Most Beautiful Building in Cork?
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Funny but the Church of Ireland gave that land to Cork Corp and the Corpo named it after the most conservative catholic bishop of the last century
@d_d_dallas wrote:
Maybe so – but Bishop L Park is known as as the Peace Park …for reasons best left untouched…
:p Yeah, the less said the better…the spirit of the sixties still seems prevailent in many of the facility’s patrons! 😀 Hmmmm.
Apologises RM – those misunderstandings can be irritating I know – but I’ll take your word for it.
anto – that is indeed an interesting fact. The park is an important element of the city centre – it breaks up the cluster of city centre structures and provides an petite but important escape from the concrete and car-fumes. The CoI are to be thanked for facilitating this.
The City Hall has to get a mention too. I think it’s most beautiful at dusk, while it is still bright outside but the lights eluminate it and it’s refelection can be seen in the Lee.
City Hall at Night.No more opinions on Cork’s Most Beautiful Building. I thought they’re would be loads of people giving their input. Ye gotta have some favs.
No.3 Paul Street – one of the most overlooked, and most distinctive buildings in the Cork skyline. Built I believe to compliment nearby St. Peter’s & Paul’s Church, the building is an invaluable contributor to the city’s viewscape. It’s use of Cork Limestone and red-brick blend elegantly, topped by a slated, skyline punctuating tower which peaks in a perfect V-shaped point, topped with spoked railings. I could well be wrong but I believe it peaks at just over 29m, perhaps 30m. If anyone has better info than me on that building, please share it. Would love to see some images of it up on this thread. I believe th building serves a number of functions nowadays, not least among them acting as a Cura Centre.
It’s not this building I presume given your description, but I think I know the one you mean – very fine.
And perhaps not what you’d exactly describe as beautiful, and one of the oldest ones in the book I know, but Roches is a fine block of a building to quote ctesiphon 😉 – and probably the only building I know of where white aluminum works reasonably well in places 😮
@A-ha wrote:
The City Hall has to get a mention too. I think it’s most beautiful at dusk, while it is still bright outside but the lights eluminate it and it’s refelection can be seen in the Lee.
City Hall at Night.There’s a touch of Gandon about that building..
@Graham Hickey wrote:
It’s not this building I presume given your description, but I think I know the one you mean – very fine.
That’s St. Peter’s & Paul’s, which externally and internally is quite spectacular – must get some inside shots some day. The detail is jaw-dropping. No.3 Paul Street is the building further north along that street at the ‘T-junction’ with Paul Street – quite inspiring. Thanks for the images Graham. I agree about Roches Stores – it just works well.
Devin – both the former Burtons and Grants Department Stores on Patrick’s Street are beautiful pieces. I posted something of them in the LADSOCL thread many moons ago and for a long while I had been investigating their re-usage. The upper floors are predominantly for storage in both buildings, with tacky ground floor signage (shudder!). Though the Grant Store has some usage on the upper floors, it is hardly appropriate for such a fine building. My intentions were to rearrange the internal order of the building’s floor usage to allow them open up into multi-tenant facilities whilst restoring their former glory. The Grant building would have had a complete elevation overhaul/refurbishment – much of the Patrick’s Street facade has become grotty and ill maintained – the revamp would have rectified that. Existing tenants could be maintained, but would require realteration. For example, Burger King would have maintained its location, only it would be reorganised over 2-floors (equating to the same floor space), so as to free up access and usage to other tenants. The English Market entrance would provide main access to the building with a restructured interior to accommodate a dome-like ceiling-based light access feature, looped balconies and new tenant space. Current interiors are somewhat lacking.I feel much of the same could be achieved with the Burton’s store also, but on a smaller scale. It’s a shame to see such magnificent buildings go to waste when they possess so much potential – even from the proprietor’s stance, their renewal offers a source of increased revenue in the long-run.
Burtons
GrantsGraham Hickey wrote:And perhaps not what you’d exactly describe as beautiful, and one of the oldest ones in the book I know, but Roches is a fine block of a building to quote ctesiphon ]I was misquoted / you took my comments out of context / what I meant to say was… 😉
I find it hard to pick a favourite building, but the whole harbour area- bonded warehouses, R&H Hall- has a very special character.
Maybe the Court House on Washington Street? One of only two octastyle buildings in the whole of the RoI, a rare example of a building occupying an entire city block, and a glorious interior too.
Or Lapp’s Quay?
Or the group of terraces on the road in from the Fermoy (Dublin) roundabout, each of which has its own bridge over the railway line?Sometimes it’s a bit like playing favourites with one’s children (I imagine).
EDIT: I forgot Skiddy’s Alms House in Shandon.
Any house with alm as a prefix just screams chocolate box appeal 🙂
Yes the Washington St Court House is spectacular – are there only two octastyles in Ireland?! I knew there was less than 5 or so, but 2? What’s the other ctesiphon?
I was very impressed with the stone used in the portico which has a wonderful grain to it:
Ah modrin technology 🙂
Interesting info about Grant’s Lexington, here’s a wider view including that terrible Burger King shopfront.
The upper facade could look great if properly restored. At least the windows are all intact.
Burton’s condition is also disappointing – especially that clunky Oasis sign. Can’t get over how that was permitted by Cork CC, especially given how recent it is.
@Graham Hickey wrote:
Yes the Washington St Court House is spectacular – are there only two octastyles in Ireland?! I knew there was less than 5 or so, but 2? What’s the other ctesiphon?
Is that Graham doing his contemporary ‘little match girl’ routine on the steps? “Spare the price of a blank cd, guv?”
I think there are only two, but I could be wrong. (If so, I’d be grateful to be corrected.)
Re the second one- I’m tempted to make this into a quiz, but I can’t think what prize to offer.
It’s Carlow Court House by W.V. Morrison.
The Savoy is a really great building in Cork aswell. It’s a really good example of art deco in Ireland, and it has to be the finest art deco building in the city.A fine understated piece – nice set of windows there too.
Thanks for Carlow ctesiphon – wow!
Is this Washington or Carlow town?!
The site the picture is linked from says Cork’s courthouse was originally planned for Carlow but they go mixed up. Sounds credible considering their similarities in the portico department.Is that Graham doing his contemporary ‘little match girl’ routine on the steps?
The photographer stays behind the camera ctesiphon, behind – to press the button like.
And I do not appreciate being compared to Stephen Gately in appearance thanks very much 😀The famous Three of course have to feature:
– utterly depressing to see the derelict Georgian being used as an access point to a car park, and especially standing in such a prominent position. It ought to be compulsorily acquired if not secured immediately by the owner and plans put forward for a full restoration.
The state-hung houses next door though look just fantastic in real life 🙂@Graham Hickey wrote:
The site the picture is linked from says Cork’s courthouse was originally planned for Carlow but they go mixed up. Sounds credible considering their similarities in the portico department.
Though the Cork building occupies a city block, whereas Carlow has a much more ‘in the round’ feel befitting its prominent corner site in the town.
@Graham Hickey wrote:
The famous Three of course have to feature:
[swoon]
I’ve been very happy to see a number of houses, buildings around Cork are being carefully restored and reformed to their old glory. the corner house at North Main st and Paradise Place is a greate example and some of the buildings along washington street west. They have had those awful awful paint coatings stripped, the original brick work reexposed and refurbished. Such work gives an important look back at the past and how this buildings were intended to be seen and they are so much more beautiful for their efforts. Careful attention has been applied to shopfronts and such with many classical wooden frames being delicately restored.
These Georgians here altuistic near the Court House?
Some lovely stuff, and a bizarrely large roof to boot!
You can just make out the swirls of crown glass in some of the panes – really fantastic that these most unusual pane-arranged sashes were preserved. Saying that, they could do with another lick of paint at this stage…
(Suffice to say they also feature in that Roche/IGS book)
That’s a lovely group on Sheare’s Street. They recently won a conservation award, didn’t they?
I love this unified terrace on Washington Street – they’re as good as anything by the Wide Streets Commissioners in Dublin (& same mezzanine shopfront concept). But they’re in a bad way – lots of unsympathetic alterations. I would love to see them receive some attention:
(sorry about blurry-ness; shrinking images down a lot loses sharpness)
@Graham Hickey wrote:
These Georgians here altuistic near the Court House?
Some lovely stuff, and a bizarrely large roof to boot!You can just make out the swirls of crown glass in some of the panes – really fantastic that these most unusual pane-arranged sashes were preserved. Saying that, they could do with another lick of paint at this stage…
That’s Fenn’s Quay (which is what I meant when I said Lapp’s Quay in an earlier post above 😮 – I’m sure the natives were scratching their heads). Lovely job, it’s true. And yes, Devin, it won an RIAI medal for conservation.
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