Re: Re: Grafton Street

“the street has a warm and intimate character” – nice to see this is acknowledged, as is the poor state of the paving.

Below is only a fraction of the damage at the paving at the southern (Green) end. The northern end is actually much worse – possibly down to the heavy traffic entering here that disperses into side streets before reaching the south.

These are everywhere:

Loose bricks all about too:

And typical remedial works:

The place was in a terrible state after Christmas – a lot of work has taken place since then to patch things up.
To consider how bad Grafton Street has become in places, just think of how pleasant Henry Street is to walk on – its acres of billiard table-like paving is a joy to walk on, by far the best pedestrian surface in the entire city, with no kerbs or tree holes or crossings or raised areas; you don’t even have to look where you’re walking.
Grafton Street is a disaster by comparision – it’s very easy to trip up if you’re not careful. Thankfully this is going to be addressed.

As suspected, the Grafton St lampposts appear to be original Hammond Lane models, probably from the inner suburbs. Here’s the stamp on the base:

There are repro versions of these about the city too though – indeed it is just about conceivable even these are repros, cast from originals with the stamp retained! Hopefully not.
Always hate these wonky extension arms though – they look ridiculous, and elevate high above the street what should be intimate pedestrian street lighting:

They seem to have been raised to accomodate the flower baskets. THey do look magnificent in high summer (though arguably should be a single colour), but could be moved a bit lower down to preserve the lampposts as designed. And the light emitted is secondary anyway – they’re really only decorative, not least as there’s domestic CFL bulbs in them :rolleyes:. Grafton Street is mainly lit by lamps attached to the buildings.

Also some of the lovely granite – surely Irish?