Grafton Street, Dublin

The job on the old West’s premises seems to be nearing completion, for what it’s worth.

a Graham ‘before’ pic from the ‘shopfronts’ thread

today with the scaffolding down

Their shield of green mesh was so dense that it was almost impossible to glimpse the works, but if you peered in with a zoom lens you could just about see that they had knocked off all the render and exposed the original red brickwork, which appeared to be in pretty good condition. . . . [I’d wager that Graham has got exactly that; good zoom images of the brickwork]

the Grafton Street front with the original brick finish exposed behind the scaffolding mesh

the Anne Street frontage again with the original brick finish peeping through the protective mesh

Whatever about not making any effort to reinstate the two chimney stacks on the Anne Street facade, which remain the stumps that they’ve been for years, I don’t understand the concept of re-rendering the building after all the old render had been so painstakingly removed.

This was built as a brick building, surely the render lessen its quality as a piece of streetscape, and surely it lessens its interest as one of the few remaining 18th century houses on the street. With its anonymous ‘period’ windows and painted facades, I think this is a missed opportunity . . . . and that’s before we even begin to look at the shopfront.

The finished product is rubbish – a plastic, Disneyland, anywhere piece of ignorantly detailed crud that lowers the tone of Grafton Street as much as any parade of mobile phone shops. And that’s before the provincial heritage Monaghan shopfront c. 1994, currently in the making, is unveiled.

Every conceivable effort was made with all stakeholders, including the Department of Environment, to make sure what has happened did not happen to this elegant vernacular Dublin street building. But it did.

One can’t point fingers as to who is responsible for this travesty of a planning scenario, which raises considerable legal questions about the validity of the very foundation of Architectural Conservation Area legislation, but as ever in Dublin, the answer is so obvious, one need not even make the effort.

What has happened here, on the capital’s ‘premier’ street, is quite simply outrageous.

The original long, elegant proportions of the first floor window opes were also revealed in the course of works. This was probably visible inside prior to any works being undertaken. But again, ignored in favour of a tall and cumbersome new shopfront.

Let’s not forget the painted granite window sills.

Or the 1960s-revival slab reveals.

Or the refined resolution of the quoins.

The seamlessly subtle, unpainted joint with the adjacent brick facade.

It should also be noted that, because the building was not a Protected Structure (it should have been), the entire structure was (legitimately) gutted in a matter of weeks. Nothing was left standing only the four walls tottering on steel beams and a corner column. The 1960s shopfront was also partially removed before planning permission was even granted for the external works. Again, the planning authority had no interest in pursuing anything. To stand on the street back in June, hearing the innards of the building collapsing down with multiple blows, floor by floor, through an unauthorised removed shopfront, while a planning permission in an ACA was being prepared with zero conservation input, was simply galling. And even more so when it was being carried out for a Dublin business that prides itself on its tradition and long-standing trading since 1916. Where has the merchant pride gone in Dublin? One truly despairs.

The sole meagre consolation from the whole ordeal is that the building is worth substantially less than had the job been done properly.

West RIP

you sound impressed

Meanwhile, down the street Boots went from this:

To this:

And I felt sick.

Aul Mr Brereton’s on Grafton Street…

Where do you start with the continuing proliferation of plastic on the street. The decline of Grafton Street over the past 24 months has been stark. It must be said that use has held up…there are very few vacant units on the street. However a development free-for-all seems to have taken hold, all the more marked when one considers the major DCC plans for the area as an upmarket shopping street (Grafton Quarter) and of course the now ignored ACA and Special Planning Control Scheme.

Leaving aside the poor quality paving and lighting, which everyone would agree requires updating, the street’s quality is greatly diminished by the sheer amount of signage and clutter being added to buildings, from plastic fascias, to projecting signs, to banners and flags. Secondary street’s such as South Anne Street and Duke Street fair just as badly, if not worse…

Grafton Street is now such a kip that I refuse to walk it anymore. It is baffling how a prestigious street, initially brought down with lower order uses such as mobile phone chains and the loss of specialist shops – and long acknowledged as such by everyone, even including the moronic Irish media – is now entering complete freefall in how the place is presented and the quality of the uses pervading. Once one passes the manicured, if somewhat plasticised, elevations of Brown Thomas, the street presents all the qualities of the main drag of a third rate London suburb – ten years ago.

Is it any wonder major international retailers will not touch Grafton Street with a bargepole. Certainly, if I saw potential in the Irish market for my brand, I would be over to grand and elegant Henry Street in a flash. Or imperious and spacious O’Connell Street, or parts of Dawson Street at a push. Grotty, grubby, garish Grafton Street is now a badge of destruction – not distinction – for any quality retailer and is to be avoided at all costs. The non-existent planning enforcement is shocking, but equally, these myriad crude interventions reflect the mediocre business culture on the street, where many owners and occupiers want investment from DCC handed to them on a plate when they don’t even know their own brand or the type of quality environment their customers want. The amount of plastic windows, signage, awful shopfronts, banners, postering, finger signs and speaker music all indicate an absentee landlordisim – much of it pension fund generated – and a business class of occupiers that just don’t recognise the urban quality of what they could have.

But yes, the lack of proactive implemention of any planning tools at DCC’s disposal is the greatest problem on our hands. Their carelessness and mismanagement of this thoroughfare is really quite shocking and at this stage they should be held to account by the Department of Environment. Likewise, the implementation of their own policies – as with the protection of shopfronts such as Boots, highlighted by Service charge above. The painting of this, one of the last polished timber shopfronts in Dublin, containing a number of historic elements, was granted late last year.

Giving us this delight from Bromley high street.

Elegant reticence of an old lady…

…transformed into utter mediocrity, on a Protected Structure, in an ACA on the city’s ‘premier’ street.

At least the polished granite plinth still survives.

Also the glazing bars before they were painted.

The delightful timber signage with gold lettering has now been replaced with plastic. DCC quality control alive and well as ever.

In honesty, I’d sooner see a million quid spent on some decent large concrete slab paving for the street and the other seven million plus for the bells and whistles regeneration be redirected into a fund to clean up the street’s buildings. It ain’t gonna happen otherwise.

Yes Paul, a question that’s often pondered about. It’s an interesting amalgam of what appears to be an Edwardian shopfront layered over with pretty convincing 1980s elements – though I’m sure others will have a clearer recollection of when the more recent layers were added. The shimmering imitation vitrolite is not without its charms – I imagine it was installed at the same time. The rather floating nature of the pilasters strongly suggests there may be original fabric behind. I’ve picked and poked at the sides to no avail, but there does seem to be something lurking in there.

What is particularly unique about this building is how the ground floor actually protrudes right out into the street, taking advantage of the kink in the building line. It’s a delightful feature, reminicent of Georgian and Victorian retailing modifications to older townhouses – of which there are now so few examples left in the city.

The new paving should be “calm and understated in nature” the council says. The background colour will be a mid-grey with a “way-finding path” of dark grey stone off the central roadway on one side to provide an obstruction-free route along the street.

Street junctions will be marked along the street with a light pink granite square set into a darker orange apron. Entrances to small side streets are marked with cyan granite threshold paving and the shopfronts will be edged with a margin of pink granite setts.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2012/0306/1224312850751.html