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7 Eccles Street was a row house in
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...
, Ireland.
It was the home of
Leopold Bloom
Leopold Bloom is the fictional protagonist and hero of James Joyce's 1922 novel ''Ulysses''. His peregrinations and encounters in Dublin on 16 June 1904 mirror, on a more mundane and intimate scale, those of Ulysses/Odysseus in Homer's epic poe ...
, protagonist of the novel ''
Ulysses
Ulysses is one form of the Roman name for Odysseus, a hero in ancient Greek literature.
Ulysses may also refer to:
People
* Ulysses (given name), including a list of people with this name
Places in the United States
* Ulysses, Kansas
* Ulysse ...
'' (1922) by
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of ...
.
The house was demolished in 1967, and the site is now occupied by the
Mater Private Hospital
The Mater Private Hospital ( ga, Ospidéal Príobháideach an Mater) is a private hospital business. Its main hospital is located just to the east of the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital in Dublin, Ireland. In addition to the main hospital ...
.
History
In 1769 Isaac Ambrose Eccles leased a parcel of land on the north side of Eccles Street to Daniel Goodwin, carpenter.
This became the site of numbers 6–8 Eccles Street.
John Darley, stone-cutter, leased the adjoining land, the site of numbers 1–5.
The two men seem to have collaborated in building a row of houses, each wide, with three storeys above a basement.
Margaret Reed acquired the property at 7 Eccles Street from Goodwin on 29 April 1771, along with Numbers 6 and 8 (the entire premises measuring 60 feet fronting Eccles Street with 200 feet to the rear).
From the mid 19th century the wealthier residents of Dublin began to move further from the city center, and the houses in the area often had multiple occupancy.
Before
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
(1914–18) the street was still part of a quiet, respectable middle-class neighborhood.
In 1904 the house was not occupied, so Joyce was able to make it Bloom's home.
7 Eccles Street was designated "Tenements" in ''
Thom's Directory'' in 1937, indicating a very poor condition.
In 1958 the building was occupied by seven very poor families.
Flora H. Mitchell painted 7 Eccles Street in the 1960s.
Anthony Burgess
John Anthony Burgess Wilson, (; 25 February 1917 – 22 November 1993), who published under the name Anthony Burgess, was an English writer and composer.
Although Burgess was primarily a comic writer, his dystopian satire ''A Clockwork ...
spent three days in February 1965 with a film crew to make part of a
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
television program on Joyce.
The building was abandoned, with holes in the roof and windows at the rear gutted.
The house at 7 Eccles Street, now owned by the Dominican College, was demolished in April 1967.
In July 1975 the property and others beside it were sold to the Mater Hospital Pools Society.
Visit by Joyce
Joyce first saw the row of three-story brick houses when he visited his friend John Francis Byrne at 7 Eccles Street in 1909.
Byrne was a friend of Joyce from their college days, a journalist and amateur numerologist.
Joyce visited him one day in 1909 in a very emotional state over a rumor about
Nora Barnacle
Nora Barnacle (21 March 1884 – 10 April 1951) was the muse and wife of Irish author James Joyce. Barnacle and Joyce had their first romantic assignation in 1904 on a date celebrated worldwide as the "Bloomsday" of his modernist novel '' ...
's infidelities.
Byrne was able to calm him down and he stayed for dinner and then for the night.
Byrne lived at 7 Eccles Street for two years, then emigrated to the United States.
Novel
The novel describes one day in the life of Leopold Bloom, 16 June 1904.
Bloom is an advertising salesman.
He makes tea and toast for his wife, Molly, then leaves the house to get a kidney for his own breakfast.
He leaves the door ajar, because he had left his latch key in his trousers in the "creaky wardrobe" and does not want to disturb his wife.
The novel continues, describing a day in the life of a modern
Ulysses
Ulysses is one form of the Roman name for Odysseus, a hero in ancient Greek literature.
Ulysses may also refer to:
People
* Ulysses (given name), including a list of people with this name
Places in the United States
* Ulysses, Kansas
* Ulysse ...
, a family man whose wife is being unfaithful.
When he retires to bed in 7 Eccles Street that evening he has to remove crumbs of
potted meat
Potted meat is a form of traditional food preservation in which hot cooked meat is placed in a pot, tightly packed to exclude air, and then covered with hot fat. As the fat cools, it hardens and forms an airtight seal, preventing some spoilage by ...
from the bedclothes, presumably left there by Molly and her lover.
Relics
Before the house was completely demolished
John Ryan, a Dublin artist and writer who had organized the first
Bloomsday
Bloomsday is a commemoration and celebration of the life of Irish writer James Joyce, observed annually in Dublin and elsewhere on 16 June, the day his 1922 novel '' Ulysses'' takes place in 1904, the date of his first sexual encounter with his ...
in 1954, managed to rescue the front door and the surrounding brickwork.
He installed it in his pub, the Bailey, a rendezvous for Dublin writers.
In 1995 the door was moved to the
James Joyce Centre
The James Joyce Centre is a museum and cultural centre in Dublin, Ireland, dedicated to promoting an understanding of the life and works of James Joyce. It opened to the public in June 1996.
The centre is situated in a restored 18th-century G ...
on North Great George's Street.
The door knocker had been removed by a visitor from New York just before the house was demolished.
In June 2013 he returned to Dublin at the James Joyce Centre's expense and restored the knocker to the door.
Notes
Citations
Sources
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{{DEFAULTSORT:7 Eccles Street
Buildings and structures in Dublin (city)
Ulysses (novel)
Fictional houses
Buildings and structures demolished in 1967