O’ Connell Street, Dublin
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Well lets not count our chickens just yet Graham. This is the terrace today:
A couple of things to note. The big canvas advertising that went up in the last couple of days on the front to add to Nokia et al. The shocking pink shopfront of the new sew and mend business that opened last week (with no planning permission for shopfront changes). The refurbished shopfront of the former Elverys/then newsagent/now Max cafe.
Suffice to say, I think you’ll be waiting a while for your coordinated rusticated granite shopfronts along the full terrace.
The planning decision is messy. I reckon the condition that mentions the replicated Georgian shopfront to No. 34 is a cut and paste error by the planner. It may well be clarified in the Final Grant.
I think you overstate the significance of improving this terrace. It would be welcome to improve the terrace certainly, but as the humble postcard is in demise, I think its unlikely to radically alter people’s perceptions of our fine city.
Across the way, the new currency converters in 1 O’Connell Street has put up new signage – without planning.
Oh and around the corner at 55 O’Connell Street (Hickeys Pharmacy – a dodgy clan if ever there was one) all that plastic muck went up a few months back for some beauticians. The irony is lost somewhere over Dublin Bay. Another enlightened landlord there…
@StephenC wrote:
Well lets not count our chickens just yet Graham. This is the terrace today:
A couple of things to note. The big canvas advertising that went up in the last couple of days on the front to add to Nokia et al. The shocking pink shopfront of the new sew and mend business that opened last week (with no planning permission for shopfront changes). The refurbished shopfront of the former Elverys/then newsagent/now Max cafe.Suffice to say, I think you’ll be waiting a while for your coordinated rusticated granite shopfronts along the full terrace.
The planning decision is messy. I reckon the condition that mentions the replicated Georgian shopfront to No. 34 is a cut and paste error by the planner. It may well be clarified in the Final Grant.
I think you overstate the significance of improving this terrace. It would be welcome to improve the terrace certainly, but as the humble postcard is in demise, I think its unlikely to radically alter people’s perceptions of our fine city.
Across the way, the new currency converters in 1 O’Connell Street has put up new signage – without planning.
I have to disagree with this. Maybe it’s just my obsession, but I think this terrace is the worst thing in the whole of Dublin city centre. It’s a combination of its prominent location and the egregiousness of its aesthetic crimes that does it for me. It’s supposed to be a gateway to O’Connell St, “the premier street of the nation”. What does it say about us as a country, then, that this is what the entrance to it looks like.
In fact it’s so important, that the city needs to provide a financial incentive to get that original brickwork exposed. That rendering of the corner building is a complete aesthetic disaster, regardless of how long it’s been there. It makes the whole area seem shabby and grey, and really drags down O’Connell St and Bachelors Walk. It should be removed, or at the very least painted over – but the former option is of course by far the more desirable.
@rumpelstiltskin wrote:
I have to disagree with this. Maybe it’s just my obsession, but I think this terrace is the worst thing in the whole of Dublin city centre. It’s a combination of its prominent location and the egregiousness of its aesthetic crimes that does it for me. It’s supposed to be a gateway to O’Connell St, “the premier street of the nation”. What does it say about us as a country, then, that this is what the entrance to it looks like.
In fact it’s so important, that the city needs to provide a financial incentive to get that original brickwork exposed. That rendering of the corner building is a complete aesthetic disaster, regardless of how long it’s been there. It makes the whole area seem shabby and grey, and really drags down O’Connell St and Bachelors Walk. It should be removed, or at the very least painted over – but the former option is of course by far the more desirable.
+1.
Targeted financial incentives to encourage sensitive restoration, and they’ll have to be significant, are in reality the only way any substantial progress can be made on sites such as this.
A more enlightened approach may eventually develop, but in the short term, it’s all about the money.
Couldn’t agree more. I’ve long held that this terrace is completely pivotal on both a local streetscape and a macro city level. Not only is it critical to the scenography of the O’Connell Bridge district and the entrance to O’Connell Street, but by virtue of its prominent location at the ‘crossroads of the nation’, it also has an immense role to play in providing a coherent statement about the very character and identity of the city itself.
The O’Connell Bridge nexus is a problematic space. The bridge and the surrounding quay roads are too broad and too exploded to simply be host to acres of tarmac – they are windswept and lacking in enclosure. The vistas both east and west are disappointing, and there is an overwhelming sense of visual chaos and an absence of design coordination in the buildings and the public realm. The enclosure of the surrounding buildings is generally acceptable, but the architectural disunity here, for such a critical place in the city, has always lent an unfortunate impression of lack of civic pride and general discordance. Upon arrival in the heart of Dublin, you have to ask yourself – is this it? Where’s the evidence of the Enlightenment principles that originally brought this landscape into being? How does the urban landscape here represent us? To be honest, it might as well be a third rate UK city or some dull Canadian provincial capital.
Nonetheless, the hodgepodge of buildings surrounding the formal composition of O’Connell Bridge can also be validly perceived as a built manifestation of the city’s history and architectural evolution, whether it be the 1960s O’Connell Bridge House, the 1920 Irish Nationwide corner or O’Callaghan’s Chance at the apex of Westmoreland Street and D’Olier Street. What is a shame however is the gaping absence of any building or terrace that represents the eighteenth-century heritage of the city – namely, the iconic brick façade with gridded sash windows. The reproduction Ballast Office makes a grim attempt, but otherwise there is nothing to give an indication that Dublin is essentially a Georgian city – a grievous shame for such a critical location. Ironically, the reproduction Zoe blocks on Bachelor’s Walk are one of the most important group of buildings in the city in this respect. Like or loathe their detailing, they are a critical player to providing clarity and coherence to Dublin’s identity.
And yet at O’Connell Bridge we actually have an original Wide Streets Commission terrace – the genuine article, the real deal – sitting there, hidden from view, languishing beneath a blanket of accretions. To get this terrace back to its original form, even if it means having to replace entire swathes of delaminated brick, should be as high an aspiration as transforming College Green back to a civic space. I rank it that highly in its importance to Dublin.
There are keynote buildings, streetscapes and spaces in all cities that establish a baseline character and identity, and this terrace is Dublin’s benchmark. Every conceivable effort should be made to get it right.
This shows the corner shop facade
[attachment=0:21ux9ok2]wm_Clothes and shopsEden Quay Dublin-1.jpg[/attachment:21ux9ok2]
Fully agree with rumpel, Peter Fitz and Graham on this. Nothing says; – we’ve just stop trying – quite like that wretched corner
and yet it had a presentable neatness in it’s original Wide-Streets-Commissioners form.
It should be noted – as evidenced in gunter’s image above – that the terrace wasn’t entirely unified. In typically pragmatic, eighteenth century Dublin form, only the five bays closest to the O’Connell Street corner were composed into a single ‘pavilion’ unit, matching that of the other five-bay building on the opposing Eden Quay corner. The remaining two buildings on Bachelors Walk were an afterthought, neither matching the neighbouring pavilion by way of roof detail, fenestration or even window size in the case of the first and second floors. The equivalent ‘tack-on’ buildings on Eden Quay were more successful in this respect, apparently being built by the one builder with a single shallow pitch roofline – thus the pavilion and its neighbours almost read as one. They’re pictured below with various Victorian signage accretions, hence the darker appearance, but you get the idea.
We probably don’t need to rehearse the usual points about the matching tripartite windows with bracketed cornices on the pavilions facing O’Connell Street, but a little noted feature was the rather limp cornice that adorned the top of the central window of the first floor facades fronting the river. This is an original – if bizarre – WSC feature as it originally featured on both pavilions, including, to more successful effect, on the O’Connell Street elevation at second floor level. Granite quoins also adorned the corners of the blocks – indeed all street corners up O’Connell Street – hence the oddly stranded quoins in the middle of the Bachelors Walk terrace which still survive today.
The fact that the five-bay pavilions were incredibly shallow buildings, being only one room deep, and that they were only five bays wide and not nine or ten to present fully formal compositions to the river, is an indication of the reluctance of the WSC to interfere in private property where they weren’t expressly required. Aside from setting the building line of the quay, they reserved their strict architectural guidance only for the approximate depth of the buildings on O’Connell Street – namely five bays.
As to the shopfronts here, it would appear that the five-bay pavilions did not conform to the semicircle – semi-ellipse – semicircle – semi-ellipse format of the shopfronts on O’Connell Street, as depicted below from a working drawing of the WSC dated 1789.
Every image we have, including Shaw’s Pictorial Directory of 1850 (if a bit stunted in that instance), shows five uniform arches on the Bachelors Walk pavilion – the O’Connell Street elevation obviously having been altered by this point. (Also note the window cornice at first floor level)
It appears elliptical arches only were deployed on the pavilion section. It’s possible this is a nineteenth century makeover, not unlike The Cornerstone on Wexford Street, but it seems to be original as the thin detailing looks correct.
Famously, this corner got a hammering in 1916, hence the application of render over the pockmarked brickwork. This is the greatest challenge facing the removal of the render today, also not disregarding the handsome dentilated cornice of the same vintage. It’s still well worth doing though.
The more one considers this terrace, the bigger a joke it gets. The very image of the city is being persistently undermined here, in spite of the signage not having planning permission, in spite of being officially designated for removal under a statutory Area of Special Planning Control and an Architectural Conservation Area, and in spite of negatively impacting on the character of Protected Structures. It is such an unholy mess, one would be forgiven for thinking it a Photoshop job.
And yet another Photoshop job tells a thousand words in terms of the impact of reinstating the original end pavilion (lead downpipe optional).
The wider view from O’Connell Bridge. What a transformative effect.
Immediately, a coherent Georgian context and legibility is restored to the setting of the bridge. All that is required is a comprehensive reshaping of the public realm (planned for Luas BXD) to radically alter our perceptions of this critical space in the city
Taking in the adjacent pair of houses – and acknowledging that none of this is without technical challenges – the very image of O’Connell Street, the Liffey quays and the ceremonial spine of the city is reshaped.
Of course we’d ditch the Victorian plate windows, and a handful more chimneys wouldn’t go amiss. But this is achievable if the will and, fundamentally, an undertanding of the built form of Dublin was there to do it. Alas, this stuff just isn’t trendy enough, is it?
That single intervention to the city would be so calming and civilized, it’s almost scary.
They’ll never go for it now Graham!
I love that view of the bridge above…just look at the hoards of people corralled onto narrow pavements on the city’s widest bridge while acres of space is afforded to cars. Says it all no?
Thats a brilliant image Graham….a wow factor image.
In saying you overstated the importance of refurbishing the site I wasn’t downplaying how desirable it would be. I simply feel that the IAP for O’Connell Street, which sought to substantially reimagine the premier street in the city (and that by some reports spent €70m before it came to a shuddering halt), failed to alter the perception the built environment and public realm of the city in the minds of the citizenry, so I am not sure how refurbishing one terrace would achieve this.
A project of international appeal might be a comprehensive plan for the north Georgian city and a move towards UNESCO status.
I remember when RTE started to relay euronews in the mid 1990’s, that somewhat annoying but oddly compelling news station.
On their weather round up, they would take a whistle stop tour of European capitals, featuring an iconic photo of each city, overlayed with weather graphics.
Sometimes, Dublin even made it in to the mix, oh the glamour.
Euronews decided that parts of this terrace were representative of the Irish capital, and so a shambolic image of Dublin was presented, complete with random neon signage, tacky shop fronts & the general mish mash we’ve become used to.
The image was cringe worthy. I remember thinking the obvious, why couldn’t they just use a shot of the Custom house, Four Courts or whatever?
But then the reality is that given it’s prominence, Dublin leaves itself open to the perception that this terrace is representative of the capital & who could blame that euronews graphics guy from the mid 90’s for thinking so.
I see that the decision on removing the NOKIA signage etc. has been appealed to ABP. The owner maintains that there are no enforcement proceedings against the current signs. Therefore, without permission for the replacement LED sign the building will not be refurbished and the current signs will remain for twenty years. This will be an interesting case to follow as something has to give.
I know for certain that an enforcement notice was served on this premises in 2010 because I referred it to the Council at the time that the Nokia signage replaced the Baileys sign in September of that year.
I fear that the owner of 33, 34 and 56 will refuse to undertake the works that have been permitted unless he gets new signage.
Spot the difference?
2007 (copyright celtcia)
2013 (copyright urban nexus)
https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc1/905425_562939793758881_153046239_o.jpg
Its not exactly rocket science is it…. There’s an obvious symmetry to D’Olier/Westmoreland Streets from O’Connell Bridge. Wide pavements, focal points, tree lined etc. These are all logical urban design devices that one would expect here.
@missarchi wrote:
Has luas cross city got any new plans?
Well if they have,I do hope it includes enough € for a few bulbs to fit into the dark,unused,redundant,Public Lighting fittings adorning the facades of Westmoreland St (surely Dublins darkest,least inviting major thoroughfare ?) O Connel St and D’Olier St.
I sincerely hope Mrs O’Bama does’nt express a desire to stroll as far as Temple Bar,cos if it’s after dark,she’ll run the risk of getting lost.
@GrahamH wrote:
The more one considers this terrace, the bigger a joke it gets. The very image of the city is being persistently undermined here, in spite of the signage not having planning permission, in spite of being officially designated for removal under a statutory Area of Special Planning Control and an Architectural Conservation Area, and in spite of negatively impacting on the character of Protected Structures. It is such an unholy mess, one would be forgiven for thinking it a Photoshop job.
And yet another Photoshop job tells a thousand words in terms of the impact of reinstating the original end pavilion (lead downpipe optional).
The wider view from O’Connell Bridge. What a transformative effect.
Immediately, a coherent Georgian context and legibility is restored to the setting of the bridge. All that is required is a comprehensive reshaping of the public realm (planned for Luas BXD) to radically alter our perceptions of this critical space in the city
Taking in the adjacent pair of houses – and acknowledging that none of this is without technical challenges – the very image of O’Connell Street, the Liffey quays and the ceremonial spine of the city is reshaped.
Of course we’d ditch the Victorian plate windows, and a handful more chimneys wouldn’t go amiss. But this is achievable if the will and, fundamentally, an undertanding of the built form of Dublin was there to do it. Alas, this stuff just isn’t trendy enough, is it?
It appears the elaborate shopfront currently under construction at 32 Bachelors Walk will house ….a fro-yo outlet. Seems like a lot of trouble for such an underwhelming use.
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