Going underground: The story of Limerick city's cellars and culverts

(Reposting from RTE) Updated / Tuesday, 2 Sep 2025 16:05 ... Peter Carroll UL

Analysis: Hidden beneath Limerick city's Georgian architecture is a vast network of cellars and culverts with a rich history

Large swathes of Georgian fabric in Limerick City's Newtown Pery have survived for more than 250 years and Newtown Pery’s resilient layout still forms the core of Limerick City life. When you are initially confronted by Newtown Pery you could be deceptively overpowered by what is above the ground. Its grid layout sets you out like a compass and its Georgian architecture is characterised by proportion and balance.

Simple mathematical ratios were used at the time to determine the section of streets in terms of height in relation to width, and again in smaller dimensions such as the height of a window in relation to its width. The parapet roofline was generally unbroken and clear of ornament. Door cases were shaped with semi-circular leaded fanlights, adorned with engaged columns topped by a pediment - the only external ornament, aside from the repeating plaster window reveals across the austere terraced brick facades.

Yet most of the Georgian buildings were designed by builders and landlords together, and the widespread use of an essential, stripped-back Georgian architecture in Limerick came from the mutual sharing of pattern books and inexpensive suites of engravings.

The growing wealth in Limerick from 1750 to 1840 persuaded all walks of life to live in the city. Remarkably, and unlike Dublin’s Georgian Fabric which was shaped by the voids of gardens and squares, Limerick’s Georgian fabric was shaped by a relentless built grid of repeating Georgian blocks. People lived in terraced houses in blocks that also accommodated religious, retail, commercial and industrial uses.

It is this unique and delirious density of uses that is most clearly described by civil engineer and cartographer Charles Goad (1848-1910) in his series of fire insurance maps of Limerick of 1897. The maps were originally produced to aid insurance companies in assessing fire risks.

The building footprints, their uses, the number of floors, their proximity to a water hydrant as well as construction materials (and thus risk of burning) and special fire hazards (chemicals, kilns, ovens) were documented in order to estimate insurance premiums. These maps provide a rich historical snapshot of the commercial activity and urban landscape of Limerick City at the time.

Where a new street or set of streets was developed, the streets and pavements were entirely raised up, and the gardens or yards behind the houses were left close to the original rock level. In effect the new streets and pavements operated as a very purposeful 'raised deck’ over a very extensive infrastructure of barrel-vaulted cellars (originally for coal bunkers fed from the pavement above) as well as central culverts for dealing with waste water outfall from properties.

Terraced houses typically opened straight onto the street, often with a few steps up to the door preceded by an open space or ‘area’, protected by wrought iron railings, dropping down to the basement level, with a discreet entrance down steps off the street for servants and deliveries.

However there is a lot of intelligence in the larger strategy in Newtown Pery. One can speculate that ground rules dictating the vast network of chimney party-walls, cellars and culverts of Limerick’s Georgian grid were planned from the outset. The ‘raised deck’ street system of Georgian Limerick was set out at a purposeful tilt of five degrees set by the original rock level from its highest point at Baker Place towards down to Sarsfield Street that allowed the wastewater in culverts to fall with gravity.

Each culvert was laid in the centre of each street that fell towards the River Shannon where outfalls at the quays were flushed of wastewater with each passing tide. Another interesting fact is that the ownership of the ground beneath this raised deck remained in the private ownership of each terraced property thereby interlocking public and private realms.

The implications of this robust and resilient ground condition continues to inform any decision that is taken about public realm in Limerick City – the subterranean cellars and culverts simply cannot be ignored.

This was made evident in the recent upgrade of William Street where the cellars beneath the street were topped and filled with concrete in order to be able to withstand the weight of buses and delivery vehicles outside shops. The subterranean cellars’ destruction was avoidable and unnecessary.

To avoid further destruction there is an urgent need to consider the innovative future use of such a vast and fascinating network of cellars and culverts across the city’s base layer. Multiple uses jump to mind including maturation of cheese, growing mushrooms, attenuating storm water, accommodating community batteries for backing up excess power generated by residents, managing and sorting waste, encouraging places to gig and play music, and increasing biodiversity on streets by introducing trees – just some of the uses that these cellars could be used for.

With some radical rethinking we can begin to reimagine our city’s public realm where intertwined public and private interests can be absorbed and where we can begin to think again from the ground up. This reimagining can start with the view from beneath Limerick’s footpaths and streets. Our fascinating city depends upon a full understanding and a full use by everyone of this fundamental base going forward.