Re: Re: ‘Dutch Billys’

Yup…well and truly repaired. It was much too depressing to photograph…particularly on such a lovely day. With the extent of destruction now undertaken it really makes little sense to retain whats left. Its such a shame, two interesting little buildings lost to the city. How much of that due to negelct.

Something stood out at me on reading an otherwise unrelated article in yesterday’s IT – MEET OUR RESCUERS:

ACROSS TOWN, FAR from the hip and edgy Eastern Comfort hostel boat, lies the sedate neighbourhood of Wilmersdorf. On a busy street the sign for the Kegel-König promises “German food and bowling”.

Inside the decor is tired 1980s: canary-yellow walls and wood-effect vinyl flooring. In a backroom overlooking a car park, six men and two women, mostly pensioners, sit at two tables of four, engrossed in their game of cards. They are playing the popular game of skat, which some suggest is a close fit with the German character.

In the basement, the lights flicker on to reveal a sizeable bowling alley, anno 1960. Wolfgang ran this bar and bowling alley for a decade but gave up when the new owners – Irish investors – jacked up the rent.

“I understand they want to make a return on their investment, but they wanted too much money,” he says. Pointing at a sizeable hole in the basement roof, he adds: “I had to battle with things like this for years. I don’t understand why the new owners don’t invest in their property.”

I dunno..maybe its generalising, but looking around our city, on this fine spring day, I cant help wonder why even the basics cant be done…window cleaning, painting, basic upkeep. We celebrate our design culture with PIVOT Dublin but our design professional seem to have deserted ship…merchanising, interior design, architecture, building presentation, shopfront design.
Perhaps if these two had been better cared for…with responsible usage we might not be looking at a pile of bricks right now.