Most Beautiful Building in Cork?
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@A-ha wrote:
When did you last see it? Either that or it was just the bottom area of the building I saw as I was going into Virgin (which really did look grubby). Thanks for the picture, if I was looking till now, I still wouldn’t be able to find one.
The Queens Old Castle has recently been given a new fresh paint of coat and cleaned. Virgin have erected new signage – a little classier (black) than it’s bile yellow predecessor.
Also, I was delighted to see NorthGate House has finally been repainted after months of flaking and chipped paintwork. It looked dreadful across NorthGate Bridge. Now if they could only weed the moss from the drains we’d be set – and maybe the Gate & GardenView apartments could take a hinter. 😉
I wouldn’t get your hopes up. After all, a big job like weeding out the moss takes alot of consideration, not to mention going to the city council, the planning authorities and what have you. Yeah right! I’d be quicker if I went and did it myself.
@A-ha wrote:
I wouldn’t get your hopes up. After all, a big job like weeding out the moss takes alot of consideration, not to mention going to the city council, the planning authorities and what have you. Yeah right! I’d be quicker if I went and did it myself.
Believe it or not, they did weed the moss from the drains! Fair play! 😉 The building looks remarkable better for it too – now if we can only do something about the unsight tarmac paving fronting NorthGate Bridge (a grass divide with granite pathway and trees???) and tidy up the damp stains and poor paint along the Gate Multiplex and adjoining apartments, we’ll be set! 😮
I know everyone slags them off now and again, including me, but I think it is a credit to the council that they are keeping our pavements so clean. I don’t think other city councils put as much effort into taking chewing gum off the pavements then they do in Cork. I know it’s only something small, but it’s always something I notice not just in Cork but in Dublin or Limerick aswell. I believe getting rid of chewing gum is one of the most expensive areas in keeping an area clean and it’s good to see so much effort being put into the small little things that most people don’t even care about. God, I am such a loser, I just spent the last five minutes writing a post about chewing gum. And remember…. chewing gum is a priviliage, dispose of it properly. It is banned in Singapore!
Anyone able to tell me anything about the building that houses Meadows and Byrne in Academy Street??? It’s really nice, but don’t know anything about it.
Thanks lawyer, I didn’t even know the name of the building. It’s got quite an impressive history to it aswell. 🙂
Converting this into a City-centre pad is my fantasy project. Gorgeously simple architecture, practically next door to Idaho café. . .
You’re right redabbey. I mentioned this building way back. There was a cork2005 event held there and i managed to get a good look round. Its empty inside and has huge rooms just crying out to be converted into art gallery, restaurant, etc.
Top floor has some really interesting remnants of Corks old tram system too.
The building is owned by ESB.Where were the trams kept at night time? There must have been some type of yard where they kept them? I love looking at all the pictures of them. Good exhibition on a few months back in one of the art galleries showing old photos and paintings. Shame they’re gone.
@A-ha wrote:
Where were the trams kept at night time? There must have been some type of yard where they kept them? I love looking at all the pictures of them. Good exhibition on a few months back in one of the art galleries showing old photos and paintings. Shame they’re gone.
There was a tram garage on Albert Road – top end, near the traffic lights.
It later became a depot for the ESB and is now used for various things including the Cork Sculpture Factory.
Trams ran to various places such as Blackrock, St. Lukes and the Western Road.If you are really interested in the trams and their history, try the City Library for a book called ‘Tram Tracks through Cork’ by Walter McGrath and published in 1981.
Thanks lawer. I’m not just interested in the trams in Cork, i’m interested in everything to do with transportation. The city was better served by public transport back then, then it is now… it’s such a pity. Did Galway or Waterford ever have trams? I presume Limerick’s tram system went about the same time as Corks. I’m sure they’re equally annoyed that the lost their tram network too. Stupid Irish Government… they can’t get anything right, lol. Thanks again.
A surprisingly and unfortunately overlooked building in my view is the magnificent St. Vincent’s Church in Sunday’s Well. Built between 1851 and 1854, the church and monastery officially opened on 24th October 1854.
“The building is a remarkably successful use of a difficult site. The southern aisle of the church (1851) is prolonged into a residential range, three floors high, that turns a right angle before abruptly terminating at the street, making up two sides of a piazza in front of the church. A floor below the level of the piazza a vaulted hall opens directly on to a garden terrace to the south. Above, a pivotal corner turret is corbelled out on a stunted column. Similar stunted columns hold up the arches that divide the flights of the principal staircase.”
– Jeremy Williams, ” A Companion Guide to Architecture in Ireland, 1837-1921″
(Irish Academic Press, Dublin, 1994).It enjoys a wonderful perspective overlooking the city, notably Fitzgerald’s Park and surrounds, from the sharply steep Northern slopes of the city. It reminds one of some sort of Central European palace bracing Cork’s unique and interesting topography.
It looks very similar to areas of Prague or Budapest. That gothic type of architecture is very prominant throughout the building.
I think it would be fair to say that it is simply an Eastern European influence as I have seen similar styles as far east as Latvia
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