Whitefriars Monastery and Workhouse

Those BFA images are excellent (you need to register which is free but worth it so you can zoom in Kevin!) as they show you how hemmed in the Monastery was even back then. Most people think that it is a relatively modern phenomenon caused by the construction of the Ring Road.

Hello again, Helen and hi, NeilsYard. Thanks for the map and the aerial photos; I've downloaded them all and, to my surprise, it wasn't the needle in the haystack I was expecting. They've helped me visualise the information I've learned from reading about the monastery in its heyday on the Heritage Gateway website and others. Initially, my main interest was to find out where the building we lived in stood on site and to get some idea of what it might have looked like: mission accomplished. One of my brothers was born there on May 8th, 1947. Another comment of interest that my mother added was that "The men's hostel to which we were appointed in May 1946 was situated in lovely grounds and included the historic Whitefriars Monastery building, which was 600 years old. This building was used by the men as a dining room and contained a huge fireplace large enough to roast an ox." In 2007, my wife and I enjoyed a stroll around the grounds, soaking in the heritage and trying to picture where photos of my six-month-old self may have been taken. And here I am, still captivated, all these decades later.