Bonded Warehouse at Custom House Quay, Cork

[Cliff Barnes]

i kayaked around both channels of the bonded warehouse recently, such potential unrealised!!!! could be a major tourist attraction if used with a bit of imagination, harbour tour boats could launch from it's steps, etc

Fantastic buildings with amazing cultural potential however they are falling down an dthe site is used as a Car Park.

These wouild be full of cafes and local artisans or a small museum if this was anywhere else.

Cork City Council and the Port of cork must have shelves weighed down at this stage with local aea plans and proposals for these amazing buildings in aspectacular location.

[gbohr]

I am a final year Construction Management student at CIT and my final year project involves taking a hypothetical development through inception to completion taking into account all issues such as planning, design, and the economics of it.

The hypothetical development I am working on is a maritime museum with ancillary services. I am currently considering three sites: Bonded Warehouses, Custom House Quay; the Harbour Commissioners Port of Cork Warehouses, Lower Glanmire Road; and a third site for a completely new build. I intend on preceding with Bonded warehouses option.


I've seen plans for Bonded warehouses but it they have vaulted chambers on ground floor for storage and narrow external spiral stairs provide only access to 1st and 2nd floors. Anyone have any ideas on access? or fire concerns or floor layouts.


Costs, ownership or any other info at all or general comments would be greatly appreciated

Thanks
gbohr

[Radioactiveman]

Can't help you on details I'm afraid, but I was at a concert on Saturday night in teh grounds of the bonded warehouse and was once again struck by the possibilities of the site. The building itself is very interesting but there is also a surprising amount of space around it.
A ferry link down to the harbour, including stops at Cobh and a re-opened Spike Island would fit excellently with a maritime museum use.

[Leesider]

Can't help you on details I'm afraid, but I was at a concert on Saturday night in teh grounds of the bonded warehouse and was once again struck by the possibilities of the site. The building itself is very interesting but there is also a surprising amount of space around it.
A ferry link down to the harbour, including stops at Cobh and a re-opened Spike Island would fit excellently with a maritime museum use.

I was at the same concert, and it was a place I would never have thought of as suitable for such an event but it was well done. There is great potential on this site for something of real tourism value, maybe we will see more events like this thrown in in the future as well.

[gbohr]

Yeah i tried for tickets for Coors Light Peak but didnt get any. Ive walked around the place and seen how much space there is and know its plan dimensions but have no idea of the elevations of floors and ceilings. Just out of interest: Was the concert on the northern side of bonded warehouse? and where was the stage situated?

[Radioactiveman]

Yes, right hand side with stage at the east end, so facing back into the City.

[rofbp]

now that the clipper festival has finished, and the mooring/marina is in place at the bonded warehouses, are there any plans to develop them further, or is this another plan consigned to the rubbish bin?

a city centre marina is a good idea, and perhaps eventually a mooring coud be added on the north channel side, (though this could be retained for bigger boats/ships such as naval ships and older ships such as jeanie johnson).

on a positive note, at least they painted the warehouse wall facing albert quay. i suppose we should be thankful, but its just another example of papering over the cracks. they couldn't even be arsed to paint the whole wall!

[Brian O Brien]

Anybody know what the story is with all of the cars on the site at the moment? Looks apocalyptic - by design or by default?

[barneymagee]

Anybody know what the story is with all of the cars on the site at the moment? Looks apocalyptic - by design or by default?

It's for an international fire rescue event.
The World Rescue Organisation’s World Rescue Challenge starts on Thursday. They'll be spending days cutting people from cars.

[Brian O Brien]

Thanks - great to see the area being used - heard a rumour of a beer festival there in October

[Radioactiveman]

Port of Cork have submitted an application for planning permission (published in today's Irish Examiner) for this site. It's too long to reproduce completely, but the jist of it is:

Permission for the replacement of structurally unsound sections of the quay walls within the curtilage of the Custom House... and the demolition of warehousing which has become unsound due to the structural failure of the quay wall....Therefore...demolition of 874 m2 of warehousing and 200m of quay wall along the southern shoreline ...plus removal of a 25m section along the eastern shoreline.
The existing stonework and paving materials to be recovered. Reconstruction of the quay walls and the 'Berthing Man's Hut' building.

Seems like the demolition will be of the 'modern' section of the warehousing. No indication of any plans for the main warehousing on the site.

[who_me]

Cheers Radioactiveman. So I take it it's more repair(/reconstruction) than demolition of the quay walls; and the only warehousing is the "new" yellow/orange building, not the main triangular building. That would actually be a plus, as it'd allow pedestrian access around the quay.

[jungle]

In the last few weeks, the yellow section of the building has finally been demolished.

What's interesting is the different colour of the stone where it hadn't been exposed to the elements. What's there looks a lot more like traditional Cork limestone. Having not been up close, I don't know if this is just because it's cleaner or because lime was applied at some point.