Cornmarket St (De Coal Kay)
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I notice lots of work going on running the length of Cornmarket St. I assume this is a repaving / new drainage exercise. Does anyone have renders? Is there street furniture etc going in? I know Cork CC have had various plans for this street in recent years.
Thanks in advance…
Old maps of Cork show that the Coal Quay was, in fact, part of what is now Lavitts Quay.
Lavitts Quay ran from Patrick Street to the junction of what is now Emmet Place (and was Nelson’s Place). the rest was the Coal Quay to the junction with Cornmarket Street’
I do not know when the ‘name change’ came about.‘name change’ aside, i’m really eager to see this stretch of public domain used to it’s potential (finally) and I really, really hope they’re not going to dig it all up, repair some drainage then re-tarmac it all… it’d be no suprise. it’d be just like the CCC’s recent efforts as well, to take a good vision for the area, then cut all the good stuff to be left with a basic pave and paint solution… we’ve seen this shiz already with Patrick St, I really hope the CCC grows some balls and, more importantly, the ability to decipher a hawk from a handsaw on the issue of public realm design, vis. integrated temporary market tent design. While it’s crucial to make this place a space that will appeal to the wider population of the city, it’s also crucial to retain an element at least of the folk who traditionally populate the area – if it becomes too gentrified it’ll be spoilt. If they F**k this one up Cork will lose one more of it’s most promising features, and take another step closer to the bland typical international typology of cleanliness, international-shopping-brands and general soul-less-ness.
here’s a link to the CASP for the area;
here’s a link to the Cornmarket Centre’s ideas of the area;
http://www.irishandeuropean.ie/Cornmarket_centre_update_Jan_07.pdf
and a quote from Radioactiveman from elsewhere in this site;
While we’re on the subject of the Cornmarket Centre, I’ve managed to finally get some images of what the finished product will look like.
From a retail point of view, it’ll comprise 17 retail units on 2 floors over basement on a c.1.5 acre site comprising the old Guy and Co. site and St. Pauls Church. The development will offer units ranging from 93 to 3716 sq.m for food fasion and entertainment uses.
There will be two large retail units at basement level (c. 1000 sq.m. each) along with parking for 66 cars.There will be five units facing on to Cornmarket Street at first floor level (the largest being 753 sq. m.). There will also be a mall area at this level with physical linkages to St.Pauls which will house a retail unit.There will be three retail units on a mezzane level with more on the second floor.
There are lots of rumours as to who is going to take some of the larger units, but they remain that at the moment. Irish and European are handling the retail letting.
I thought they were going with the glass covering for part of the street with the permanent market in this part…..it was in the echo so it must be true!! 😉
@Leesider wrote:
I thought they were going with the glass covering for part of the street with the permanent market in this part…..it was in the echo so it must be true!! 😉
Yes it was originally planned to have a permanent canopy however the businesses on the street along with the gardaà had some concerns about people climbing on top at night or winos hanging around underneat which makes sense.
There will now be temporary demountable stands.@barneymagee wrote:
Yes it was originally planned to have a permanent canopy however the businesses on the street along with the gardaà had some concerns about people climbing on top at night or winos hanging around underneat which makes sense.
There will now be temporary demountable stands.Makes sense as well considering most of the stalls will only be operational over the weekend. It will good to see that street tidied up though, pity the hotel isn’t going ahead down by the river to block off the car park it would have transformed that area but this is a great start and as much as the corpo can do.
I’ve been out of the country for nearly a year now, and I had just assumed nothing would happen with the street for years, until I saw this today on another forum. It doesn’t really give much of an impression of how the finished product will look, but it’s encouraging to see some serious work being done at least.
It’s a grand, wide, open street and I imagine it will look ten times better when it’s not just a patchwork of uneven footpaths, potholes and gravel. It would be great if some enterprising party could tackle the derelict infill site / car park and maybe even have a go at bringing some commercial life to the adjacent alley. And unless it’s been done in the mean time, I’d love to see the Loft show some civic pride and clean/restore the limestone frontage as their neighbours have done – it makes a huge difference.Ah, here’s what I mean about cleaning the stonework:
See the difference between the Coal Quay bar on the left and the rest of the facade?
And a proposal for the derelict site I mentioned: https://archiseek.com/content/showthread.php?t=7662
@bosco wrote:
I’d love to see the Loft show some civic pride and clean/restore the limestone frontage as their neighbours have done – it makes a huge difference.
I think there needs to be a law to compel owners to maintain their properties, even if the council does it and claims the money back. The Derelict Sites law only allows them to take over almost decrepid buildings.
There is a law for listed buildings which means the owners can be forced to maintain them to a certain standard. Perhaps that could be expanded to cover all buildings.
Using that building as a carpet warehouse is such a waste. And with the difficulties with vehicular acess, it’s not even a particularly appropriate use.
I bet the owners are gutted that they didn’t sell up three or four years ago.
did they cut away the original stonework to insert that large rectangular opening on the right hand side? it certainly looks that way…? if they did it’s a real shame, it’s a very strong facade otherwise.
They did.
Although, in fairness to the current owners, they weren’t responsible.
It was done in the 1970s when a cash and carry was operating in the building.
To be fair to the owners they wanted to clean the stone around 2 years ago but were stopped by the corpo…….let me find out the exact reasons for that and will post it when I meet a man about a dog later 😉
Anyone have up to date photos of how far they are after progressing on this??
@Leesider wrote:
Anyone have up to date photos of how far they are after progressing on this??
Don’t have photos, sorry, but can describe it for anyone who hasn’t seen it in progress.
The plan seems to be similar to Patrick St./Grand Parade. The paths are being expanded in width in order to narrow the roadway to a constant width along the length of the ‘quay’ (just wide enough for one lane either way). The path along the East side is relatively narrow and fixed in width, while the pathway on the other side will probably vary in width more.
The paths are paved similarly to the other streets, the roadway is tarmaced, and there seems to be a paved margin along the roadway on the West side, similar to on Patrick St.
@who_me wrote:
Don’t have photos, sorry, but can describe it for anyone who hasn’t seen it in progress.
The plan seems to be similar to Patrick St./Grand Parade. The paths are being expanded in width in order to narrow the roadway to a constant width along the length of the ‘quay’ (just wide enough for one lane either way). The path along the East side is relatively narrow and fixed in width, while the pathway on the other side will probably vary in width more.
The paths are paved similarly to the other streets, the roadway is tarmaced, and there seems to be a paved margin along the roadway on the West side, similar to on Patrick St.
Thanks for that, any idea on what kind of lighting they are putting in?
@Leesider wrote:
Thanks for that, any idea on what kind of lighting they are putting in?
There’s nothing there yet, but given the similarities with Patrick St. and Grand Parade, it’s almost certain to be one of those two styles (Pitmit or Flannery), don’t know which, sorry.
I’m also curious about the stalls which were in the plan – I’m not sure if there’s room on the path on the East side for them, so are they going to be temporary structures on the roadway , with the roadway being closed. Or just semi-permanent stalls on the West side, on the paved road margin.
This isn’t too far from completion now, looks good. It still looks a little bare without the lights/street furniture, but should look great once done. There are some nice buildings along that street, the Cornstore/Loft building (which now has finally had the shrubs/bushes/small trees removed from it!!), the Bodega, the Bridewell Garda station, the Corkmarket centre (the lower half, at least), and even the Roundy pub at the end looks good.
For some reason I’m not sure of – the footpath is inconsistent along the West side. Level, then a step down by the Bodega. At the Cornstore the path slopes down to road level. And at the corner the footpath slopes sharply upwards – awkward to stand on. Is that the point?
Also, a correction to my post above, there’s just one lane of traffic, with another paved ‘lane’ for setdowns/taxis presumably.
A bit surprising too, the works only go as far as Kyle’s St., not around the ‘kink’. I hadn’t realised that previously.
@who_me wrote:
A bit surprising too, the works only go as far as Kyle’s St., not around the ‘kink’. I hadn’t realised that previously.
The work from Kyle Street around to the Coal Quay will carry on in Phase II. I think that starts in October. Funding is in place for it but it won’t be finished until the next year. Work will stop over the Christmas period. I presume it will just continue the same style from the other half of the street.
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