Bridges & Boardwalks

[phil]

They could stick one of the kiosks in Wolfe Tone Park by Jervis St, which currently barely has a purpose and even less seating. That tennis table from O-Connell St is currently there, among a nice little copse of trees I think. A newsagenty shop woudl actually be welcome there, especially in summer as apart from the super-Spar at Jervis St Luas stop, there ain't much like that there.

That is a good idea Fergair. Nice atmosphere there during warm summer days. A Kiosk could add quite nicely to it. Hard to know where to put it though (Without moving more headstones!!!).

[PVC King]

Law preventing begging struck down
Thursday, 15 March 2007 12:15
The law preventing begging has been struck down by the High Court.

A young Dublin man charged with begging on Parliament Street in the city more than three years ago challenged Section 3 of the nineteenth century Vagrant Act.

Niall Dillon claimed the act breached his constitutional right to freedom of expression and his right to communicate.

Mr Justice Eamon De Valera rejected his argument that it discriminated between rich and poor.

But the judge found that the act provided for a prison sentence of up to three months and this was disproportionate to the offence.

He also found that the act did interfere with the constitutional right of freedom of expression and freedom to communicate with other people.

The legislation has been struck down and Mr Dillon's prosecution will not now go ahead.

Free for all on the boardwalk it seems

[StephenC]

This from today's Times (much anticipated):

Council to move kiosks as book market idea fails
Aodhan O'Faolain

Dublin City Council is being forced to relocate four kiosks that were originally erected on the Grattan bridge over the Liffey as part of a scheme designed to give a more continental flavour to the city centre.

The kiosks, which were constructed in 2004 as part of a €2 million project aimed at turning the bridge linking Capel Street with Parliament Street into a European-style book market, have been unoccupied for some time.

A spokeswoman for Dublin City Council confirmed that it intends to relocate the kiosks to another part of the city because they "are not viable in their current location".

She said the concept behind the kiosks "had not worked" for a number of reasons, including an insufficient number of pedestrians crossing the bridge and the weather conditions.

While a new location has yet to be identified by the council, she said they were in the process of "looking at various options". There is no timetable as to when the kiosks will be taken off the bridge and re-erected.

"We won't know when they are coming off the bridge until we can figure out a suitable place to put them," the council spokeswoman said.

Up until recently one of the four kiosks was used to sell sweets and newspapers but it has now closed. Earlier this year another was used on a temporary basis to sell tickets for a theatre festival.

The kiosks formed part of a €2 million project that included the reconstruction of the bridge deck, new granite paving and a set of benches with wooden seats and toughened glass backs.

The spokeswoman added that while the kiosks had not been a success the council was satisfied the overall works to the bridge had enhanced the view of the Liffey.

© 2007 The Irish Times

Where should they go? Apart from the scrapheap....

[PVC King]

Landsdowne Road

They'd be great as programme vending kiosks!

Grattan Bridge will now be the crossing of choice!

[StephenC]

How about one at the top of Grafton Street

[phil]

Wolfetone Park?

[PTB]

Bottom of the Irish sea?

[archipig]

Am I the only one why actually thought these things were ok? The problem was with the idea of selling bokos from them, not tha fact they they were there.

My solution:

Keep two of them - The ones on either end. Then invert them so that they face each other. One will be a cafe kiosk, the other will be a tourist info kiosk. Put landscaped trees and some seating in the middle. Simple.

As for the other two, put them in another location such as St Stephens green, with the same uses as above.

Speaking of, whats happened to the ones for O Connell St?

[StephenC]

Yes I think you are! They're ugly - plain and simple.
Inverting them will simply reduce pedestrain space further....but it sounds like a better setup alright.

I'd say the OC St kiosks are lost in the ether somewhere...never to be seen again. Much more important to remove trees and leave a great swath of the street bare and stick in a tacky Jesus statue.

[PTB]

Put landscaped trees and some seating in the middle. Simple.

Trees on a stone (or is it a metal bridge? I can't remember what the bridge actually looks like. I just remember the awful kiosks) bridge?

[archipig]

Trees on a stone (or is it a metal bridge? I can't remember what the bridge actually looks like. I just remember the awful kiosks) bridge?

In containers of course.

[PTB]

In containers of course.

Ahhhh...So obvious now.

[notjim]

UK's Flint & Neill wins bid to plan Dublin bridge:

from tcm.ie, http://breaking.tcm.ie/business/mhcweycweyoj/

UK consultants have been hired to work on a new bridge in the shadow of the planned U2 Tower in Dublin’s Docklands.

The multi-million euro link between the Docklands and Ringsend will accommodate public transport only and will feature two bus lanes and two footpaths. A cycle lane and space for a possible future Luas extension are also proposed.

The Flint & Neill Partnership in London has won the 340,000 euro contract to draw up a preliminary design of the bridge.

The consulting engineers have already worked on bridges and viaducts in Britain, Sweden, Finland, China and Hong Kong.

They were also involved in the design of the roof of Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport and a Baha’I Temple in Delhi, India.

Chongming Bridge in Shanghai, Sweden’s Malmo Swing Bridge and the Forth Road Bridge in Scotland are among the landmark structures they have worked on.

[ctesiphon]

Has anyone been in the vicinity of Capel Street bridge today?

Because I've heard a rumour...

[StephenC]

Praise Jesus!!!!

[GrahamH]

Oh it's happening alright!



Both taken on Monday.



*wipes tear*

[notjim]

Isn't it a pity that this was such a failure, the idea seemed appealing the abstract, but obviously a mistake the moment the kiosks arrived. What went wrong, if they had been somewhere else could this have worked and if so where and selling what?

[Peter Fitz]

the boxes themselves wouldn't do much for any area really ... perhaps a couple of elegantly designed kiosks would work on South King St ... its not as if the shopping centre's side elevation has much to offer ...pity it didn't work out alright, but i'll be glad to see the back of these yokes !

[hutton]

Hallelujah!

Those yokes were desperate. And its amazing how shabby the fridges became in less than 5 years.

Isn't it a pity that this was such a failure, the idea seemed appealing the abstract, but obviously a mistake the moment the kiosks arrived. What went wrong, if they had been somewhere else could this have worked and if so where and selling what?

I would suggest that 2 units may have worked, (in historic rather than modernist genre of design) but 4 was total overkill.

Imo a key part of the problem is that once they werent being used, they served only as pinch-points where pedestrians were intimidated by anti-social behaviour, which in turn created a spriral of decline, deterring the idea that the units could serve the intended pupose. Completing the pinch-point effect are the seats; how many people do you ever see sitting on this who aren't begging - probably about as many that sit around the Robocop Plaza beside City Hall.... That said, now that the Fridges are going, maybe the seats can at last function - but please replace those bloody awful looking plastic bins!

Anyhow fair dues to whoever it is in DCC that made the call to get rid of these

[fergalr]

...now that the Fridges are going, maybe the seats can at last function

With Liffey breezes and our climate?

[ctesiphon]

Anyhow fair dues to whoever it is in DCC that made the call to get rid of these

Agreed- there was something of the rising balloon (the longer you hold on, the harder it is to let go) about these kiosks. Somebody somewhere had to be a bit brave, so credit where credit is due.

[StephenC]

Speaking of rising balloons....one was proposed close to here at one stage as part of the (long forgotten) Howley Harrington plan for Temple Bar

[Paul Clerkin]

Good to see them go - now if they could take the horrible lamp standards too

[jdivision]

Portaloos for workers while Grand Central under Stephens' Green is being built?

[JuliusCaesar]

Good to see them go - now if they could take the horrible lamp standards too

The sea horses????