college green/ o’connell street plaza and pedestrians
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I don’t know about that. It just looks like a general form of transport, like in Amsterdam today, before the levels of motor traffic made it impossible/unpleasant. Notice old gents and ladies who don’t look poor in the shot outside City Hall.
This (1961) must have been about the last time you saw mass cycling in Dublin. The decline in the ’60s must have been massive. I wonder did people talk about this at the time, or did it just go unremarked?
Even going out on the city streets on a bike today, you are mostly on your own – no other cyclists around you.
@Devin wrote:
Even going out on the city streets on a bike today, you are mostly on your own – no other cyclists around you.
That’s hardly accurate Devin.
Rush-hour cycling numbers today can be similar to those on view here, especially on clear days like the ones in these pictures.The size of Dublin, the distance people have to travel to work, the cost of living in the city centre and the popularization of the automobile are all factors that have contributed to this apparent demise of cycling as the popular mode of transport.
I would say replanning our whole environment around the motor car is the main reason.
Two more old pics of College Green here, the first one from 1900 direction and the second from the 1940s. Lots of life in both pics:
@Peter Fitz wrote:
Brilliant images… you feel like you’re right there (dressed as a 75 year old)
Such a vivid image, and such needless demolition… 4 lanes already … ?
Wow looking at that picture just shows what a miserable effort the “robocop” building was. No attempt made to reinstate the street line and provide city hall with a strong, dignified neighbour.
Comparing the two pictures above – was any extra road space even gained by demolishing the terrace next to City Hall?
That’s what I find most confusing about these pictures: then, we had two traffic lanes in either direction, now, we have … the exact same. What was actually achieved by this wholesale destruction?
The simple fact is that there was a fetish for inner-city road-widening in the 1950s/60s; just be thankful not as much of it was done as proposed. Its successor was the urban motorway, which has devastated this city (I was just noticing the baleful effects last night); at least you were spared that.
Keep your road engineers in a dark cupboard and only very rarely let them out.In fairness, the terrace was standing way out into the street. See the end-building (corner of Palace Street) here in this view from College Green:
But that also meant it was a good point from where to take photos up the street:
I think setting the “robocop” building back actually makes the street much more interesting and pleasant looking.
The reality is that no building should have been built at all let alone set back from the original line. To block the beautiful AIB building is a total disgrace. The site should just have been made a simple mini-square. If something had to use the space then maybe allow a temporary retail setup
@weehamster wrote:
The reality is that no building should have been built at all let alone set back from the original line. To block the beautiful AIB building is a total disgrace. The site should just have been made a simple mini-square. If something had to use the space then maybe allow a temporary retail setup
I know what you mean – a little plaza here, with the entrance to the castle etc could have been lovely but I always feel the loss of the buildings there really breaks down the sense of enclosure of the street, same goes for the break for the central bank. Its at these points that Dame St loses a lot of its drama and power.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0129/1224263355833.html
next luas stops with humps?
@missarchi wrote:
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0129/1224263355833.html
next luas stops with humps?
I don’t know about Luas stops with humps but I do believe there is a reasonable argument for the traffic calming measures you highlight above in certain areas at certain times. DCC in their defense argue that such speed limits have been successful in a number of cities on continental Europe.
However they failed to examine the fact that such limits in these cities only apply in residential areas at different times of the day.
DCC in their (cack handed) wisdom have applied the 30 kph limit across vast tracts of the city centre 24 hours a day in non residential areas.Expect penalty points for doing 35 kph along the empty quays at 3 in the morning whilst the boy racers in the residential suburbs continue to let rip with one hand on the steering wheel and the other hand raising a middle finger at the rest of us.
I think this is a pilot test…
bumps work regardless of if there is a speed limit or not otherwise the car cops it.It’s amazing how elegant and uncluttered these old pics look; 60 years of planning and more professional architectural education have not really moved us forward…
@weehamster wrote:
The reality is that no building should have been built at all let alone set back from the original line. To block the beautiful AIB building is a total disgrace. The site should just have been made a simple mini-square. If something had to use the space then maybe allow a temporary retail setup
The site where the “robocop” building is was a park for much of the 90s.
I grew up with a school friend who lived in the Sick and Indigent poor house, the last remaining house of that terrace, but on the street to the Dublin Castle gate. It still stands today.
The small park was dab, grey and usually empty.
Although in the awful Jackie Chan movie The Medalion it is seen with a String Quartet playing.
The park was there well into the 2000s, till about 2005.
It had a couple of statues and plaque’s in it as well, but i cant remember what for.
It was a good little plaza but it was never used, and was pretty ugly. However it was a good space during the St Patrick’s Day Parade.
It’s now long gone, and replaced by the green monster and a white open space that also not appealing like the park before it.
🙁
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