Dutch billy

plural Dutch billies

1. A kind of terraced house with distinctive curved gables, formerly common in Dublin and other Irish towns.

   They were ready to be superseded on their sites at the end of the seventeeth century by what we call the "Dutch Billy" houses.

   1889, Thomas Drew, “Unhealthiness of Dublin Barracks”, in The Builder, volume 56, number 2398, page 54

   2 more examples

   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.

   2011, Frank McDonald, “Dutch Billy 18th century houses at risk”, in The Irish Times

   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.

   2014, David Dickson, Dublin: The Making of a Capital City, Harvard University Press, page 86