Hawkins House, with the Screen Cinema, was built on the site of the Theatre Royal which sat on the corner of Hawkins Street and Townsend Street. Hawkins House is on the corner of Poolbeg Street and Hawkins Street and was built between 1962 and 1964. It was the first of a set of buildings erected on this block, including Apollo House in 1969, the Screen Cinema in 1972 and College House in 1974. The building was the former Department of Health headquarters.[2]
Along with College House, Hawkins House was sold for £12 million in 1984.[3]
Architecture
The building was designed by English architect, Sir Thomas Bennett, and developed by the Rank Organisation. The 12-storey block had two curtain walls with two concrete slab facades. With O'Connell Bridge House, the impact of the height and bulk of Hawkins House led to the Dublin Corporation re-evaluating the guidelines around building height in the city.[3]
Demolition
The building was considered to be one of the ugliest in Dublin,[4][5] being voted the worst building in Dublin in 1998.[6] Permission was granted to demolish the block in 2017,[7] with the demolition planned to take a year from 2020. It was the last of the modern structures on the block to be razed.[2]
^ abMcDonald, Frank (1985). The destruction of Dublin. Dublin: Gill and Macmillan. pp. 39–42. ISBN0717113868.
^Casey, Christine (2005). Dublin : the city within the Grand and Royal Canals and the Circular Road with the Phoenix Park. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press. p. 460. ISBN9780300109238.
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