Dublin Artisans' Dwellings Company known as DADC was a semi-philanthropic private enterprise established to build better quality housing in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

History

The Dublin Artisans' Dwellings Company (DADC) was founded in June 1876 in response to the shortage of suitable housing for the working class in Dublin at affordable rents. It specifically aimed to build housing for those in full-time employment in artisan occupations and other trades. The founders of the DADC were

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...

and

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

businessmen, including the

Guinness family The Guinness family is an extensive Irish family known for its achievements in brewing, banking, politics, and religious ministry. The brewing branch is particularly well known among the general public for producing the dry stout beer Guinnes ...

, paying out small dividends to its shareholders. Among the directors of the DADC was William Findlater. The company raised capital through selling shares and government loans. Its offices were built at 12-13 South William Street circa 1906. The DADC was most active in building during the 1880s and 1890s, initially buildings flats, but these did not prove popular. With modest funds, the DADC bought land at low cost, for example from

Dublin Corporation Dublin Corporation (), known by generations of Dubliners simply as ''The Corpo'', is the former name of the city government and its administrative organisation in Dublin since the 1100s. Significantly re-structured in 1660–1661, even more si ...

for cost price. Their housing developments were popular, consisting of single-storey cottages and two-storey terraced houses. As a cost saving measure, a small number of housing designs were used repeatedly across different building schemes. The DADC selected their tenants, who were predominantly Protestant, with a large number of

Dublin Metropolitan Police The Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP) was the police force of Dublin in History of Ireland (1801–1923), British-controlled Ireland from 1836 to 1922 and then the Irish Free State until 1925, when it was absorbed into the new state's Garda Sío ...

and army among their tenants. Between 1879 and 1908, the company built 3,300 homes for 16,000 tenants. The rents were always considered competitively high. The DADC's building projects were placed on hold during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, and were delayed in recommencing due to later rent strikes, with 3 further developments built between 1929 and 1933. Facing competition from local authority housing, the DADC started to sell off its houses from 1961 and concentrated on investing in commercial property. The last of the houses were sold in 1979, and the company was renamed DAD Properties LTD. It was taken over by Rohan Holdings in 1984. The archive of the DADC is held in the

Irish Architectural Archive The Irish Architectural Archive was established in 1976 by Dr Edward McParland and Nicholas Robinson as the National Trust Archive. Its objective is to collect and preserve material of every kind relating to the architecture of Ireland, and mak ...

Notable developments

* Buckingham Buildings, purpose built tenements on Buckingham Street Upper (1876) * Crampton Buildings, Temple Bar (1891) * The Echlin Buildings, built 1878 on Echlin Street *

Harold's Cross Harold's Cross () is an affluent urban village and inner suburb on the south side of Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland in the postal district List of Dublin postal districts, D6W. The River Poddle runs through it, though largely in an underg ...

Cottages (1884) * Temple Buildings, built 1978 on Dominick Street Upper

References

{{History of Dublin Companies based in Dublin (city) Property companies of Ireland Companies established in 1876 Companies disestablished in 1984 1876 establishments in Ireland 1984 disestablishments in Ireland