Anyone out there able to identify the location of the Lifeboat pub in this picture taken by Bert Hardy in Dublin in 1955 ? pic.twitter.com/TE8vHdHAQi
— Eileen Martin (@STEileenMartin) August 23, 2018
An innocent query last night kickstarted an unraveling mystery of The Lifeboat pub, photographed in 1963 for Picture Post.
Some say Dublin 6.
Others say docklands.
Still others say Belfast.
It’s a hot mess.
FIGHT!
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How can it be Burgh Quay with buildings opposite it?
I’ve no idea where it is, but that doesn’t seem right.
That looks like the albert clock on the right.
https://goo.gl/maps/4CqQwZcz5R22
well
I think its Francis Street
I don’t think so, Frillz. The topography isn’t right.
ah yeah I didn’t see the clock there
Yes the albert clock gives the game away
the lifeboat was on queens square according to this
https://www.geograph.ie/photo/726541
and google shows queens square has a view of the clock
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Albert+Memorial+Clock/@54.6008407,-5.9237394,19.5z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x48610854619dbc35:0xc7c61f7491980758!8m2!3d54.6008473!4d-5.9243604
This is clearly not the same place…
https://www.geograph.ie/photo/726541
Is that a church steeple on the right?
High Street Belfast
There is no debate. It’s Belfast as proven last night.
The car has a ZA registration plate (ZA 532 I think) which was a Dublin City registration code., if that helps?
I think its beautiful
It’s lovely, alright.
Looks like Belfast alright.
http://clydesburn.blogspot.com/2014/09/scotch-house-36-high-street-belfast.html?m=1
There was a scotch house on Hawkins St (Flann O’Brien used to drink there) but thats not it.
Belfast, hai.
Both a nice and a grim pic.
The pub was demolished in the nineties and is now “The Boat” apartments
Belfast.
http://www.geograph.ie/photo/2387719
The car reg is old Dublin city reg, so more likely a Dublin location. I think it is not the Albert Tower as the top is a standard slopped top, not the more ornate version on Albert Tower.
Also the fact that the website for the photo mentions it is taken in Dublin should be a clue that it is not Belfast or Waterford…
https://www.mediastorehouse.com/fine-art-storehouse/photographers/bert-hardy-1913-1995-photography/night-time-view-lifeboat-bar-dublin-11676212.html
Whatever ‘the website’ says must be right: gotcha.
Not just one website: all websites that I have been able to check (about 10 so far) use the same tag: Original publication: Picture Post – 7808 – Dublin – pub. 18th June 1955
That all 10 websites use the same tag shows the info came from a single source. If the source info is incorrect, every website that reproduces it will be incorrect. The fact is, the photo is from Belfast. There’s indisputable proof in the Twitter thread.
ah yes, the movable thing is from Dublin, so all the other unmovable things must be in Dublin
No actually. The original tag from the photographer says it is in Dublin. All the sources that reference this picture use the same original tag:
Original publication: Picture Post – 7808 – Dublin – pub. 18th June 1955
Hence a high likelihood that it is in Dublin. That is why I posted the link, so you could check my reference.
And given the ‘immovable thing’ (the clock tower) does not match image analysis with the Albert Tower, it is not likely to be the Albert Tower
The comment about the car (incidentally noted by another poster without you giving snide commentary) is related to the fact that it is a Dublin reg, not a Belfast reg. While not improbable that a Dublin reg car would be in Belfast, given the roads of that day and the performance of cars of the time, it is not certain.
What’s the point of your analysis? It’s all completely wrong.
A Dublin reg outside a Belfast city centre location in 1955 is normal enough.
Actually, I concede, but not because of your efforts. The pic posted by Frank (which I had not seen til now) makes it clear it it on Queens Square, Belfast, south side, just south of the Belfast Customs House
It’s not a “standard sloped top”. You can see that there are details on it but they are not clear because of the angle and lighting. This is Belfast.
User @tjmcintyre posted this picture in a reply to the Twitter thread. It clearly shows the Lifeboat Bar and Scotch House from a different angle. No doubt whatsoever that it is is Belfast.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DlTmVNiW4AIvmsc.jpg:large
This is the one that was in Belfast, it’s clearly not the same one.
https://www.geograph.ie/photo/726541
Only catching up with this now so a bit necro but anyway… the photo of the square clearly shows the Lifeboat Bar and so does the photo on geograph.ie photo. Maybe there were two pubs called the Lifeboat Bar, and the entry on geograph.ie mixes up the photo of one with the address of the other. Isn’t that the obvious conclusion?
Off topic (sorry) but may I check if the ‘sign in’ thing has been fixed for people commenting?
Yup.
Thank you, Andyourpointiswhatexactly?.
Cabra West? Until proven otherwise…
P.S. Was that a rhetorical question?
test
seems to work for me now
That s the Albert clock in Belfast
Definitely Belfast, remember that bar from the 80s, thats the Albert Clock in the photo and High St buildings in the background… very atmospheric photo, better than the grim 80s in my memory bank
https://youtu.be/9l4IJDmIPPw at 8 minutes in
Told ya.
If memory serves there was a dublin photographer who published a book of photos of dublin and belfast and his car featured in some of the pics,I cant locate my copy just now but he may have taken this pic.
I drank and played pool in The Lifeboat in the 90’s when I was supposed to be in Uni. It’s definitely that bar.