South Great George’s Street

Is this site still owned by Dunnes Stores?

Further down the same street towards Dame Street, are the large offices of the revenue which must rank amongst the most revolting buildings in Dublin.

To the best of my knowledge the site is still owned by Dunnes Stores. If I remember correctly, they wanted to clear the whole site for redevelopment, but the Long Hall pub wouldn’t budge. Aside from being a Protected Structure, it is held in some sort of trust by the staff – left to them by the owner – which prevents them from selling it. I’m hazy on the details- anyone know any more? So Dunnes had to incorporate it into their rejigged scheme. Can’t have been easy for the pub, particularly when all around it was being excavated; pity the foundations. Don’t know whether the two redbricks nearer the corner are PSs, though.
The buildings there prior to this new one were a mixture of relatively decent and somewhat non-descript three- and four-storey nineteenth century (?) ones which Dunnes had been systematically buying up over the course of a few years and allowing to fall into dereliction- presumably they’ve had plans for the site for a number of years. And any city council would prefer a shiny new corporate hq to a row of tatty, unloved old shops… There was also a fire in the late 1990s between the Dunlop building and the corner of George’s St- two (possibly) Georgians? I have print photos at home somewhere of the corner pre-redevelopment- I’ll try to get them on here somehow.
I’m glad they kept the Dunlop one, but I’m not convinced by that top-heavy glazed area above, and though the new George’s St building admittedly has its merits, it’s yet another example of the scaling up of the city centre by stealth. I’d be a happier camper if the facade had been slightly more modelled to reflect the original plot divisions.

thank god they kept the long hall!

All five from 47-51 George’s Street are protected structures. 51 is the Long Hall. 47 is the first building on the left and 48-50 is the middle three.
Interestingly, the only other listed buildings on the street are the Markets and Number 65, which is part of what used to be Sosume bar. It has changed its name again recently and evades me at the moment.
I think the building Frank refers to is Wicklow House where the Revenue are. But there is also something called Castle House, which is where Yamamori and all that are, and it’s pretty wicked too, I think.

Agreed on that building; it’s vile and possibly my least favourite in the city especially because of it’s affect on what is largely a very attractive, lively and interesting street. I’ve a vague memory of reading that the building was never designed for Georges Street – it was designed as a stand alone building in a business park. The builders bought the plans to save money. I also remember seeing plans a few years ago for its replacement – I didn’t really fancy the replacement personally but I guess it couldn’t have been worse. It was to incorporate a new entrace into the Castle and would have formed part of a new pedestrian route from Grafton St. via Wicklow St. to the Castle. It will be very hard to replace that building because the scale of any replacement is not going to match that of the rest of the street and it will also have to follow a slope. The latter is something that the existing building does horribly. Also it’s far longer than the new Dunnes one. I agree that the new Dunnes building beside the Long Hall is not bad but I was absolutely disgusted when the earlier buildings were leveled; yes they were run down (deliberately so) but they still fitted into the context of the street perfectly. From what I recall they were all similar in age/style to the Long Hall building. I was shocked to see them suddenly gone, being under the impression that historic building stock was valued by planners these days.

kefu- I think Sosume became The Dragon?
jimg- I know what you mean about those previous buildings. While they might not have been first-rank city buildings, they were important constituents of this varied streetscape and contributed much to its character.
Graham/TLM- afaik, the Dunnes building is to house their head office, though I don’t know what the groundfloor is to be used for- looks like retail. Perhaps the Dunnes outlet in the Market Arcade will be moving? I doubt it, as the other location seems ideal and must get significantly more footfall that the west side of the street.

Off to try and find those other pics in the ‘archive’ (read: top of the wardrobe).

kefu- while I was on George’s St today I checked (and nearly broke my ankle on the kerb outside the Globe as I was looking up- the things I do for Archiseek 🙂 ) and Castle House and Wicklow House are almost the same building- both are parts of the monster. Yamamori is in the Walton’s School of Music building- a (probably) once fine Victorian building whose ground floor has been horribly mucked about, with almost full glazing and a weird mezzanine level. Most odd.

Here are those pics of the old corner pre-redevelopment. Sorry for the quality, but they’re digital pics of 4-5 year old prints sellotaped together. 😮 Should be sufficient to get a feel for what was there originally. As you can see, there were a couple of Georgians (see the bulky chimney stack?) on Stephen Street- this was the site of the fire I mentioned previously. And you can make out, just about, the buildings that once stood on the George’s St side of the Dunnes site, though as is so often the way the ones I really want to show aren’t the focus of the pic, and it’s now too late to rectify.
Seems my previous description (“a mixture of relatively decent and somewhat non-descript three- and four-storey nineteenth century (?) ones”) wasn’t too far off. 😎 I particularly like the pair with the bold cornice below attic level (which are probably early 20th c.- I have a more recent pic of their demolition, showing what seems to be concrete frame construction).

I am also of a similar position; I usually don’t like to see the loss of built heritage;

But in this case the curved elevation onto Stephen St is of real quality; and in many ways it is the perfect scale to develop a city at; I like this unified scheme and feel that Leitrim House has preserved its status at the top of the architectural hierarchy.

The entire complex also appears to have been withdrawn from the market after a summer with joneslang; I can only speculate that Dunnes will afterall by occupying the premises. Whilst on the subject of marketing I was very impressed by the signage on the scheme and the way that the end gable was used for the board as opposed to the front elevation of a protected structure.

True,

But a giant V-Board would have caught both sides.

Des Byrne as immediate past President of the SCS was very vocal on heritage; I am happy that his Druker Fanning practice is implementing his policies.

That’s a persuasive argument you make about Stephen Street. The new opening will certainly be an interesting addition to the pedestrian adventure, and the new building suits the context of the Dunlop better. If the George’s St ones were to be kept, it sounds like a fair trade-off.

@Graham Hickey wrote:

prints disposed of once their original purpose has been fulfilled,

If only you knew the truth… 😮
I have the hoarding tendency (disease?)- I recently spent some time, not entirely without occasional moments of enjoyment, throwing out a bunch of newspapers, some dating back to 1999. Just, sort of, never got round to it. They made for interesting reading.
So it won’t surprise you to know that photos don’t really get thrown away. I took the digital plunge a few months ago.