Dublin’s teeming slums, long regarded as the worst in Europe, were teetering on the brink of structural and sanitary public catastrophe during the early twentieth century. To tackle the crisis, Herbert Simms was appointed the city’s first housing architect. During a sixteen-year period, from 1932 until 1948, Simms and his team planned, commissioned and built an astounding 17,000 homes –some as inner-city flat complexes, others as family houses in newly-created suburbs such as Crumlin and Cabra.

Like the city’s acclaimed Georgian squares, the Simms-designed Corporation flats in particular have stood the test of time, injecting a touch of art deco and modernist glamour to neglected neighbourhoods. This comprehensive guide to the Simms buildings also highlights the many struggles with politicians and bureaucrats Simms and his staff experienced as they did their best to build well-designed, affordable housing for the people of Dublin.

Simms’ legacy lies not just in the beauty of the buildings he designed and their impact on the urban landscape, but in teaching us that housing can be built to last. By telling his story, there can be hope that Irish architecture is treasured rather than treated as disposable.

There is considerable discussion about the architectural evolution and merits of the schemes designed by Simms and his colleagues in this well-indexed book, but its greatest gift is a renewal of that simple but seemingly
unsurmountable challenge. When this republic was barely solvent our grandparents could deliver enviable social housing: why can’t we do more?

Simms’ legacy lies not just in the beauty of the buildings he designed and their impact on the urban landscape, but in teaching us that housing can be built to last. By telling his story, there can be hope that Irish architecture is treasured rather than treated as disposable.

There is considerable discussion about the architectural evolution and merits of the schemes designed by Simms and his colleagues in this well-indexed book, but its greatest gift is a renewal of that simple but seemingly
unsurmountable challenge. When this republic was barely solvent our grandparents could deliver enviable social housing: why can’t we do more?

LINDIE NAUGHTON is a Dublin-based journalist and writer. Her books include Markievicz: A Most Outrageous Rebel; Lady Icarus: The Life of Irish Aviator Lady Mary Heath; Faster, Higher, Stronger: A History of Ireland’s Olympians; Let’s Run: A Handbook for Irish Runners, amongst others.