A while ago I mentioned, in an article I wrote for the Guardian’s Comment is Free, that the commemorative plaque bearing Bram Stoker’s name was missing from the front of no. 30 Kildare Street, in the centre of Dublin. It’s still missing, and, as far as I can tell, no action’s been taken to retrieve it.
30 Kildare Street. The space where the plaque had been attached is visible between the two ground floor windows.
The plaque had been erected by the Bram Stoker Society on 27th July 1983, and Albert Power wrote recently, in his excellent history of the Society that it was ‘without doubt [...] the most significant achievement of the Bram Stoker Society in these early years’. (The Society had formed in 1980, and was based in Trinity College.)
Present at the unveiling were Leslie Shepard, Chairman of the Bram Stoker Society, Ann Stoker, the author’s granddaughter, Ivan Stoker Dixon, great nephew of Stoker, and the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Michael Keating. According to the Irish Times report on the occasion, two coachloads of schoolchildren passed by during the ceremony, shouting ‘Up Dracula!’ Stoker Dixon, an actor, then performed a portion of his one-man-show, ‘From Clontarf to Castle Dracula’ for the crowd.
Dublin Tourism were heavily involved in the unveiling (the organisation was responsible for the erection of plaques within the city, and each plaque bore the Dublin Tourism name), and its chairman, Gerry Byrne, gave a brief biographical talk at the ceremony.
The plaque, photographed in September 2006
When I rang Dublin Tourism in November to ask where their plaque had gone, they said it wasn’t their responsibility; that I should talk to someone in the city council.
I eventually established a narrative of the plaque’s disappearance: the building, which had been occupied by a solicitor’s firm, was sold in June 2006 for €2.3 million. In the adverts in the property section prior to the auction, the auctioneer emphasised that the building was ‘of historical note’ because of its association with Stoker, and showed a close-up of the plaque.
The building was sold to the Shelbourne Development group, who acquired the adjoining buildings at 31 and 32 in the same year. Their properties on Kildare Street are blurbed on the Shelbourne website here. The building is now occupied by a plastic surgery clinic, which moved in to the property in September 2008.
I attempted to contact Shelbourne Development, who, as my Guardian article pointed out, have many pressing problems at the moment; they failed to reply to my correspondence.
The plaque disappeared at some point between September 2006 (when I photographed it) and September 2008, when the clinic moved into the building.
The responsibility for the plaque lies with the owner of the building. Astoundingly, however, it seems that a plaque can be removed from a building by an owner at his/her own discretion. I have heard this several times, both first-hand and second-hand. However, if a building is listed as a protected structure, the owner must secure planning permission before making structural or cosmetic changes to a building.
The building at 30 Kildare Street is listed in the Dublin City Development Plan as a protected structure:
Planning permission was never sought to remove the plaque, nor, presumably, would it have been granted. As the plaque was removed without permission, it should be reinstated.