Dutch billy
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English
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5c/Life_of_Sir_John_T._Gilbert%2C_LL.D.%2C_F.S.A.%2C_Irish_historian_and_archivist%2C_vice-president_of_the_Royal_Irish_academy%2C_secretary_of_the_Public_record_office_of_Ireland_%281905%29_%2814784626585%29.jpg/220px-thumbnail.jpg)
Etymology
[edit]Apparently derived from a nickname for William III, on account of the houses' Dutch appearance.[1]
Noun
[edit]Dutch billy (plural Dutch billies)
- A type of rowhouse with distinctive curved gables, formerly common in Dublin and other Irish towns.
- 1889, Thomas Drew, “Unhealthiness of Dublin Barracks”, in The Builder[2], volume 56, number 2398, page 54:
- They were ready to be superseded on their sites at the end of the seventeeth century by what we call the "Dutch Billy" houses.
- 2011, Frank McDonald, “Dutch Billy 18th century houses at risk”, in The Irish Times[3]:
- The term Dutch Billy refers to gable-fronted houses built in the late 17th and early 18th centuries – not just in Dublin, but also Cork, Drogheda, Limerick and Waterford – by waves of Huguenot and Quaker immigrants as well as tradesmen from Britain.
- 2014, David Dickson, Dublin: The Making of a Capital City[4], Harvard University Press, page 86:
- With the adoption of brick earlier in the century, "Dutch billies" became the common house-type, with gable-fronted facades, cruciform roof ridges, shallow windows without sashes, tight stairwells, small halls and floor-to-ceiling panelling, more elaborate houses displaying curved or stepped front gables.