O’ Connell Street, Dublin
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It certainly seems out of place to have bus stops lined up along the side of the road on what is largely becoming a pedestrian oriented avenue of sorts, or boulevard to use that irritating 80s term.
I’m not sure if this criticism is well-founded; perhaps it’s just strange seeing Dublin buses pulling up in such an architectural public domain, as one is more used to them halting pretty much anywhere on tatty Dublin streets and as MG memorably once said vomiting out patrons onto the pavement.
To have this happening on the capital’s main street, with tall noisy buses clogging up the narrow roadspace, blocking the views of buildings that the removal of the trees was supposed to expose is an unsatisfactory arrangement.Perhaps the blocking of buildings arguement is a tad far-fetched :), but the cliff-like nature of rows of buses on a newly pedestrian-engineered and architecturally landscaped streetscape is not desirable. Also being constantly interrupted trying to take photographs by the 16A and its six-part entourage is most frustrating 🙂
@Thomond Park wrote:
I had another look at the end building in the flesh this evening and it is actually 1920’s granite and is quite attractive.
The rendered finish was however much more pleasant.It’s a fine angular building on the corner all right – and with original sashes! :eek:.
Had a picture somewhere but seem to have lost it amongst the 476 others in the O’Connell St file 😮 …I’ll get another…
I prefer the granite building to the previous have to say, not that much is evident in the black and white above anyway…
As was said before, the site of Eircom seems to have had a matching building – what a shame it was lost.@Graham Hickey wrote:
Perhaps the blocking of buildings arguement is a tad far-fetched :), but the cliff-like nature of rows of buses on a newly pedestrian-engineered and architecturally landscaped streetscape is not desirable. Also being constantly interrupted trying to take photographs by the 16A and its six-part entourage is most frustrating 🙂 .
I totally agree on the six part entourage part, the quantity of buses that use O’Connell Street can only be described as An T-Lar-ism gone mad. Why does literally every cross city bus need to come within 10 yards of the Spike? Is it that a bus doesn’t really serve the City Centre unless it has passed the Spire? Why can’t other cross City Routes be used such as Capel St- Parliment St or why can’t Streets such as Marlborough St and Gardiner St be incorporated? What really sticks in the throat is that the Luas wasn’t joined up because it would take up too much roadspace but yet convoys of up to 10 buses are fine for the O’Connell St boulevard. 🙁
@Graham Hickey wrote:
It’s a fine angular building on the corner all right – and with original sashes! :eek:.
Had a picture somewhere but seem to have lost it amongst the 476 others in the O’Connell St file 😮 …I’ll get another…
I prefer the granite building to the previous have to say, not that much is evident in the black and white above anyway…
As was said before, the site of Eircom seems to have had a matching building – what a shame it was lost.Well original from 1925-ish 😉
The old Finlater building on the corner of Cathal Brugha St was of a similar construction although I’m speculating that the shopfront was probably more interesting from the buildings description in the D of D.
This doesn’t concern O’Connell street directly, but I read with interest today that two of Grafton Street’s current vacant premises are going to be occupied by … wait for it… a Mace convenience store and another mobile phone outlet! The mobile phone outlet will be run by Vodaphone, which already has TWO shops on Grafton Street alone! As for the Mace convenience store, does anyone not think that we already have enough of these bloody shops in the city? Can Dublin City Council, or whoever the hell ‘manages’ the city, not place some type of restrictions on the type of shops that open up on our main thoroughfares?
We’ve only just begun to realise the damage that was done to O’Connell Street by allowing all those tacky shops, convenience stores and fast food outlets to open on it. And yet the Council now seems to be prepared to stand idly by while the same happens to Grafton Street! I really dispair with this city sometimes..I completely agree with you, Daragh. Those two outlets are just so ……… naff. I would love to see a branch of Galeries Lafayette in Dublin – it would be very successful I feel.
It would also be nice to see Carrefour enter the supermarket arena in Ireland as a serious alternative to the god-awful Tesco.Is it simply the footfall of Grafton St that shoots rental values through the roof, or is there a prestige factor in there too?
Is it really that profitable for a Mace to operate on Grafton St?! As it is, the Bus Stop? newsagents about mid-way down the steet is tiny, presumably for this reason…We have a Bewley’s in the O’Connell St ACA
@Graham Hickey wrote:
Is it simply the footfall of Grafton St that shoots rental values through the roof, or is there a prestige factor in there too?
Is it really that profitable for a Mace to operate on Grafton St?! As it is, the Bus Stop? newsagents about mid-way down the steet is tiny, presumably for this reason…Firstly that stretch of Grafton St doesn’t command anywhere near the same rental levels as the pedestrianised stretch of the street and even on the street itself there is a hierarchy of rental values with the stretch from Wicklow St to South Anne St being at the pinacle.
That stretch is probably not that well suited to high-end comparison retailling unless the retailler has a very high brand awareness. I am however a little concerned at the potential signage implications down the line in what was the one time HQ of the Dublin & Limerick savings Bank as taken over by PTSB, this building is an attractive period building and is of a period where signage could have potentially have a detrimental effect. In the absense of Grafton St being designated an ACA it is probably premature to raise concerns as to the use but I do believe that the objective in the new development plan to make Grafton St an ACA should be implemented as soon as is possible.
It is extraordinary that Grafton St has yet to be designated as such – arguably it needs it even more than O’Connell St.
Didn’t know the Mace was going into this stretch – is it the fine polished granite-columned building near College Green?
Seem to have lost pictures of that too :rolleyes:@Graham Hickey wrote:
It is extraordinary that Grafton St has yet to be designated as such – arguably it needs it even more than O’Connell St.
Didn’t know the Mace was going into this stretch – is it the fine polished granite-columned building near College Green?
Seem to have lost pictures of that too :rolleyes:Its about the only one it could be.
Grafton St should be conserved and probably is more of conservation area in the usual sense of the word inso much as it mostly only requires watching. At the start of the O’Connell plan it could have been called the O’Connell St remediation area. Any thoughts on how this has gone?
Just on that building on Grafton St – I pass it nearly every day and every time have to marvel at how graffti is attracted like a magnet to derelict/vacant buildings. How is it that this single building on an otherwise ‘respectable’ and exceptionally busy street manages to get itself covered in graffiti simply because the entrance door is bolted shut with a board over it?!
Just extraordinary, not to mention a shame considering the stonework has just been cleaned as part of the magnificent restoration.
As for O’ Connell Street’s planning needing more than just the occasional glance, it requires an armed guard and surveillence equipment to monitor every property on the street 24/7 😀
Although on Upper O’Cll St there seems to be something of an anti-progress culture up there – lets not do anything and keep the place in a dismal state so that standard planning practices for any ‘normal’ street won’t have to be enforced.Hopefully the sparkling new public domain will show up the state of the properties there for what they are.
It is true that end has some buildings that have not been maintained well and that a new public domain will expose this dis-investment very clearly, there is even one where granite facing has been removed to reveal heavily spawlding concrete. Its been in this state for months now.
Re: Grafton Street it is amazing how graffiti artists always conform towards timber hoardings in their vandalistic non-conforist statments. I wonder are they just confused?
Shopping certainly is becoming more homogenous by the day.
Here’s a few bits and pieces about the Hotel Metropole that used to stand right next to the GPO on Lower Sackville Street – probably the most well known by name of institutions on the street, but perhaps not by building.
The life of the site first started out as four individual Wide Streets Commission buildings in a terrace, but these were amalgamated to form the hotel.
Here it is in about 1880, with an either rendered or stone-clad facade. Window surrounds have been added but their placement remained the same:
And here it is in its glory years in about 1900 (Laurence Collection) – wow!
It has been completely remodelled (if not the original building completely demolished) with a highly elaborate high Victorian French-style facade with magnificent ironwork in the form of vast balconies on the first and second floors and smaller window-specific balconies on the third.
An attic storey has also been added with a mansard roof, as well as some very impressive chimneys.Also a fine entrance canopy has been built over the pavement – you wouldn’t get away with that today…
Here it is again in about 1903 where the ironwork has been painted black:
…and again collapsing in 1916…
..aaand again 7 seconds later 😀
What a loss to the street though :(. It was hit by a shell intended for the GPO next door – which would you have preferred, the GPO or it?…
Here’s its replacement – a fairly standard exercise in modern neoclassicism, looks like it matched Eason’s etc very well:
It’s the building Frank McDonald gives out about being knocked for, well, this :rolleyes:
That BHS building is just so inappropriate from any northern viewpoint in the street – look how it crudely pushes forward into the streetscape, so arrogant. I must admit to having always liked its blue limestone window bays, but this does not in any way make up for its shameful impact on the terrace it is located in, nor its harsh lines next to the GPO.
At least we didn’t end up with the Ilac facade proposed…The 1900 image looks half-way between a Brighton Hotel and a wedding cake and would have been far more suited to Bray than Dublin. The 1920’s version was a really good replacement insomuch as there was almost as much continuity between trhe various replacements as there was in say 1820 or so.
The BHS is dreadful and I have to disagree on the Bays the symmetry does not work at all for me, Davitt House on the corner of Adelaide Rd and Earlsfort Terrace does a similar concept much better and with little impact beyond the loss of fabric and continuity. Also BHS on Princes St in Edinburgh was executed in a much better.
Agreed about the c1920 building; that terrace mus have looked very fine all executed in limestone and a similar syle, the most unified post-1916 block in fact. The BHS causes so much damage to the character of Lower O’Connell St which is by and large neclassical in design – it beggars belief that the Metropole was permitted to be demolished. let alone be replaced with this.
And as said before, the upper two floors are used for storage! No wonder they wanted pre-cast concrete panels all the way when originally proposed.I like the windows, but obviously not in this context – look at the image there, nothing but a token gesture on an otherwise blank wall and not even an acknowledgement of the cornice line. Wouldn’t be surprised if the upper windows are false :rolleyes:
It’s interesting to see in the 1900 image how the street is gradually turning into a modern day Westmoreland Street architecturally.
@Graham Hickey wrote:
And as said before, the upper two floors are used for storage! No wonder they wanted pre-cast concrete panels all the way when originally proposed.
I think Pennys learned from this on their new mega-store on Parnell St, Which concentrates retail on huge floorplates on less floors put storage primarily to the side of the building on Jervis St which has for very obvious reason got no profile whatsoever and they use the upper floors as offices.
What is so tragic about this design is that although the building has frontage onto the main Boulevard in the City the elevation has no windows which would makeit useless as office space or in its most valuable potential use as retail with a cafe with the best view of Central Dublin as the main attraction. It is the cafe with prime views of Henry St more so than anything else that has made Roches change from sub-Boyers to above Cleary’s in the Dublin retail hierarchy. Manequins just don’t work from that far up.
I really feel that the Metropole design was entirely unsuited to a main street type setting and I think that the elimination of a unified Georgian Terrace to build it was a s bad as anything done by Patrick Gallagher during the 1970’s. It really smacks of what I would describe as UK South Coast ‘Railway Tourist Hotel’ and was a very good example of same but has no urban credentials whatsoever.
If anyone likes the Metropole building purely because it is a little eccentric then the one below fits the bill better:
Image taken from https://archiseek.com/content/showthread.php?t=3156&highlight=dublin+bread+company
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