Well, because it's not there?
The history of No 7 Eccles Street is one of missed opportunities, neglect and property speculation. This once grand Georgian town house declined into a slum and Clive Hart recalls 7 families living there when he visited in the late 1950s. In 1965 the property was put up for auction by Jackson, Stops and McCabe of Dawson Street. By 1973 Nos 6, 7, 8 and 9 Eccles Street had been reduced to single-storey facades and were put up for auction on the 7th March by T. T. L. Overend, McCarron & Gibbons, 9 Upper Mount Street. Ten years later they were still vacant plots until finally having built the hospital extension which currently occupies the site.
As a spin-off from the revision work for James Joyce's Dublin, A Topographical Guide to the Dublin of Ulysses it was decided to create a 3D computer model of the house. The 3D modelling of No 7 is an ongoing project with the help of Stephen Paterson of Napier University, Edinburgh and Dermott McMeel of the University of Edinburgh. Currently the model is being drawn using AutoCAD and then rendered in FormZ software.
Detailed information on the lost No 7 is in short supply. While Joyce pilgrims from the 1940s onwards have left us with numerous helpful and tantalising shots of the street frontage no pictures appear to have been published or unearthed of the internal or rear aspects of the property. We are therefore keen to contact anyone who might have useful information or resources pertaining to the internal and rear aspects of No 7 Eccles Street.
Below are links to two transparent Quicktime fly-bys of the work in progress. The examples are at reduced resolution to make them suitable for transmission over the Internet. The Internal file mimics Bloom's journey over the area railings and back through the house in the Ithaca episode of Uysses.
It is hoped that the final product will have the external structure of the whole of the lower end of Eccles street with the ability to enter and explore a fully furnished No 7 and maybe even meet Molly and Leopold.
Ian Gunn, University of Edinburgh
ian@no7.org.uk