Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Architect, of Limerick. William Clifford Smith, son of John C. Smith, draper, and his wife, Lucy, was born in 1881 or 1882 in Poole, Dorset.  At the time of the English census of 1901 he was a nineteen-year-old architect's pupil, living with his parents at Sunnyside, Kingston Road, Longfleet, Poole.  He was presumably articled to a local architect.(1)  He appears to have settled in Limerick after winning the competition for designing the Shannon Rowing Club at Limerick in 1902. While he does not appear in the  Irish census of 1901, by the time of the 1911 census he was boarding in the house of a widow, Elizabeth McCarthy, in Ennis Road, Limerick.  He may have served in the Royal Engineers during the First World War.(2) He formed a short-lived partnership with - Gelson circa 1925 but in 1928 formed a new partnership with Edward Newenham, which lasted until his death on 27 June 1954.(3) The practice, which continued to go by the name of Clifford Smith & Newenham, amalgamated with the Dublin practice of Dermot Mulligan in 1968 to become Newenham Mulligan & Associates.(4)

William Clifford Smith was married and had a daughter, Doreen, who married Charles Johnston in 1937.(5)

Address:  Work: 75 O'Connell Street , Limerick.
Home: Ennis Road, Limerick, 1911;  Northesk, Lansdowne, Limerick, <=1937(6) until death.

See WORKS (includes works by Clifford Smith & Newenham up until 1940 only).



References



(1) Possibly Henry F.J. Barnes, architect, surveyor and estate agent, of Poole.
(2) Information from Tom Smyth, Limerick.
(3) Irish Times, 28 June 1954.
(4) Information from Newenham, Mulligan & Associates, Dublin.
(5) Irish Times, 10 Sep 1937.
(6) See note 5, above.


22 work entries listed in chronological order for SMITH, WILLIAM CLIFFORD


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Building: CO. LIMERICK, LIMERICK, SHANNON ROWING CLUB
Date: 1902
Nature: WCS winner of competition for same. Contractor: Michael Gough, Limerick. Completed 1905 or 1906. Cost £2,000.
Refs: Holly Bough (Cork Examiner, 1966), 46; Jim Kemmy & Larry Walsh, Limerick in old picture postcards (1997), No. 82 (illus.); information from Newenham Mulligan & Associates

Building: CO. LIMERICK, ADARE, VILLAGE HALL
Date: 1910
Nature: 'The original scheme for the hall survives as a drawing, a brilliant adaptation of Voysey's idiom to a communal building by the English architect, Clifford Smith, working in Limerick.  What was built in 1911 is much more conventional...'.  For 4th Earl of Dunraven.
Refs: J. Williams, Companion guide to Architecture in Ireland 1837-1921 (1994), 264

Building: CO. LIMERICK, LIMERICK, NORTH STRAND, HOUSES (002)
Date: 1911
Nature: Pair of villas. Contractor: Sullivan & Sons.
Refs: IA & C 1, 4 Mar 1911, 75

Building: CO. LIMERICK, LIMERICK, CINEMA
Date: 1911
Nature: Conversion of skating rink into a cinema.(See CO. LIMERICK,, LIMERICK, WELLESLEY PLACE, ROLLER SKATING RINK.)
Refs: IA & C 1, 15 Apr 1911, 159

Building: CO. LIMERICK, LIMERICK, WELLESLEY PLACE, ROLLER SKATING RINK
Date: 1911
Nature: New roller skating rink. Contractor: D. Sullivan & Sons.(later converted into cinema? See LIM, LIMERICK, CINEMA.)
Refs: IB 51, 21 Aug,27 Nov 1909, 533,755

Building: CO. LIMERICK, LIMERICK, ENNIS ROAD, HOUSE
Date: 1911
Nature: New house. Contractor: O'Sullivan & Sons.
Refs: IA & C 1, 28 Jan 1911, 13

Building: CO. LIMERICK, BALLINACURRA, HOUSE
Date: 1911
Nature: New house.
Refs: IA & C 1, 15 Apr 1911, 158

Building: CO. CLARE, RAHEEN MANOR (SCARIFF)
Date: 1911
Nature: Extensive alts. & adds.
Refs: IA & C 1, 1 Apr 1911, 131

Building: CO. LIMERICK, LIMERICK, LIMERICK STEAMSHIP CO.
Date: 1922
Nature: New premises. Contractor: Kenny & Sons.
Refs: IB 64, 4 Nov 1922, 748

Building: CO. WATERFORD, DUNGARVAN, MEAGHER STREET, PROVINCIAL BANK
Date: 1924
Nature: Renovation & improvement. Contracter: P. Costen & Son, Waterford.
Refs: IB 66, 9 Feb 1924, 102

Building: CO. LIMERICK, KILFINANE, BARRACKS
Date: 1925
Nature: Reconstruction. With - Gelson.
Refs: IB 67, 13 Jun 1925, 480

Building: CO. KERRY, KILLARNEY, MAIN STREET, PROVINCIAL BANK
Date: 1925-26
Nature: New premises. Contractor: Michael White, O'Curry St, Limerick.
Refs: IB 67, 22 Aug 1925, 697; 68, 9 Jan 1926, 28

Building: CO. CORK, MALLOW, PROVINCIAL BANK
Date: 1926
Nature: Heating installed by Maguire & Gatchell in new(?) premises.
Refs: IB 68, 16 Oct 1926, 788

Building: CO. LIMERICK, ABBEYFEALE, MAIN STREET, PROVINCIAL BANK
Date: 1927
Nature: New bank.  Site with 50ft frontage acquired in Main Street, 1921.
Refs: Drawing(s) in AIB archives;  Irish Times, 7 Apr 1921.

Building: CO. LIMERICK, LIMERICK, WILLIAM STREET, PROVINCIAL BANK
Date: 1930
Nature: New single-storey over basement bank on corner site. Red Ruabon facing bricks and artificial stone (made locally by contractors), flat concrete roof.  Contractors: D.O'Sullivan & Sons, O'Curry St, Limerick.
Refs: Irish Times, 27 Nov 1930 (illus.)

Building: CO. LIMERICK, LIMERICK, CASTLETROY, COOLEEN
Date: 1936
Nature: New house in International Modern style by Clifford Smith & Newenham for Victor Hewson.
Refs: Ethna Le Masney, 'The International Style comes to Limerick', Architecture Ireland 214 (Feb 2006), 78-79(illus.).

Building: CO. LIMERICK, LIMERICK, CASTLETROY, SUNNINGHILL
Date: 1937
Nature: New house in International Modern style by Clifford Smith & Newenham for Richard Hewson.
Refs: Ethna Le Masney, 'The International Style comes to Limerick', Architecture Ireland 214 (Feb 2006), 78-79(illus.);  Paul Larmour, Free State Architecture:  Modern Movement architecture in Ireland, 1922-1949 (Kinsale: Gandon Editions, 2009), 56(illus.),57.

Building: CO. LIMERICK, LIMERICK, CASTLETROY, YOMA
Date: 1937
Nature: New house in International Modern style by Clifford Smith & Newenham for - Ashton.
Refs: Ethna Le Masney, 'The International Style comes to Limerick', Architecture Ireland 214 (Feb 2006), 79(illus.)

Building: CO. LIMERICK, LIMERICK, CASTLETROY, GARRYKNOCK
Date: 1937
Nature: New house in international modern style by Clifford Smith & Newenham .
Refs: Ethna Le Masney, 'The International Style comes to Limerick', Architecture Ireland 214 (Feb 2006), 78(illus.)

Building: CO. LIMERICK, LIMERICK, CASTLETROY, COOLTARA
Date: 1937
Nature: New house in International Modern style by Clifford Smith & Newenham for Vivian St Clare Gloster.
Refs: Ethna Le Masney, 'The International Style comes to Limerick', Architecture Ireland 214 (Feb 2006), 78(illus.)

Building: CO. LIMERICK, ADARE MANOR
Date: ?
Nature: 'Garden houses by Clifford Smith.'
Refs: J. Williams, Companion guide to Architecture in Ireland 1837-1921 (1994), 263.

Building: CO. LIMERICK, ADARE, HOUSES
Date: ?
Nature: 'There are further village houses in the same rustic idiom, such as the present Mustard Seed Restaurant that blends with its thatched neighbours so well that it is difficult to think of Smith as an architect in his own right...'.  For 4th Earl of Dunraven.
Refs: J. Williams, Companion guide to Architecture in Ireland 1837-1921 (1994), 264

Author Title Date Details
Le Masney, Ethna 'The International Style comes to Limerick' 2006 Architecture Ireland 214 (Feb 2006), 78-79.