Dun Laoghaire
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A lot of work has been done on Dun Laoghaire recently, main street has been repaved and looks well. A lot of the shops seem to be from the 70s, dowdy shoe shops etc. I notice the trendy steel bins are leaking a rusty colour onto the new pavements. When will they learn that they need to use bin liners?
The plaza near the car ferry looks very well, was sown there the other night and is very nicely lit, no chewing gum stains amazingly enough. The restored Victoria monument has been done to a very high standard but have mixed feelings about this one, something more forward looking and all that.
Interesting sculpture near the Pavillion, starting to grow on me and good to upset the local burghers sense of taste. Dead enough place at night time Dun Laoghaire, not much of buzz like. Don’t think the different social classes that make up the place are mad about mixing. The place is probably getting old aswell as younsters can’t afford to buy in the area. Wonder if they’ll build on the golf club there which was sold recently. Probably some naff/posh development.
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There seems to be an interesting kind of open space there in front of that old Hotel. Where the big monument is up high, looking out toward the pier. Walked it last Jan, for a Murcutt thing happening up in Bolton Street. But yeah, I was pleasantly surprised by how much pedestrian stuff is actually developed around there. Great observation. Nightime lighting is really crucial.
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Originally posted by anto
A lot of work has been done on Dun Laoghaire recently, main street has been repaved and looks well. A lot of the shops seem to be from the 70s, dowdy shoe shops etc.One of the problems with the main street is that the 46A still runs through it. Interestingly this is the area that is the most dead at night. There is alot of activity around the Peoples park end due to the pubs and restaurants there, and around the Pavillion area but there is no activity in the area which was recently re-paved. I don’t really agree about the comment on the 1970s shops. Some of those shop fronts give character to the area. Most new shop fronts on Georges St. are just terrible attempts at traditional styles. For example the Euro Decor shop which recently opened and the new shop front on Peter Cryan Optitians (Which replaced a very cool looking ceramic tiled front). The new front on Frewan and Aylward is, however, a good example of contemporary shop fronts.
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I rate the town-hall, complete railway station comlex, ferry-terminal and new pavilion site as being one of the better examples of town planning.
Thankfully, the original railway station has for many years functioned as an excellent restaurant after CIE short- sightedly sold it. I
suppose this was a stroke of luck as anyone who
uses the station will tell you they’ve made an awful
mess of it.In fact, the whole Dun Laoghaire urban set-up/
town-scape is an excellent example of “what the Victorians did for us” and didn’t they do it well. -
I am not sure if CIE sold the train station or not. I think that they just rent it out to Brasserie Na Mara. I fully agree with you about what a mess they have made of the rest of it though. It must be one of the most unfunctional train stations I have ever been in. The stairs are so thin that you cannot make a train that you are running for due to all the people coming up them that have just got off the train. There is nowhere inside the building to sit whilst waiting for a train and the floor is ridiculously slippy when it gets wet (I once saw an elderly man slip and fall down the stairs causing fairly bad bleeding on his head).
Not to mention the roof, which looks good, but was definitly not designed with regards to the winter gales from the north east which make the station feel like it is about to take off. -
Originally posted by phil
I am not sure if CIE sold the train station or not. I think that they just rent it out to Brasserie Na Mara.Brasserie Na Mara is part of Network Catering, Irish Rails catering division.
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