Fair Play to Starbucks

Great little thread about a great little street, a street which I must admit I have never even walked down and I’m born and bred in Dublin! I always assumed it was private, somehow belonging to the BoI. That ex AIB is a wonderful building, just crying out to be used. This little gem of a street should not be connected to TB. The fact it’s a cul de sac is part of its charm.

The Wesrmoreland St/College Green redevelopment will be very interesting. I really hope Luas line A is chosen and private motor vehicles are excorcised from this axis, along with O’Connell St/Bridge. The whole area would make a magnificent pedestrian plaza with Foster Place being a little shaded haen in the summer and a cosy enclosed space in winter, imagine those trees outside the ex AIB building as a bar/restaurant all decorated in twinkly xmas lights, lovely.

I drank outside on Fosters place yesterday. Coffee, I mean, from starbucks. Shagging cold it was, but the seats were mostly empty which will not be the case in Summer. It was dark and Fosters place and the BOI was gorgeous. Great urban experience.

( Unlike the interior of SB which is too bright and too crowded. And I am not a detractor of Starbucks, I liked it when I lived in the US).

Fosters place would be a good place for a london style subway enterance.

lol – wouldn’t be surprise me though as it seems to be rather hot and steamy in there at the minute, completely jammers the three occasions I’ve passed at different times of the past two days. No one seems to want to go outside – suppose it is November…

It’s not as anything spectacular has been done here now – think this thread is getting everyone’s hopes up 🙂
They have only chucked a couple of tables and chairs out onto a concrete pavement after all:

Should be a delight to sit here during the summer in the dappled sun piercing through the plane trees, though you’d have to ask, why doesn’t the City Council install public seating here instead for the public to enjoy Foster Place, rather than preserve the area for the exclusive benefit of the customers of a retail outlet? If people want to bring their coffee out onto these seats then so be it?

The real, secret reason 🙂 everyone likes Foster Place is because it feels like London, not Dublin. The architecture is very much so that of London, as is the intimate historic atmosphere that is very rare in Dublin today; suppose the Castle Upper Yard would be one of the few other areas that still has this.
Imagine living in one of the two townhouses here – surely the most desirable residences in Dublin?!

Both of them were up for sale a few weeks ago.

The only problem with ‘developing’ or ‘expoiting this underutilised area’ is that this will spoil the very essence of the place – it is perfect as it is: quiet, secluded and largely unknown. Though the way Bank of Ireland dominate the space as if they own it with security cameras and delivery trucks needs to change alright. You always feel you shouldn’t be there, and are being watched…

The taxis are a bit annoying, but not overwhelmingly so. The place to sit is where the girl in the read coat is sitting. Away from Dame street traffic.

Well it’s going to be

shagging cold

and miserable tomorrow too, so it ain’t gonna look much better 🙂

Always liked the corner building there, strangly decent and sympathetic to the BoI for what seems to be a 70s? building.

Though compared with what used to be there – sob 🙁

@Morlan wrote:

Now, the lower facade isn’t to bad. If only they’d used the same render on the upper floors, I think it would look much better.

The ‘render’ on the ground floor is in fact stone, the same stone as was used in the BoI and channelled in the same manner.
Agreed though that as a 70s ‘infill’ it’s one of the best in the city.

I never knew that the pair in the corner was for sale recently. (Not that I’d have been in a position… 🙁 ) It’s been an ambition to call one of them home for a long time now. I wonder do they need a caretaker…?

Another plus for Foster’s Place as a public space is that it has a genuine historic stone sett surface (you can partly see it there in one of Graham’s photos) – the setts are tightly laid and comfortable to walk on, like you would find for example in a French city – whereas the sett surfaces in Temple Bar, which mostly date from the early ’90s, are not well laid and not very comfortable to walk on.

Yes, that’s nice. You can really see the quality there. It’s a gorgeous surface! The few genuine sett surfaces that survive around the city need to be jealously guarded!

Temple Bar is a sham! Here is a typical FOUL stone sett surface in Temple Bar:

Hey..!!! Where am I ……!
Before anybody starts trying to prod DCC into action regarding Foster and Allen Place How about the Members of this Forum,well…the CONCERNED one`s at any rate,meeting up at Starbuck`s tooled up with Stanley Knives or Sharp Scissors.
The reason for the Tools…….?
After a suitably convened Emergency General Meeting the group would divide Commando Stylle (Draughty I know!) and set about Removing the Large Signs which remain tied to Lamp Standards and Poles throughout the City.
These warn of O Connell St Being CLOSED between 1630 and 1900 or somesuch on SUNDAY the Twenty FECKIN Seventh of NOVEMBER !!!!
Now anybody who was in Town on that day will probably want all memories of it repressed but some effort needs to be made to Get the City back on track.
The Official DCC line,I fear,is to leave the Signs up (Facing AWAY from traffic) until the Gregorian Calendar once again aligns with Sunday being the 27th of November and the Chrisamas Lights needin to be lit an all…….!
So c`mon who will be first up to the ockey on this one……..Owen Keegan and John Fitzgerald are reputed to have made a block booking for the Starbucks Al Fresco Tables so don`t get left behind boys n girls..!!!!! Snip Snip 😮

Great Idea…..More Bang for your buck….so to speak ?