O’ Connell Street, Dublin

There certainly ought to be a daily fine system – no question. Something like this only needs to be up for a day for a couple of thousand tourists to see it, let alone citizens on a daily basis.
And this sign in particular is even more awful thanks to the very reason they erected it – it has massive impact at that location, visible from the bridge, quays and southern streets, let alone O’Cll St itself.

The cheek of them in erecting it is truly astounding – it covers the entire building, making the baguette one look postively muted:

Lotts Enforcement must be scratching their heads wondering what the heck is going on with 38 complaints pouring in about the same case in one go 😀

Yep – it came down last week in fact, so Enforcement were on the ball. One would hope that the speed of its removal is an indication of the ‘threat’ level, so to speak.

Though they still have giant posters pasted to the windows, forbidden by the SAPC. Indeed these are still on virtually every premises on the street.

However not all is well on the street once more, and yet again it is convenience stores and the depths to which they will plummet in question.
Spar on Upper O’Connell St west, housed in the gracious and well maintained Lynam’s Hotel building, have seen fit to erect this banner across their facade.

Another notorious ‘temporary sign’ one may think, but oh no – as anyone who knows the street well can tell that this particular Spar premises had a relatively decent, unobtrusive, chromed sign foisted on them by DCC, to respect both this protected building and the broader environment of O’Connell Street. And here it is, still lurking underneath!

The brazen cheek of them – you really have to admire their gall. If this out of all the cases we’ve come across doesn’t spell out in black and white convenience stores’ single aim of increasing visibility at all costs, well nothing does.

But yet again, this premises clearly deems the authorities to be a soft touch – why else would they possibly do this? And O’Connell Street of all places! This banner has been up for a good while now – haven’t had a chance to get on to Enforcemnt about it as yet.

Though the same cannot be said of Londis on Lower east, as personally I’ve been leaving it as long as possible to see when the authorites will get the finger out. Here is their hideous ‘temporary sign’, up for over a year now, having been erected c.May/June 2005.

Look at the contrast with the elegant granite cornice above, and the rubbishy decaying floodlights tacked on. Again, as long as DCC do nothing, they’ll do nothing.

Lovely stuff. This premises also played a proud role in forming a prominent backdrop to the 1916 Commemoration in April – it’d bring a tear to your eye.
Horace O’Rourke must be rolling in his grave.

By contrast, just a little further up is the newly converted Bank of Ireland premises, into a (cough) ‘Dental Spa’.
I kid you not, complete with very smart roll-out green carpet. How long will that stay I wonder…

Not quite the tenant one suspects DCC had in mind for the premises, but an interesting service nonetheless. They don’t quite appear to be the snooty upmarket establishment that one might suspect from the outside – from The Sunday Business Post, June 18, 2006:

Smiles Dental Spa to open on O’Connell St
By Tina-Marie O’Neill

The €1 million venture follows the opening of Smiles clinics on South Anne Street in Dublin and on Oliver Plunkett Street in Cork over the past two years. Business partners Emmet O’Neill and orthodontist Hugh Bradley are the principals behind the dental practice, which will open in the former Bank of Ireland building at 58 Lower O’Connell Street. ‘‘Cosmetic dentistry is popular in the clinics and all clients have a dental exam prior to any treatments,” said O’Neill. ‘‘We found ourselves sending people away to get fillings or have crowns repaired and were often asked to recommend dentists. ‘‘So we decided to focus on general dental treatments at affordable prices for adults and children at the spa. ‘‘That will include fillings, checkups, crowns, veneers, straightening and tooth implants. Where getting a crown usually requires two visits to a dentist, we have the equipment to make a crown in one hour.”

The spa will be open seven days a week from 7am to 9pm. ‘‘If someone cracks a tooth on a Saturday night, they usually have to wait until Monday to phone their dentist and until maybe Tuesday or Wednesday to see a dentist. At Smiles, they can drop in on Sunday morning and have the problem treated,” he said.
The practice has eight dental chairs, five dentists, a supervised children’s area, specialist dentists and fluent Spanish, Chinese and Polish speakers.

Ends.

Rather appropriate interior all considering, with faience lined walls similar to The Grand Central 🙂
They’ve also been very responsible in erecting elegant sensitive signage on the columns and over the door, and even applied for permission to erect those temporary flag banner yokes. The cleaning of the lower facade has been a half-hearted job however, and some decent floodlighting wouldn’t go amiss either.