O’ Connell Street, Dublin
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And here’s a view from around 1895 showing the corner building, as well as its neighbours on Eden Quay.
Yes Graham, and there is also a billboard on the building at the corner of O’Connell Street and Batchelor’s Walk!
Plan by bookies for former O’Connell Street bank rejected
Paddy Power Bookmakers has been refused planning permission by Dublin City Council to refurbish the former Bank of Ireland premises at 28 Lower O’Connell Street and turn the protected building into a betting shop and sports café. The company’s proposal was to refurbish the plasterwork, timberwork and flooring and install three satellite dishes on the roof. It also intended to clean the facade and put up new signage. The first, second and third floors were to be converted from banking offices to a restaurant and café.
Aha – do you know the grounds for the refusal, presumably it was the use? Wonder what they’ll do with the property if they appeal and are refused…
Phil I just knew those signs would be pointed out by someone 🙂
However some enlighted owners had them removed cause by 1901 they’re gone! They died a death with Victoria, the end of an era 🙂Originally posted by Graham Hickey
Aha – do you know the grounds for the refusal, presumably it was the use? Wonder what they’ll do with the property if they appeal and are refused…Phil I just knew those signs would be pointed out by someone 🙂
However some enlighted owners had them removed cause by 1901 they’re gone! They died a death with Victoria, the end of an era 🙂You just don’t take me seriously anymore Graham! 🙂
You should have a look at the thing that comes up before programmes on RTE showing O’Connell Street. Guess what? No signs on that building. They have been airbrushed out!
I do believe a McCafé is going into McDonalds 🙂
Lovely slate/limestone floors going in, the whole place is being refurbished with, amongst other things bizarrely, real moveable chairs – not a bolt in sight!
Very sharp dark wood effect partitions going in too, not quite Brazilian mahogany but a very welcome improvement 🙂
The muted lighting and swanky fittings will make a huge difference to the image and appearance of this premises from outside, and to this fast-food belt overall – hopefully with the shopfront being dumped too. There are many takers for pre-cut polished granite in this city.And what was Champion Sports next door is having a refit too so things are gathering pace round here, and it’s good to see it happening while the public domain works are also being carried out – short-term pain for long-term gain and all that.
Those RTE intros are great with the old landscape icons morphing into modern icons today.
What a great revamp for that part of O’Connell Street, good to see the shops are making an effort too….hope the new paving here is done before Chrimbo.Originally posted by Graham Hickey
I do believe a McCafé is going into McDonalds 🙂Lovely slate/limestone floors going in, the whole place is being refurbished with, amongst other things bizarrely, real moveable chairs – not a bolt in sight!
Very sharp dark wood effect partitions going in too, not quite Brazilian mahogany but a very welcome improvement 🙂
The muted lighting and swanky fittings will make a huge difference to the image and appearance of this premises from outside, and to this fast-food belt overall – hopefully with the shopfront being dumped too. There are many takers for pre-cut polished granite in this city.I hope I can still get a Big Mac there! 🙂
And what was Champion Sports next door is having a refit too so things are gathering pace round here, and it’s good to see it happening while the public domain works are also being carried out – short-term pain for long-term gain and all that. [/B]
As far as I know, Foot Locker have bought a whole load of Champions Sports outlets. I noticed that one of their Grafton Street outlets is also to be one, whilst their outlet that they converted into a trendy shoe/runners shop beside the McDonalds (Sorry I mean the McCafe/McDonalds segregated fast-food outlet) at the bottom of the street is also being atered – presumably for Foot Locker – after only being in existence for a few months.
Originally posted by sw101
i’ve always had pride in my country, travelling far and wide and stressing my southern accent when it suits to make new friends. i’ve lived in dublin for four years, always north of the river, and the only occassion i have to feel shame for my heritage is when i walks the streets of my capital. its disgusting. the ppl are dispicable, the authorities are out of all order, and improvements are blocked by anal members of a defunct state. bring on the next recession so i have an excuse to take my filthy degree and leave in a blaze of wake-induced vomit.and just so i’m not accused of leaving the topic of the thread: O’CONNELL STREET IS A BIG SMELLY KIP
It was never that bad at any stage
Mc Donalds opening a Mc Cafe on O’C. St. is an interesting development; When you think of the Grafton Street Mc Donalds, the face to the street was transformed (positively) when the Mc Cafe opened.
Because McDonalds O’Cll. St. occupies two building frontages in the middle of the burger strip, if done right the Mc Cafe could have a turning-around effect on the whole strip.By far the worst on the strip is Supermacs, with its PVC & polished granite shpfront. I know fast food restaurants are an easy target but I hold particular DESPISE-ment for Supermacs (yes I know, great-Irish-sucess-story….) – once they open on any main street, they become the focal point of the town – just think of Nenagh, Carrickmacross, Athy, Claremorris & of course Eyre Square, as hilariously sketched by el architino on the ‘New Design for Eyre Square’ thread.
Back to Graham’s Four Georgians post for a minute:
Yes, it’s quite interesting to see that wrecked bit of exposed red brick at 1st floor level of 34 Bachelor’s Walk. I think that most of the damage to the brickwork you can see there is more recent than 1916 & was probably caused by various steelworks & mountings for billboards etc. The stone window sills have also been crudely shorn flush with the facade to acommodate advertising structures (no respect!!).
That said, photos of the group immediately after 1916 show them to be very pock-marked with machine gun fire alright, and I think one biggish hole about half way up the corner building on the south facade (can never find the photo I want!). The patch-up job just shows the mentality there was at the time of keeping anything that didn’t absolutely have to be replaced (whereas they were demolishing hundreds of perfectly good Georgian & Victorian buildings all the time here, there & everywhere in Dublin between the ’60s and the ’80s.
The bit of red brick also confirms (since there are no known colour photos of O’Connell Street prior to 1916) that the Georgians of Lower O’Connell Street were in red brick and not the yellowish-brown brick of the same-design-concept but slightly later D’Olier St. scheme, as seen in the Irish Times buildings (although one or two of the survivors on the opposite side of D’Olier Street seem to be in red brick :confused:.)
Sometimes I think it would be good to remove the render and restore the O’Cll. St./Bach. Wlk. group to their original appearance – with modern building conservation practices it wouldn’t be much trouble to repair damaged brickwork and tuck-point the facades with lime mortar – they would look very well.
The only thing is that by removing the render you would lose the sharp detailing on the corner building: the modillion cornice & window architraves, and there is a conservation argument or principle that you should respect later alterations in a building. I know the architraves are quite plain and simplified relative to a lot of similar Victorian/Edwardian embellishments, but I think they look kind of good, especially the one at the tripartite window on the first floor of the O’C. St. facade, and suit the 1920s plate glass sashes. These sashes were painted navy I think until recently but are now off-white which harmonises well with the sandy cement-render of the early 20th century. Still, overall it might be worth restoring them to brick, as a relic of the sublime streetscape that once was.
The Council do want to get this corner in shape, though. In the O’Connell Street IAP Special Planning Control Scheme (2003), all of the advertising structures here are “designated for removal” (exactly what the leverage is for doing this though, is not clear). The Special Planning Control Scheme is an interesting document & makes a good companion to the original IAP plan. It might be on their website (I haven’t looked cos they sent An Taisce a hard copy 🙂 .)
Originally posted by Devin
Mc Donalds opening a Mc Cafe on O’C. St. is an interesting development; When you think of the Grafton Street Mc Donalds, the face to the street was transformed (positively) when the Mc Cafe opened.
Because McDonalds O’Cll. St. occupies two building frontages in the middle of the burger strip, if done right the Mc Cafe could have a turning-around effect on the whole strip.
They also do much better coffee than Bewleys, if only they would remove those horrible plastic signs.
I cant believe that you are all seriously suggesting that a McCafe is a positive development for O’Connell St. I see no difference between a McDonalds proper and this McCafe format. It still amounts to cheap facades, litter and a move away from encouraging higher quality establishments onto our main streets. You may as well say that the fact Supermacs sell Italian gelati is a cultural step upwards for them!
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They also do much better coffee than Bewleys, if only they would remove those horrible plastic signs.
As for this…well I think it says it all when we have moved away from a cup of coffee being a civilised daily pleasure to a plastic cup of scalding hot water with a safety warning and ample opportunity for a lawsuit, to go!
As for this…well I think it says it all when we have moved away from a cup of coffee being a civilised daily pleasure to a plastic cup of scalding hot water with a safety warning and ample opportunity for a lawsuit, to go!
That’ McDonalds not McCafe – they use proper mugs don’tyaknow
I think (what I’m still assuming is) a McCafé has a positive contribution to make from the perspective of improving the street frontage of the premises. I don’t object to McDonalds being on O’Cll St, but rather it existing alongside three other similar establishments, right on the introductory terrace of the street.
Any decent improvement has to be welcomed – although the likelihood of the shopfront being replaced is not very high considering internal fittings have already been installed directly inside.
I think Supermacs is really the truly offensive one of the four, occupying a prime corner site, with its cheap nasty horrible, horrible white framed doors & windows, dated slanted profiles, posters pasted all over the windows, cheapo internal fixtures for the world to see though its picture windows, and not to mention the smell from the place. And the pink paint on the panels of the upper floors looks cheap and jarrs with the red brick further up.
Lovely windows upstairs though – ah the olden days, when everything was perfect 🙂I agree Devin re the corner building, there is a difficult toss-up there between retaining the lovely cornice and window dressings, esp the one facing into the street, and attempting to restore the brickwork and making the terrace work as a unit.
It’s terrible to see the cills sliced off in the way they are on the other building, and the paint slapped over the brickwork.
I think if preliminary findings suggested it would be possible to reveal the bricks on the rendered ones it should be done, as it would make a greater contribution to the whole, similar to the revealing of the ambulatory of City Hall (allbeit on a more modest scale :)) Either way, there is no way the corner building should be painted I think, just clean it and retain that sombre 20s look.It’s interesting you mention the brick colouring of D’Olier St & Westmoreland, I’ve always wondered which street won the battle to have ‘their colour’ displayed on the prestigious corner building facing onto the bridge at the apex of the two streets – was it Westmoreland’s red or the stock bricks of D’Olier?
It’s so frustrating as I’ve only ever seen black & white engravings of it 🙂And just on the plaza/road issue again, it is ironic that just after the studs have gone down that I saw someone tripping on the kerb for the first time yesterday. It was a woman walking off the raised area to cross over towards Clerys and didn’t see the step. Well she went head first right out onto the carriageway and slumped in a heap out on the road. Aside from it being very difficult not to snigger, it was clearly a very nasty fall indeed and she was lucky there was no traffic going by. She could very easily have broken an arm or wrist. (Her husband hauled her up again)
Still, it’s a difficult one to call, there are more than enough ped crossings on the street now – then again the nature of the design, the fact it’s a plaza lends itself not to indiscipline, but simply pedestrians being unaware of exactly what’s what round here.
I noticed Today that the section of median as far as the Savoy ha reopened albiet in its original format.
It really does make a difference as the Street is so much more open than it was, although the siting of large amounts of bicylce parking in the central median really appears to put people off using ths stretch on account of the obstruction.
DCC would be well advised to move the provision of bicycle parking to another location and ban all motorbikes and scooters completely from what is a footpath.
Originally posted by StephenC
I cant believe that you are all seriously suggesting that a McCafe is a positive development for O’Connell St. I see no difference between a McDonalds proper and this McCafe format.Much as we’d like them to, the fast food restaurants are not going to go away, so we may as well welcome any improvements in their appearance however slight. The long-awaited ‘higher order’ uses for O’Connell Street are only going to begin to happen on sites or in premises’ that are now vacant or house short-term concerns.
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