George Edmund Street and the restoration of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin

Roger Stalley, editor

The English architect George Edmund Street was immensely proud of his restoration of the medieval cathedral of Christ Church. He believed he had saved the building from further dilapidation and had reinstated the fabric to its authentic medieval form. But what exactly did Street mean by 'restoration' and what did audiences at the time make of his achievement? Professor Stalley provides an absorbing anthology of contemporary documents which includes not only Street's own justification for what he did but also the responses of the local populace in Dublin, responses which ranged from uncritical admiration to vitriolic condemnation.