Streetwise - Westlodge and College Park

This series of articles for the Westmeath Independent is run in conjunction with the Street Wise Athlone series on Athlone Community Radio which is broadcast on Wednesdays during Athlone Today at 2.30pm and repeated on Thursday mornings at 10am on The Brekkie Show

Athlone Miscellany by Gearoid O'Brien

An advertisement in this newspaper, in October 1974, read “Houses for Sale at Westlodge (beside Shamrock Lodge)”. The builder, Paddy Healy, was offering for sale “a few of the last to be built in this popular very exclusive area, right in town and yet in lovely open-landed surroundings.” The last house in the scheme was offered for sale in March 1975. In August 1976 when the late Sean Fallon put forward a motion at Athlone UDC for the council to do something to improve the roads and lighting in the area and the erection of a “Slow” sign in the Westlodge area, he described the estate as “a private scheme and one of the finest in the town.”

My own predecessor in Athlone Library, Ernan Morris, lived in Westlodge until his retirement in 1983 where among his neighbours were two serving members of Athlone UDC (the late Breffni Rowan and the late John Keenahan), and also the late Larry Fagan a very popular principal of the Dean Kelly NS and a man who did much to promote sport in the town through his involvement with St Peter’s Sports Centre. Larry, a proud Tipperary man, also wrote a couple of quiz books which were very popular in the 1980s. Sadly, he was taken much too soon. Another writer associated with Westlodge is Rory Duffy who grew up there and who has distinguished himself as an award-winning writer across a broad range of writing disciplines including short-story, poetry and radio-drama.

Westlodge took its name from its proximity to The Shamrock Lodge as it was built on a greenfield site on Battery Road adjacent to the hotel. Shamrock Lodge, started its life as a “gentleman’s residence” but was converted to use as an hotel some seventy years ago, by the Coen family. It was one of a handful of such residences to be found in Athlone in the nineteenth century. Other examples within the urban area included The Park, Court Devenish House, Gore House, Garden Vale House and The Moorings. The earliest mention of ‘Shamrock Lodge’ is in Leet’s Directory in 1814 when it was occupied by M. Monks Esq. It seems likely that as Michael Moncks was an engineer and land surveyor who first appeared in Athlone in 1799 as a clerk-of-works with the Royal Engineers, that he might well have built the house or had it built for him. The house was built on a prime site, probably in the early 19th century. It was very convenient to the Athlone Canal which was at that time as important as the River Shannon itself as it was the artery of communication which was used by all cargo barges entering and leaving Athlone.

In August 1951, Frank Coen opened The Shamrock Lodge as a family-run hotel and today it is still a very popular local hotel run by Paddy McCaul and family. It has welcomed several important guests over the years including Queen Salote of Tonga (1918-1965) and Princess Grace of Monaco. Princess Grace (1929-1982) was the well-known, Irish-American Academy Award winning actress, Grace Kelly, who retired from acting at the age of 26 to marry Prince Rainier of Monaco.

College Park

Its proximity to St. Aloysius College probably suggested to many that this is where the name College Park came from but it seems much more likely that the name is derived from College Lane which links College Park to Connaught Street. I have dealt with College Lane in last week’s article on ‘The Laneways off Connaught Street’. College Park was built on what is usually described as a ‘brown-field’ site, which had probably previously included a long-disappeared battery (part of the Napoleonic fortifications of Athlone), Tom O’Brien’s old house on the Canal Banks and the remains of Butler’s Row and other small terraces, off Connaught Street, which had fallen into dereliction.

On the 11 July 1986 The Westmeath Independent announced “College Park Housing estate Officially Opened.” When the Chairman of Athlone U.D.C., Sen. Sean Fallon performed the official opening he described College Park as “Athlone newest and arguably most modern housing estate.” He revealed that it had been developed by the local authority at a cost of £1.2 million.

The development consisted of thirty-five houses, thirty-one of which were two-storeyed, three-bedroom houses and four of which were single-storeyed units to accommodate senior citizens. Describing it as “the finest Local Authority scheme in the country, Sen Fallon recalled that the development had commenced in May 1984 with T. Murray & Son as the main contractor, and that the first of the 35 families had moved in by Christmas 1985.

The scheme itself is unusual in that it is designed around a central cul-de-sac with a private courtyard arrangement and landscaped and grassed areas incorporated into the design. The kitchens-cum-living-rooms overlook the central space to encourage a community spirit and to facilitate the ease of supervising children at play. Special attention was paid in the design phase by the architects, Lloyd Pickwell Associates, to the use of low maintenance finishes. The development also created a new pedestrian access to Connaught Street via College Lane.

The County Manager, Mr Jack Taaffe described College Park as a show-piece for local authorities throughout Ireland. While the town clerk, the late lamented John Walsh, told the residents that the future of the estate was in their own hands but he stressed that the council officials would always be on hand to give advice and assistance.

In November 1986 two new amenity schemes were announced for Athlone one of which, at a projected cost of £90,000, was to fill-in a section of the canal near College Park to create an amenity area for the residents. This work was deemed necessary because of a previous collapse of the canal banks in this area but, sadly, it did nothings for the future of the canal itself.

The Expansion of College Lane

The provision of car-parking on the Connaught side of Athlone was a hot topic in the 1960s, but in typical Athlone fashion the local councillors and traders could not agree on the location of the car-park. The council favoured expanding the entry at College Lane to provide for over 100 car-parking spaces but some Connaught Street traders thought that the car-park should be located at the west-end of the street by knocking some derelict buildings between the Battery Bridge and Mick McQuaid’s Bridge, there was even a call for car-parking on the Batteries rather than off Connaught Street but this was quickly shot down.

Originally it was felt that the demolition of one premises would be sufficient but the Department felt that the entry to the car-park would not be wide enough and that an additional compulsory purchase would be required. The final solution agreed upon by the Urban Council in December 1964 was that the Council would acquire Keane’s house and some land and property belonging to Canon McCarthy. A car-park could then be developed to accommodate 180 cars at a cost of £11,490, with half the cost being borne by Westmeath County Council. The implication for rate payers in Athlone was a projected increase of 6d. in the pound. The entry to the car-park resulted in the demolition of two premises in Connaught Street, numbers 22 and 24.

If the faction arguing for parking at the west end of the street had won out the later development of College Park would not have been possible.

Next week: The Batteries.