Dublin vistas
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Correct re the southern view towards the mountains. Given that Holles Street acts as a Full Stop to the Georgian Mile and this is quite distant. I’d be interested in seeing how it closes the vista on Cardiff lane though – also I may be wrong on this but is the NCC off-centre to Cardiff Lane? Have we forgotten how to close vistas in this country cf Jervis Street/Parnell centre?
@RoryW wrote:
Have we forgotten how to close vistas in this country
Not sure if we ever knew, starting with Upper O’Connell street … surely the Rotunda could have done a nice job capping that one.
We used to be okay, but we were never great at it. Even City Hall is slightly off axis.
Interesting challenge- can anyone name an urban building that is located and oriented precisely on an axis?
(I say urban because a few country houses are bang on- though fewer than you might think. Would this merit a new thread?)
Am I dreaming or was the royal hospital in Kilmainham originally built on an axis with trinity college? Or perhaps Dublin castle? Just a vague memory so completely unsure.
@ctesiphon wrote:
Interesting challenge- can anyone name an urban building that is located and oriented precisely on an axis?
(I say urban because a few country houses are bang on- though fewer than you might think. Would this merit a new thread?)
Yep maybe a new thread for this one !
Can’t think of many in Dublin anyway … I think Leinster House is pretty much on line with Molesworth Street, until that street itself runs off course after its junction with south frederick.
What do ye reckon ?Trinity and Dame St, once that street straightens up.
Connolly Station -or its tower – and Talbot St (one thing we’ve lost through the Spike is the long vista through Mary St, Henry St and Talbot St to the station.alto vetro on line with forbes street when viewed from the north quays…..
Alto Vetro looks down Pearse St too.
@ctesiphon wrote:
We used to be okay, but we were never great at it. Even City Hall is slightly off axis.
Interesting challenge- can anyone name an urban building that is located and oriented precisely on an axis?
(I say urban because a few country houses are bang on- though fewer than you might think. Would this merit a new thread?)
Luke Gardiner/ James Gandon’s Custom House is bang on the Gardiner Street axis, and….
The Kings Inns at the top of Henrietta Street :p:p:p
If people regard the Rotunda as off-the-axis with O’Connell Street, then we must also regard the Inns as off-axis with Henrietta Street
@Paul Clerkin wrote:
If people regard the Rotunda as off-the-axis with O’Connell Street, then we must also regard the Inns as off-axis with Henrietta Street
This is very true – I was making a (poor) attempt at facetiousness, or perhaps I am also intrigued that even when the lads had the chance (messrs Gandon, Johnston, and Cooley), the end product still ends up deliberately set off-axis; ’tis most peculiar when one thinks about it :confused::)
City Hall is dead-on axis with Parliament and Capel Streets. But then it was definitely planned that way where a lot of other schemes weren’t. Look at Leinster House and Merrion Square for example.
One other one that is spot on, albeit a short street and a Gothic Revival essay, is the former St Andrew’s Church at the top of Trinity Street. In fact it was only yesterday that I was admiring this quality about that building. Designed by Lanyon, Lynn and Lanyon, it was built between 1860 and 1862 after a fire in 1860 had razed the previous oval shaped ediface, which had had a facade by Johnston, and was originally built in 1670. Much more about it in Christine Casey’s Buildings of Dublin, p468-9 🙂
…And for sheer symmetry, across the way at Foster Place, one can throw in the end portland stone gateway – regrettably what is now the former Bank of Ireland’s Arts Centre.
@Paul Clerkin wrote:
City Hall is dead-on axis with Parliament and Capel Streets. But then it was definitely planned that way where a lot of other schemes weren’t. Look at Leinster House and Merrion Square for example.
“The site was roughly 100ft square, slightly deeper than wide, and sloped eastward to a precarious boundry by the underground course of the river Poddle. The site was not symmetrically aligned with Parliament Street, so Cooley’s domed rotunda and portico are not axially alinged with it”
Christine Casey’s ‘Dublin’ pg.362
Would have to question the alignment of city hall too Paul, definitely intended to terminate the vista, but it does sit slightly off line with parliament.
Can’t say i do consider the Rotunda off-axis, there’s too much in it. I’ve no issue with the skewed angle; that would have added to the potential vista all the more – to have the domed steeple lined up with the central median of O’Connell Street, with Parnell square directly behind would have been great. As it is, Upper OCS, despite the likes of the Parnell monument, lacks direction & sense of place.
And if I recall, the off-axis alignment of the Rotunda was surprisingly deliberate. It’s thought Gardiner deemed it more important to have a main route (i.e. Cavendish Row) linking Sackville Mall to Dorset Street – then and still the main road into the city – than have the Rotunda directly on axis. Also when you consider Sackville Mall was more of an elongated residential square than a gradiose thoroughfare, perhaps it’s easier to imagine why the Rotunda placement wasn’t so important. Sackville Street was extended to the river 30 years after the Rotunda was completed.
As mentioned, City Hall is sadly not on axis with Parliament Street, in spite of both being planned. It’s only a slight deviation to the right, but enough to be noticable. What’s irritating is that it’s not even the Poddle ‘proper’ that caused this move, but a tributary of it. The river flows out under the Palace Street Castle gate and splits in two – the main course heads straight out across the road under the Olympia, while the other deviates off towards City Hall, then down towards the Liffey and rejoins the other course down at the Clarence. It’s as if it goes out of the way to upset City Hall!
Yeah lets face it, Dublin was never great on the aul vistas. We couldn’t be arsed frankly lol.
Yes:
Leinster House – Molesworth St.
Pepper Cannister Church – Mount Street.No:
King’s Inns
Custom House
City Hall
Trinity
Alto Vetro
RotundaRemember, I said ‘located’ and ‘oriented’.
@hutton wrote:
’tis most peculiar when one thinks about it
This is my point.
Ah but if only Abercrombie’s grand plans of 1922 were realised we’d have a tonne of avenues and vistas etc etc… But we were fairly busy as a nation back then I guess
@alonso wrote:
Ah but if only Abercrombie’s grand plans of 1922 were realised we’d have a tonne of avenues and vistas etc etc…
…and no Henrietta Street. Swings and roundabouts, you might say. (Metaphorically, I should add- though the Inner Tangent probably included a few literal city centre roundabouts.)
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