O’ Connell Street, Dublin
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We talked previously about this much blighted terrace at Bachelor’s Walk.
Despite the high quality fitout and huge passing trade the cafe at the corner didnt last the year. Its not clear whether this affects the proposal to refurbish the corner, previously discussed above.
However, my attention is drawn to forth building along which is currently in the throes of a major (and surprising) refurbishment (Excuse the phone camera images).
Its a very ambitious reconstruction of the original shopfront. The detailing is lovely and its very interesting to see the engineering behind the front, which is all currently exposed.
I wonder at the wisdom of this however. Normally I would welcome this return to quality…such an antidote from the assorted plastic crap that goes for modern shopfronts.
However, this feels a little strange. The proportions are odd when one stands in front of the finished product. The entrance is quite narrow and I wait to see whether fenestration and doors make its look pokey.
Its very laudable for the owner to undertake this work. The sash windows about are stunning and the building has been transformed by the painting and cleaning.
However, the proposed use is a Yogurt Bar, and I half wonder whether this glamorous shopfront will suit such a use.
Hopefully it all works out. The fitout continues and I will post an image of the finish development.
Of course the ‘public realm’ here, as with so many parts of the city is an unmitigated disaster.
The tree is ugly and pointless, there is huge scope to widen the space and create a sunny terrace, and much of the ‘street furniture’ could easily be rationalised or better removed. A very simple project to realise a new space at the entrance to O’Connell Street. And perhaps then the various businesses along the stretch would have the chance to flourish.
Yes there is little question that the poor quality and incoherence of the public realm along here is a contributing factor to the mixumgatherum uses and presentation that have proliferated along this stretch for years. Why invest in your premises when the council upholds similar, if not worse, standards that your own?
The reinstatement of the Wide Streets Commission shopfront here is a ground-breaking development. In proportion, detailing, materiality and relationship with the upper floors it is nothing short of exemplary. The Wicklow granite is eye-wateringly good and the masonry construction is robust and substantial. It, along with the major works carried out to the upper facade, deserve some in-depth focus when it’s all completed. I believe the arch-headed Georgian grid windows will be arriving very shortly.
@StephenC wrote:
I wonder at the wisdom of this however. Normally I would welcome this return to quality…such an antidote from the assorted plastic crap that goes for modern shopfronts.
However, this feels a little strange. The proportions are odd when one stands in front of the finished product. The entrance is quite narrow and I wait to see whether fenestration and doors make its look pokey.
I wouldn’t be concerned about the shopfront’s relative incongruity in its current state. The critical intersection between it and the first floor has yet to be finished, making it look somewhat isolated – a sense heightened by the equally unfinished channelled pier to the laneway corner. Both of these will seamlessly integrate the new frontage with the wider building when finished.
I also think we firmly must get away from the perceived necessity of expansive glazed frontages on all of our streets. It is becoming akin to the scourge of attention-deficiency in the social media world, where every ground floor must be visibly, brazenly ‘active’. The most pleasant streets in any city are those that exhibit a mixture of predominantly active, moderately active, and a small percentage of inactive frontages. There is a multitude of service uses, including a plethora further down Bachelors Walk, that are much more suited to moderately active frontages such as this than exposing all of their goings-on to the street.
But I agree that a high grade café or food use (including food products) that plays on the premium that a heritage frontage implies (or should do, and doesn’t in Dublin’s case) is suited to this unit. Indeed, this is now the thinking of the owner, but I believe an arrangement had already been entered into with the proposed yoghurt people. Still, it’s a quirky use that facilitates public access and relies heavily on internal aesthetics – if they get it right.
It absolutely baffles me why a decent operator won’t take that other corner unit by the horns and turn it into a high turnover premium beverage and confectionary shop. The new Peacock Green on Lord Edward Street, another postage stamp outlet, plays on a tried and tested Victorian marketing ploy – stuffing your windows to the gills with eye-watering confections. They can barely manage the crowds in there.
On a recent trip to Istanbul a friend of mine commented on the degree to which businesses there ‘stuffed their windows’ with all sorts of lovely things to entice customers in. We seem to have lost the art of enticing customers through quality shopfronts and window displays… and we (as customers) perhaps seem to have forgotten how we like to be enticed!
The coffee shop on the corner had quite a nice fitout and an undoubted high level of passing trade but it still failed. I’ll hazard that, because this corner is so grimy and chaotic, it simply encourages people to rush by. Or it could have been because it had crap coffee!
Something must change here though. The narrow crossing to O’Connell Bridge is ridiculous…the width of paving on the quay side, bonkers. Check out the awful mess of the adjoining Hickeys Pharmacy beside the former cafe. What a state – where is the pride of an independent business. Add to this the garish greens and pinks of the two other premises on Bachelors Walk. Its all so hideous….why would you want to linger.
Its not that difficult to fix – more a matter of subtraction that expensive addition. Hopefully the restoration of No. 34 will spur further action on the terrace and a demand for a better street environment from DCC.
The windows arrived yesterday Graham, and were installed last night when I passed.
Sadly, the predictability of a major multinational chain seems to be what the market wants at this location…
So now we have two Starbucks on O’Connell Street, two on Westmoreland Street and one (thus far) on College Green – all within three minutes’ walk of each other.
Walked past this morning. It’s a rinky dink little place. You wouldn’t order “for here”, believe me.
The appeal of Starbucks has been discussed endlessly for years. I personally dont get its success here given the amount of good coffee shops that have popped up lately. However it is expanding quite aggressively across the city.
Its a smart looking outlet, exactly what this maligned corner needs. Funny that the last cafe operator didn’t make it. But hey, the old six month rule for cafes and restaurants.@GrahamH wrote:
And inevitably the adjoining Language School (the blue area of shopfront in this image) sticks up a big printed board of a sign across their frontage – just for that extra impact. Starbuck’s must wonder why they bothered.
They should try and get the upstairs of that unit for seating. Then again it would soon get trashed if unsupervised. Tables covered in graffiti and a smell of pee in the corner.
In Korea they have Starbuckses with multiple floors of seating above the ground floor. It works because there is NO anti social behaviour, just floor after floor of perfectly behaved Koreans, quite a sight lol.
In Korea they have Starbuckses with multiple floors of seating above the ground floor. It works because there is NO anti social behaviour, just floor after floor of perfectly behaved Koreans, quite a sight lol.
After two years in Seoul, Dublin was very hard to return to because of just this.
Both Starbucks on Westmoreland St have unsupervised upper seating floors. The one off Grafton St too.
@rumpelstiltskin wrote:
Why can’t somebody just paint this building … why?!!! White paint isn’t that expensive!
You could say the same for 2/3rds of the rest of the city. The idea that “property has its responsibilities as well as its rights” is far from the psyche of many building owners in this city.
Painting and window cleaning..the cheapest of measures…
What have they done to the oriental planes on O’Connell Street? – It is normal to raise the crown of a tree as it matures, but not to remove half of it’s branches.
Just as they were coming in to their own, we are no left with a few leaves on a stick, no doubt all in the name of Bridey, who couldn’t quite see her bright yellow bus stop.
Meanwhile I see the Luas carve up of the street begins as the RPA get to realise their vision – a vista of overhead cables through the heart of the city and it’s main buildings.
A crazy, lazy decision, typical of the contempt many state agencies seem to display for this city & its built environment.
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