Grafton Street, Dublin

[Cathal Dunne]

Try Grafton Street on crurtches in the rain.... gives you a whole new perspective on the paving. Those white ones are bastards

Do you speak from experience?

[alonso]

indeed... the 5 pints may also have been a factor

[dub1]

indeed... the 5 pints may also have been a factor

...only 5 were you going home early!!!

[alonso]

i thought publicising the true amount of booze coupled with the fact that i was on crutches may harm my reputation here.

[missarchi]

I have always been wary of the white ones...

[missarchi]

how well do you know dublin?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hR2alFmp8JQ

[Devin]

There has it has to be said been a fair bit of improvement to shopfronts along Grafton Street in recent times. All very contemporary and minimalist if a little uniform and bland.

Seems to be true ! Look at this pic from the early '80s:

[paddyb]

The Grafton Street 'Architectural Conservation Area' is a joke. The owners of the Vodafone building at the top of the street have just installed a giant video billboard on their Georgian facade. It covers the entire first floor, obscuring the windows, and is brutally drilled into the beautiful red brick. A little bit of Piccadilly Circus on our own main street. Sorry I don't have a photo - words can't convey the horror.

Does anyone know if the ACA is just a set of aspirational guidelines or can it actually be enforced?

[Devin]

Well, look at Westmoreland Street and ask yourself the same question paddyb.

There is an apalling Griffins Londis / Subway also near the top of Grafton Street. It has just recently upped its lighting, signage and clutter .. it's so bad it's hard to believe.

[GrahamH]

Absolutely - it is just incredible what's going on on the street. This southern end is getting more and more tawdry by the day, with vacant units, non-compliant convenience stores such as the above mentioned Griffins gougers, the aforementioned electronic billboard with a supporting industrial frame of I-beams drilled directly into the delicate handmade brick, full-length facade banners covering buildings, and a conglomeration of vulgar hand-held signs advertising everything from mobile phone unlocking and sunbed-tanning to discount takeaway foods. It just beggars belief. I've photos, but I can't be bothered posting them.

At least business interests are finally getting riled over the tawdry handheld signs - if only because they're disrupting their own business concerns rather than the prestige of the street - which ought to be banned outright. Yes, they've been a tradition of Grafton Street going back to the 1960s, but they belong to a different era where planning of pedestrian flows wasn't exactly on the radar. Of course no provision whatever was made for them in the ACA and SPCA, nor in the recent revision of O'Connell Street's ACA for that matter. Though we're lucky to even have the Grafton Street ACA given the Dublin Chamber of Commerce, as per their associates with respective ACAs in other towns in Ireland, actively lobbied against it. One despairs.

[PVC King]

That is the first time I've ever heard you so negative.

What Dublin needs is a strong Dublin City Business Association offshoot that only serves the key Spine of Grafton Street, Westmoreland St, O'Connell St as far as the Spire, Henry Street and Mary Street based on the the New West End Company model in London that only serves Oxford St, Regent St and Bond Street. This area has outperformed the rest of the UK by c20% in sales growth in 2009.

The penny clearly needs to drop that all the investment poured into the Street by the vast majority of retailers on these streets counts for nothing if the few discount operators who are abusing the system can act with impunity.

Dublin is competition for visitors with a number of other cities and given the price matrix the Dublin retail offer needs to conducted in a setting that is superior to its competitors. The various state and local authorities can keep writing reports into to infinity on macro issues but make no mistake the competitor cities are not allowing the actions of a few shit goods retailers to destroy their prime retail pitches; the tax revenue that a sophisticated tourist brings is just too valuable to risk.

Some small steps would be

1. Create a Prime retail group made up of landlords, retailers, local government and Bord Failte

2. Ban sandwich boards and leaflet distribution in stated areas.

3. Conduct a Citry Council audit of signage for compliance

4. Introduce penalties of up to €100,000 per sign for non-compliance

5. Prosecute offenders and deploy the funds to environmental enhancement or legibility measures

Visitors love the Dublin leisure offer and peoples attitudes but maximising revenue per visitor can only occur in the right environment

[Punchbowl]

Anyone know what's happening here on Sth Anne St? I had a sneak in on Deegans a few weeks ago, and there seemed to be loads of interior still to savour. And a couple of lovely single bays stuck in the middle too..

[thebig C]

Hey Punchbowl,

My understanding was that they were owned by the same company which refurbushed a number of buildings in the same terrace. Although, perhaps I am wrong there as if that was the case, then these would have been incorporated into said development.

However, what I can definately tell you is that for the past 3-4 years the ground floor of "Deegans" or the slender building nextdoor was used as a site office/canteen for construction workers.

C

[jdivision]

Paddy McKillen and Ivor Fitzpatrick planned to do a scheme similiar to the Hackett to Guess? block but given the first phase has been a bit of a disaster and the duo have fallen out don't know how realistic it is

[soulsearcher]

Seems to be true ! Look at this pic from the early '80s:

Very amusing picture. Might anyone have a contemporary one taken from the same angle to see a then and now comparison?

[Devin]

World's biggest cultural metaphor to open store on Grafton Street:

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/commercialproperty/2010/0519/1224270647144.html

[Cathal Dunne]

I don't know whether to post this here or in "Shopfront race to the bottom" thread but a bargain bookshop has recently opened its doors on what is our so-called premier shopping street. While I endorse cut-price bookshops (as an avid reader they make my habit easier to finance) I don't think they belong on a street we should be building into an equal with Oxford St, 5th Avenue and the Champs Elysée etc. Furthermore, the actual shop sign is of the cut-price variety too. It looks like as if it is just a banner attached to the wall by string. It marks a new low for this erstwhile quality street.

[fergalr]

I don't think they belong on a street we should be building into an equal with Oxford St, 5th Avenue and the Champs Elysée etc.

5th Avenue and the Champs Elysée??

[lauder]

I cannot see the logic behind why Dunnes Stores refused to let their former premises to Disney, instead the street is loosing a high quality retailer (Laura Ashley). Or are they planning to move elsewhere in the locality?

[Seanoh]

I don't think they belong on a street we should be building into an equal with Oxford St, 5th Avenue and the Champs Elysée etc.

I would say it's already the equal of Oxford St. Have you been on the stretch of it between Tottenham Court Road and Oxford Circus? It's just like Grafton Street but with traffic.

[PVC King]

There is a reason for the decline of the East end of Oxford Street; approximately 50 - 80 shops have been CPO'd to be demolished for the delivery of Cross Rail from Dean Street to TCR These took place in late 2008 but that it was going to happen has been known for years. Consequently retailers won't spend the c£500k it takes to fit out or refit and then the retailers leave to a location where they can refit. Landlords were left with an assortment of choices restricted to cheap rags and shit goods operators to choose from until they get paid via the CPO. Conversely most of the few national / International retailers that were lease bound have now moved further towards Oxford Circus which has helped that middle section dramatically. But until TfL take full possession of these repossessed properties it will ressemble Burnley on a bad day. Once the consortium led by Land Sec redevelop the mixed use TCR interchange it will be an altogether different proposition with a huge quantum of office workers adding to demand.

Lauder you would have to guess that Dunnes are keeping the Grafton Street store as leverage in any negotiations they may have with Stephens Green SC; no doubt when they get the optimimum position from the centre they'll instruct someone to get a new tenant for what is highly marketable space; that is assuming they don't develop a new retail concept or buy an existing one leveraging tough retail conditions internationally; few retailers manage their cost base as effectively as DS.

Laura Ashley are also restructuring their retail model; they are expanding Internationally but cutting back on the number of stores in their more mature markets. Recent UK research indicates that most retailers would be a lot more profitable if they stuck to the top 30-40 retail destinations and ditched the other say 100-500 shops they have. This theory if applied to the Irish market could see a dramatic rise in the demand for streets like Grafton Street, Hernry Street and Cork's Patrick Street at the expense of towns such as say Kilkenny, Mullingar etc. What Grafton Street has to offer is that the stretch from Nassau Street to the Green is all more akin to South Molton Street than Oxford Street in terms of retail ambience and standard of retailer but has the reputation in the local market as the dominent retail choice.

[StephenC]

M. I. C. - see ya real soon.....

K. E. Y. - why? because we like you

M. O. U. S. E. !!!!!

Saaaaaad

[Paul Clerkin]

What a fine shop front No.26 had at one time...



http://two.archiseek.com/2010/1863-no-26-grafton-street-dublin/

[Yixian]

Sorry but I don't think we should be holding Oxford St up as something to try and replicate, it is perhaps the most unpleasant street I have ever encountered in a capital city, I would rather shop anywhere else. Busy, cluttered, dirty - the only reason it is a success is because most Londoners are addicted to clothes and can think of nothing else to do with their time and money than shop.

[StephenC]

Known by most of you, but I thought I would post anyhow. From last week's Sunday Tribune:

Grafton Street pedestrian area set for €40m overhaul
Project could include closing extra streets to road traffic
Neil Callanan

Grafton Street, long criticised for its shoddy look, is in line for a major revamp. Dublin City Council is set to spend up to €40m on new paving and street furniture for the pedestrianised street and surrounding area, according to sources, although the council was keen to stress last week the project was in its early stages.

"A survey has been carried out on what works need to be done and we have met local businesses including the Dublin City Business Association to discuss the area," a spokeswoman for the council said. She stressed that no figure had been set yet for the revamp of the street.

Works are unlikely to begin until next year as the project will have to go through the planning process. Sources said the pedestrian upgrade would reach from Dawson Street to South William Street.

The works would fit in with the new city development plan which is being drawn up at present.

An amendment currently being proposed states that the council will explore "the extension of the pedestrian zone in the Grafton Area to include the creation of new pedestrian streets". Among the streets being considered for pedestrianisation are South Anne Street, Duke Street, Clarendon Street and South William Street.

September 26, 2010