South King St. Dublin

That’s not very fair t.scott – there was extensive discussion and lots of images this time last year here:

https://archiseek.com/content/showthread.php?t=3134&highlight=gaiety+centre

and more here too:

https://archiseek.com/content/showthread.php?t=3338&highlight=gaiety+centre

There’s an effective search tool above.

I find nothing more iritating than users of the site who seem unable to SEARCH for information on their topic or in many cases simply read a few pages back. Instead lets open a new thread (containing absolutely no contribution to the debate!) lambasting everyone else for not constantly supplyling the lazy with images and uptotheminute information.

(Guess who got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning!) 🙂

T.Scott – if you want to invest in a digital camera and send it back to Dublin. I’ll take pictures of whatever buildings/building sites you want. And also considering your abiding interest in Dublin, I’m sure you’re aware that the planning/building process does not take six months in this country so things haven’t actually moved on since the aforementioned threads and South King Street is as it was.

I note with interest that a certain T.G. Scott of Alberta, Canada had posted on the first thread linked by Graham- any relation?

you have some cheek, T Scott. Like, our mission in life is to keep emigrants like you informed of what’s going on in the auld sod? And we’re not even allowed to express an opinion in the process?

Here’s an expression you won’t hear much in Canada, or wherever it is you’re holed up: would you ever go and shite 😀

Just so as this thread doesnt descend into continual bashing of tscott lets bash the City Council instead. The ‘water feature’ at the end of SK St is still not working after about 2? 3? years. What an utter waste of money. I bet it cost thousands. Its unbeliveable that its just going to be left there with complementary cones.

To be fair to t.scott too, he didn’t ask for people to take pics, rather just said it was useful when they were put up…

Yes the last time I saw the fountain working was at least two years ago with kids having fun running through it.
A shame – was there a problem with the gradients of something? Either way, it ought to have been sorted long ago.

Just on the pavement cleaning issue, the Gaiety have a most impressive approach to cleaning: the whole pavement underneath the canopy, including the granite benches, is pressure washed down every single morning, usually between 8.30 and 9.00.
You can easily see the difference between ‘their’ area of pavement and the City Council’s!

Yes, fountain was switched off two years ago because the wind was blowing the water all over the place

here’s what i wrote in another thread at that time (i.e. 2003):

The story with the fountain, according to a council official, is that the wind is blowing the water outside the drainage system – the system having been put there to catch the water. So the water is blowing onto the footpath and the council is promising to deal with that.
The whole thing is modelled on a jet fountain in Paris, apparently. (I bet that one works better) The water is designed to go 1.5 metres in the air, and be caught by the drainage. But they never factored in the wind…

Is it my imagination or is that fountain not quite level? I’m tempted to bring a spirit level to work some day just so that I can check it on the way home. Maybe it’s just that the slope on the rest of the street, running down from Mercer St. Lwr, gives it that impression.
I would say that the Convenience Store located at the bottom of the slope weren’t too happy with the fountain when it was on. The water used to run down to the gully outside their shop and customers used to tramp it into the shop.

I note that the fountain is still there, switched off, 5 years later. What a disaster. Only in Ireland do things like this seem to happen….

@paul_moloney wrote:

I note that the fountain is still there, switched off, 5 years later. What a disaster. Only in Ireland do things like this seem to happen….

I happen to know the designer of that fountain and he is gutted at the way the whole project worked out. It was not built to the proper spec-the corpo put in a pump that wasn’t powerful enough to achieve the intended effect with the water so of course it was just a misty dribble that was an annoyance to passers by and it got turned off. I haven’t heard of any plans to fix it. I imagine it will be dug up at some stage.

That’s interesting. What was the main problem that caused it to be turned off, as I don’t recall it ever being confirmed. The meagre force of the water, its blowing all over the place, or inadequate drainage?

Given the private sector injection into the revamped Gaiety Centre, it’s the very least the local authority can do, not least given the tens of thousands in development levies received.

@tommyt wrote:

I happen to know the designer of that fountain and he is gutted at the way the whole project worked out. It was not built to the proper spec-the corpo put in a pump that wasn’t powerful enough to achieve the intended effect with the water so of course it was just a misty dribble that was an annoyance to passers by and it got turned off. I haven’t heard of any plans to fix it. I imagine it will be dug up at some stage.

I was under the impression, from looking at the thing in action, that the dish is either not entirely level with water constantly streaming off toward the gaiety centre side, or the dished area is not sufficient to contain the water … its more to do with drainage & levelling than the size of the jet i’d suggest.

Sorry for your mate if it was not executed to spec by the contractors/council, nothing more frustrating, i could write a book on it.

Didnt the parade of shops along here complain that water was draining into their premises. I agree that its a shame its not been better installed or that no effort has been made to rectify the problems. The very least that should happen is that its moved somewhere more suitable.

Unfortunately its design (even if executed properly) is not at all suitable to this space – interupting a very busy pedestrian flow. I like the idea of an “open” fountain but if you are going to put a fountain in a place like this you should create some sort of barrier between the fountain and the usable footpath. Also this is a particularly windy spot so that the fountain tended to send off a spray. I like the simple design but the location and context should have been researched a bit more. Maybe, it would be better situated in a park or as part of a collection of street “furniture”.

Got a tour of the new retail units on Sth King St recently. Very impressive. They’re huge!

They need to be. There’s too many small pokey units in Dublin. The unit H&M are in on Henry Street is way too small considering their profile.

Well the ground floors are small enough obviously because they’re split between three but the basement/upper floors are gigantic