CRAWFORD GALLERY CAFE

If you are strolling around Cork and looking for a comfortable setting to get a bite to eat you might like to drop into the Crawford Gallery Cafe. Situated it the Crawford Municiple Art Gallery in Emmet place just off Patrick Street.

Another great advantage is that if you have time afterwards you are in the right place to take a stroll around the Art Gallery.

The Crawford Gallery Café is located in one of the oldest and finest buildings in Cork. Originally the customs house it was designed by Edward Lovett Pearce and built in 1724. After a new customs house was erected further down river in 1814, the 'Old Customs House' became the home of, in turn, the Royal Cork Institution, the Cork School of Design, The Crawford Municipal School of Art, and, latterly, the Crawford Municipal Art Gallery, which it is today.

The gallery is administered by the City of Cork Vocational Education Committee. The name Crawford was adopted in recognition of William Horatio Crawford, who funded the building of the magnificent 1884 extension which includes the Sculpture Galleries, the entrance Hallway, the Gibson Galleries and the modern Galleries on the top floor. The Gibson Galleries are named after the Joseph Stafford Gibson a native of Cork who lived and died in Spain, 1919. He bequeathed £14,790 to the gallery, to be used in buying works of art. Although his fund is now practically gone, the many fine paintings bearing the legend 'Gibson Bequest' attest the importance of this legacy to Cork City.

The Architect of the 1884 extention was Arthur Hill, one of several famous Cork Architects bearing that name.

The Crawford Gallery Café is now run by Ivan Whelan and Jean Manning.

Ballymaloe House has earned many food awards for serving freshly prepared dishes made from natural local ingredients. All the poultry and egg dishes come from free-range farmyard fowl. Almost all the produce is locally grown or from the home farm. The brown bread is made from Irish flour, stone ground in Kilkenny. The belief at Ballymaloe is that food is precious and should be handled carefully; that meals should be happy and convivial, and that cooking is an art.