O’ Connell Street, Dublin

@weehamster wrote:

Humm…I dont remember but was bikes locked to trees and poles a part of the design? :rolleyes:

Pretty it aint but there’s a hugh shortage of cycle parking in the city centre. There have been more than a few evenings when I’ve gone in to find all the spaces beside the GPO full. And OCS is relatively well served compared with the Grafton St and Stephens Green area.

Given that there has been much discussion in this thread about ‘temporary’ signage on shopfronts, I thought the following article might be of interest. At the very least, good to see the issue getting some publicity.

The Sunday Times September 24, 2006

An Taisce in war on lurid shopfronts
Colin Coyle

THEY style themselves as shops “designed for the way we live today” but An Taisce, the National Trust for Ireland, has claimed that the “increasingly brash and lurid” shopfronts of convenience stores are destroying the fabric of Dublin.
The planning watchdog has filed documents with the city council claiming that Spar, Centra and Londis “are showing an increasing contempt and disregard for planning laws and requirements”, and that their obtrusive, gaudy facades are ruining the capital’s historic streetscapes.

Kevin Duff, a spokesman for An Taisce, says Centra and Spar are the chief offenders. “These shops are openly flouting planning regulations and there is now a significant level of unauthorised development and non-compliance with planning authority decisions in Dublin, where a new convenience store seemingly opens on a weekly basis,” he said.

“We’ve identified at least 20 examples of these stores disregarding planning regulations. The city council is reluctant to get tough with them and doesn’t want to get involved in messy legal battles, but the situation is getting out of hand. It’s only a matter of time before it spreads to other urban areas.”

The city council has issued enforcement orders against a number of convenience stores in recent months and admits that there have been a growing number of complaints from the public about the visual impact of such shops.

“We have taken action against several shops recently, forcing them to remove unauthorised signs,” said Rory O’Byrne, an enforcement officer. “We’re not actively targeting convenience stores, but we do investigate any reports of unauthorised development.”

An Taisce claims that when convenience stores open, they sometimes use cheap plastic signage emblazoned with their logos and claim that it is a temporary arrangement.

Duff said: “There is a Londis on O’Connell Street, right in the heart of an area with its own special planning controls, that has had a temporary sign outside it for almost 18 months. The policy appears to be to establish themselves visually with a big, bold sign and leave it in place for as long as possible.”

Londis admitted that erecting a permanent sign on its O’Connell Street store was taking longer than expected.

Spar has also been known to erect bold plastic “temporary” shopfronts, Duff claims. “The Spar on Patrick Street had ‘temporary’ signage for eight months. It has finally been removed and replaced with a stainless steel sign, but it’s completely different to what was agreed with the city council.”

Spar, Duff said, has opened several shops without securing planning permission for their facades first.

“Over the past year a significant proportion of their stores in the city centre have been fitted with an internally illuminated protruding plastic box fascia. These boxes have a cheap downmarket appearance and fly in the face of basic shopfront design principles,” he said.

Spar claims that it has a strong tradition of working closely with local authorities in all large European cities and is happy with its relationship with Dublin city council. “Spar takes it responsibilities in relation to planning very seriously,” it said.

“We are in continuous dialogue with the city council through our architects in relation to store frontage and signage.”

Centra claims that although its stores are individually owned by independent retailers, “store fronts have to conform to an agreed brand identity and quality standard as well as conforming to the planning requirements of the relevant local authority”.

Duff cites a Spar on Mayor Street and a Centra on Capel Street as two models of restraint in shopfront design. “Both of those stores have discreet, simple designs, but these constitute a minority,” he said.

@Seandub1 wrote:

I really want to see the street at night with all the new lights working and the old sodium ones turned off. Only then can one really judge the success of the street at night.

Are the sodium ones going to be removed? :confused:

OPW are to apply for permission to redevelop Findlaters House on O’Connell Street as a headquarters and information centre for Irish Aid. The plans will include replacing the exsiting facade with a new angular glass facade incorporating display panels. The ground floor will be used as an information centre and performance space with offices overhead.

Finally some movement on this eyesore but sadly by more or less retaining its present usage it won’t do much for footfall on the upper street.

@Urban_Form wrote:

Does anyone know what that large up-right vent is on the central median of O’Connell Street?

I think its something to do with the power supply to the Luas line above it. Initially it was meant to be incorporated into a kiosk so it wouldn’t be quite so ugly but nothing has happened with those yet.

It is appauling awful 🙁

QUOTE FROM ABOVE “Eircom are indulging in a phone kiosk installation extravaganza on OC street at the moment…. You better get in their quick Fenetec”

Well, I did place a second one at the O’Brien Monument but your observation could not be missed as regards Eircom. As is usual in these matters the goalposts are on a moving rail. At the beginning of discussions with DCC Mr. Skay told me that NO PHONES, were being placed on the footpaths. I agreed with that and located on the central median. Then, directly opposite, Eircom planted theirs on the footpath ! Next, Smart Telecom (or now not so smart telecom) placed one of theirs directly opposite my unit and about ten metres south of Eircom’s – where? On the pavement where we all agreed they would not go.

The gas thing about it is that both Eircom and Smart are in a well publicised war at the moment and both are offering calls to anywhere in the world for 10cent per minute including Vat ! Is it any wonder that the poor unfortunates who invested their last few bob in savings lost so much money in shares in these companies? Ask them will they give you calls for the same price and see what they will say!

Worse news for you guys who (rightly) seem to care about O’Connell Street is that when I asked a certain Architect in DCC yesterday what the hell was going on he said that the phones on the pavement had to be allowed as there are seven more to go up! Some obviously without dial tone!

On an aside issue, I am removing the one from beside the Spire and replacing it with the same design as the one beside Mr. O’Brien. Then, before I erect anymore I am refurbishing all my existing installations with the same type. So, I haven’t gone away, just trying to do things half right, but sometimes I wonder why?

What amazes me is that councils are told by the Traffic Signs Manual issues by the DOE (carbon copy of the UK’s) to place signs as much as possible on existing objects (i.e. lamposts!!) to avoid clutter.

Do the councils do this? No!!

Hence a whole load of ugly plethora which is an absolute eyesore. They can’t even put the poles up straight, never mind the signs!!!

@Morlan wrote:

I’m disappointed with this street and in particular the central median. Isn’t it meant for people to mingle and chill? At the moment it seems like a safety corridor for people to walk through quickly – “Take your photos of the Spire and then you’d better be on your way”.

Out of all the cities I’ve visited, Barcelona’s main though fare “Las Ramblas” has a lot in common with O’C St.

I think the new design of O’Connell street is flawed. The central median should have been a lot wider and the footpaths on either side didn’t need to be as wide. There’s nowhere for tourists and locals to sit and enjoy the street.

Spot on – the median should have been widened, not narrowed – a la the original mall, taxis should have been relocated onto Cathal Brugha St, public seating would be a novelty, while surely the nursery for street poles could have been somewhere else? And as for the way the bridge has been left so unresolved – ghost painted lanes etc… Maybe with the construction of the Airport Metro and Luas connector there may be an opportunity to get it right 😉

I think it might be time to abandon notions of people actually stopping on O’Connell St. It’s an almighty thoroughfare linking north and south Dublin and must be the busiest road and pedestrian route in the city.
Perhaps a better comparison with it is the Place de la Concorde in Paris. Big and pretty* but used mainly to get from a to b and to cross the river.

*This assumes that one day O’Connell St will be pretty!!

Chirstmas lighting has been attached to all the lampposts along OConnell Street. Any idea when the lighting up ceremony is. Rumour has it that Newbridge Silver will be decorating the tree! You know your in the Land of the Celtic Tiger when you hear that!