Re: Re: Thomas Street & James Street, Dublin!

And another sorry case on Thomas Street is found at No 29. In February its new owner began gutting the interiors of the building. Rubble merrily dropping down a chute from its 1st floor window for weeks it seemed. Some people who viewed the building before its sale attested to the good (if modest) quality of the interiors. The developer found only dry rot…it all had to come out. By all accounts (viewed from the street) its interior layout has also been very significantly altered with the aim of creating 3 new flats above a shop.

Then in May its windows were removed and replaced with nice modrin sashes. The new windows aren’t a patch on the old and the new glazing in particular looks awful against the older detail of the brick.

None of the above had the benefit of planning permission. As No. 29 is not a protected structure, the interior works were deemed exempted development, the developer felt he could do as he pleased and the Planning Authority didnt seem minded to step in. Interestingly, despite details Apartment Guidelines on minimum space, storage standards, open space etc, and a crackdown by DCC on bedsit accommodation, no one felt they should assess whether the proposed 3 one-bed apartments being developed should be assessed against the guidelines. Nor was the principle of ‘intensification of use’ considered. Nor the potential change of use of the upper floors.

The windows were a slightly different story. As this is an ACA where policy dictates that exempted development provisions do not apply to external works, the develop must apply for permission in advance of works. He didn’t. Perhaps enforcement action might bring the originals back, as was luckily the case elsewhere on the street recently.

The shopfront is next up for butchering. The original is long gone but it doesn’t take that much reconstituted stone to destroy any residual charm NO 29 might have had… just look at Capel Street for examples.

There is no record of a planning application as yet.