houses, often in a vain attempt to remain in keeping with the original structure. But as far back as 1965 the Venice Charter stated that new additions to old buildings should be clearly identifiable: pastiche (trying to copy what has gone before) was a no-no among forward-thinking architects.