With hurricane Ophelia still howling around it's a bit blustery out tonight...so I'm staying local. I popped out for a few minutes when things seemed quiet and got this one of the Lilliput Press, just up the road from my house.

Good things come in small packages...it's one of Ireland's smallest and most prestigious independent publishing houses, based here in Stoneybatter since 1984, publishing a wide variety of Irish interest books.

The housing scheme in which this building is located was constructed between 1895 and 1908 by the Dublin Artisans' Dwellings Company, which was established in 1876 to help to deal with the housing crisis in the city by providing housing for the tradesmen and skilled workers of the city. Though modest in scale and form, these buildings display a regularity of design and proportion, seen in the even fenestration arrangement and shared roofline. The company architect, Charles Herbert Ashworth, was a strong proponent of good quality brick, insisting on the use of better-quality Athy and Portmarnock brick for these buildings. Polychrome brick is employed to good effect to subtly enliven the buildings. This is one of two original shops in the area, the brick shopfront adding aesthetic and contextual interest to the building. The presence of purpose-built commercial units in these estates is indicative of the consideration of practical and social facilities for residents, and this retail unit would thus have been an important focal point in the area.

I've always loved this building. It's beautiful.

Then the wind whipped up again, I got some sense and hightailed it back home. That wind would lift you out of it...

Here's some more images I've taken of the place