Distillery Street is still there!

@gnmcauley Adding "loosely" onto Distillery Street, thank you!

That's the huge brick chimney at right, I think we are looking South.

I wouldn't rule out south but the shadows look more as if we're looking east.

Distillery street seems to be named for the Royal Irish Distillery (judging by the map), which according to the internet included the Dunville brand.

Dunville & Co. as @gnmcauley said, looking south.......@91549360@N03/10796936783/

@91549360@N03 Yes, that's the angle I guessed it was, too.

@91549360@N03 Jinx! Touch wood.

Big, big claims from Dunville's in the Irish Times of Tuesday, 12 March 1895:

Dunville's Old Irish Whiskey is recommended by the medical profession in preference to French Brandy. They hold the largest stock of Whiskey in the world. Supplied in casks and cases for home use and exportation. Quotations on application to Dunville and Co., Limited, Royal Irish Distilleries, Belfast.

Some information about the Dunville family, the dstillery and their contribution to Belfast here and here.

@gerryward Great facts and figures in that link, Gerry, thanks! Amazing that they produced 2.5 million gallons of whiskey per year!

Is Old Irish Whiskey still available today?

@48236157@N02 Perhaps somebody somewhere has a couple of bottles stashed away, but Dunville's ceased to exist in 1936...

@48236157@N02 Break open your piggy-bank !!.................... www.celticwhiskeyshop.com/Dunvilles_Three_Crowns_Special_...

@91549360@N03 @48236157@N02 Maybe if we all club together? Then we could have a thimble full each... :D

It's probably too expensive to drink!

I'm looking at that celticwhiskeyshop and there are a few potential "To me, From me" Christmas presents there!

Just looking at the bottle of Dunvilles. The bottle itself says "whisky" which is the Scotch spelling. Here it's "whiskey". If I remember correctly, what that means is that when the grain is being heated (malted?) whisky uses peat, while whiskey uses a smokeless fuel (anthracite?). So scotch has a smokey flavour. Or something. Anyway, the spelling suggests Dunville's would have a smokey flavour.

@joefuz I don't think the differences between whiskey and whisky were necessarily codified back then.

The Belfast News-Letter, Friday, January 10, 1896

COURT AND FASHION The Earl of Ranfurly,accompanied by his son, Lord Northland, and party, were in Belfast yesterday, and in the afternoon they visited the central offices of Messrs. Dunville & Company, Limited. They also paid a short visit to the extensive bonded warehouses of the company in Adelaide Street, after which they drove to the Royal Irish Distilleries to inspect the various processes in connection with the manufacture of whisky. The party all seemed highly pleased with their visit.

As pleased as newts, perhaps. Except Northland, who was drunk as a.

I wonder if James McDowell is one of the men pictured. Among the admissions to the Royal Hospital listed in The Belfast News-Letter on Friday, January 31, 1896 is "James McDowell, 47, Distillery Street, carter at Danville's Distillery, fracture of leg, caused by a barrel falling on him".

Sadly a number of breweries and distilleries no longer exist today. A little bit of history that has gone away!

I noticed at a recent Whyte's auction a case of 1840s Dunville went for €7,000 I didn't see an obvious way to paste the link to Lot itself but a quick search from here... should find it easily www.whytes.ie/index.asp

@fairviewdesign @91549360@N03 @nlireland The Whytes bottles were cheap at only € 583.33 each!

@79549245@N06 You fell for it like the unfortunate buyer probably did. There were only 6 bottles in the lot. €1166 each :) hic!

... and to think they only produced 16¼ million bottles in 1890!

The last heir and chairman of Dunvilles, a Robert Lambart Dunville, was shot as a spy , arrested for clobbering a Police-Sergeant and had his wife sue him for the "restoration of conjugal rights" ....he probably needed a stiff drink after all that. !!!!

apparently they lost business after Prohibition (in America), and the company was liquidated by 1936 (clever pun). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunville_&_Co

Like its predecessor Napier & Co., Dunville & Co. had continued to import tea, and they were one of the leading tea merchants in Ireland. However in the 1860s this side of the business was given up to make room for the expanding whisky business. In 1869 the Royal Irish Distilleries were built next to the railway marshalling yard outside the Great Victoria Street Station. Coal and grain were brought by railway to the distillery's own sidings, and the railway carried the whisky away. The Royal Irish Distilleries were described in detail by Alfred Barnard in his book ‘Whisky Distilleries of the United Kingdom’, published in 1887. The entrance was an impressive gateway and the red brick buildings, most of which were four storeys high, covered seven acres. Near the middle a one hundred and sixty feet high chimney dominated the whole area. Four hundred and fifty men worked in the distillery. In addition to the warehouses at the distillery, the company also had bonded warehouses covering thirteen acres in Adelaide Street, Alfred Street and Clarence Street, and duty-paid warehouses in Alfred Street and Franklin Street. Fifty clerks worked in the main offices in Calender Street, which also housed the Board Room and the luxurious apartments for the use of the Directors. Barley delivered by train and horse-drawn carts to the distillery was examined on the receiving floor of the Granaries before it was hoisted by elevators to the other floors for storage. The Granaries could hold two hundred and fifty thousand bushels of grain and when Alfred Barnard visited the distillery, two hundred thousand bushels were being stored there. The other major ingredient of whisky is water, whose mineral and chemical properties influence the flavour. The water was supplied from Lough Mourne, twelve miles away, and in the distillery there were two wells one hundred and sixty feet deep.

Towards the end of the nineteenth century it was believed that the flavour of the whisky in Dunville’s extensive bonded warehouses in Adelaide Street was being impaired by the peal of the bell in nearby St Malachy’s Roman Catholic Church. James Craig (future first Prime Minister of Northern Ireland) worked for Dunville’s – his father was a director there. He was delegated to negotiate with the local priest, who was sympathetic to the distillers’ plight and the bell was muffled. The remaining felt was removed from the bell during 2008 restoration work.

@91549360@N03 @gerryward I need to count them bottles again !!

@gerryward Was the aforementioned member for Belfast East not one of their best customers - he always looked pissed.

@38401430@N06 The Rt Hon Viscount Craigavon died in 1940, so I wasn't around to remember him - maybe you know him better - but not good enough to know that he was the member for North Down!!!

@gerryward Oops! I meant William Craig! Wrong drunk.....! www.nytimes.com/2011/05/07/world/europe/07craig.html?_r=0

We can imagine where from our world is progressing.

I have just added this photo to our 50,000+ Views Album [https://www.flickr.com/photos/nlireland/sets/72157651136879037]