O’ Connell Street, Dublin
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Also just a pic of the new lighting on trial for the GPO – can’t say I’d be overly enamoured by either the bulk of the units or the effect generated…
The old uplighters were removed as part of the building’s cleaning programme:
For years these used to be a ridiculous mixture of different colours but were regularised to white last winter.
It’s a pity the building can’t be flooded but this just isn’t possible given the location, and also the tall buses etc going by in front. Attaching lighting units to the building itself is the only option.
Flooding behind the columns in white similar to Govt Bldgs ought to be very effective.I have to agree atbeing annoyed by the taxi rank on Upper OCSt being devoid of trees. Its going to make a big difference to the planting scheme for the street. I cant help but wonder why other streets couldnt have been better utilised to provide a taxi rank – Sackville Place and Cathedral Street or even the wasted patch of space around the church on Cathal Brugha Street. A bit of repaving, some good lighting a some planting would have made getting a cab much more enjoyable and allowed for the median to be planted more cohesively on Oc St
Because it`s always been tradition to have a cab stand on Old O Connell St thats why…..
Incedentally …has anybody got some info on what was goin on at the NorthBound Abbey St/O Connell St junction yesterday….Men in suits,men in low slung backsideless jeans,JCB`s and the Boulevard reduced to a single lane to allow TWO holes to be closely inspected (To see if they could contain รขโยฌ34 Billion in black plastic sacks ??)
The entire performance was accompanied by NO Gardai or any token attempt to warn/divert northbound traffic from the scene of the crime.
“Its usually quiet of a Sahada”…was the official line I believe closely followed by “We`ll finish it off on Wensda,that`s half-day ye kno”…..
Happily we now have a rather splendid two-piece temporary reinstatement job which brings out the nicely darkening tones of the granite paving in a truly Rubensesque pastiche of colour……
Hopefully we still have รขโยฌ33,999,999,000 left…..????You should have asked them what they were doing. Surely this bit of road is going to be repaved to finish of the lower end of the street, or was is already freshly paved? ๐ก
That explains the Traffic Mayhem in the Centre of Dublin on Saturday Afternoon. There were traffic tailbacks all the way from O Connell Bridge back the whole way to St Patricks.
Very strange – must take a look…
No doubt there were quite a few pile-ups in the 1870s too. Just when you think youรขโฌโขve seen every hackneyed photograph ever taken of Sackville Street, another fascinating image comes along to blow you away, namely the construction of OรขโฌโขConnell Bridge รขโฌโ Wow!
Isnรขโฌโขt it extraordinary?!
For years I could never understand why the construction of OรขโฌโขConnell Bridge was always referred to as the รขโฌหwideningรขโฌโข of Carlisle Bridge, even amongst the most รขโฌหlearnedรขโฌโข of historians, considering that OรขโฌโขConnell Bridge is a completely different structure to the previous hump-back Gandon bridge. But now it is evident as to why they use that language รขโฌโ Carlisle Bridge remained in place as the new bridge was built either side of it, exactly as what would be done today!The traffic continued to use Carlisle whilst the piers were extended and the arches and surface of the new sections either side constructed. Then, just as would happen now, the new sections opened for traffic while the old bridge was either removed completely, or perhaps more likely the foundations retained and a new structure built on top. Even so, O’Connell Bridge today is still ever so slightly hump-backed if you look closely:
Thereรขโฌโขs so much going on in the first photo, including the cutting of the kerbstones we know so well today as evident at the top of the image below รขโฌโ incredible!
Also, as highlighted in red, they even have temporary lanterns to light the tramway, just as the pedestrian walkways do in the first image รขโฌโ exactly like the bulkheads you see attached to construction site hoarding covering pavements today! ๐
The picture dates from 1879, so the bridge is nearly finished รขโฌโ you can even make out the lovely little curved balustrades at either end of the median that are already in place, as are all of the lamp standards. The balustrading looks fabulous too รขโฌโ bone white, sparkling new Portland stone.The bridge structure would seem to be hollow in places, notably underneath the median section where even today thereรขโฌโขs little grills you can look down. The bits of pipe everywhere in the above image are perhaps suggestive of huge water and gas mains using the bridge as a crossing point – a gas explosion in around 1927 would also seem to support this ๐
Never seen photographs of Crlisle Bridge before – only prints. What a magnificent bridge it was: very austere:
You can see the little 1870s lanterns that were all over the city on top too ๐
Rather strange the Port saw fit to replicate Gandon’s design for the most part, rather than take the opportunity to create something new and more befitting of the ‘Industrial Age’.
Wonder if the pier panels are original or replicas – probably the latter…
They’ve weathered quite poorly…
Much of the information, including the photos above is derived from an excellent and thoroughly researced piece of work by Michael Phillips and Albert Hamilton, entitled ‘Project history of Dublinรขโฌโขs River Liffey bridges’ available here:
http://www.berthamilton.com/13329.pdf
I’ll presume that any coprwirght that may exist on the above images belongs to the authors of the article – though they are well over 100 years old.
Great photos Graham! I was thinking the same thing too Anto. It’s the statue of William Smith O’ Brien who is currently on O’Connell Street today. It was moved to its present site in 1927 due to the traffic. What a great place to have a statue at the apex of D’Olier and Westmoreland streets.
O’Connell Street median is nearly finished; trees are ready to go in this week. It looks great too!
fabulous photos alright. how anybody could have built O’connell bridge house in the middle of that scene though..shudder..
we already have Wolfe Tone, would have thought finally a statue of Pearse himself should be considered.
The best old Dub pics I’ve seen.
Look, no loop line! It’s great to see those little boats moored up beside the bridge too.
It’s a damn shame that nice little corner building was replaced with O’Connell House ๐ Why oh why?!
Those mini balustrades are lovely ๐
Cobbles. Whereas this pic dates from Nov 1922, it’s pretty much gauranteed they were cobbles in 1880 too:
A huge undertaking to pave all that by any standard.
To see the bridge in the earlier pictures in all its coordinated custom-designed glory makes the placement of orange bulbs in some of the lamps all the more frustrating ๐ก
There’s an even worse lop-sided one too.
The condensation on the lens here generated the effect from the Bohemian Rhapsody video ๐
Agreed the D’Olier St site was a fine location for a statue island – what a shame O’Brien was moved.
I’ve always favoured the Dawson St-College Green-Westmoreland St-O’Connell St alignment for the Luas link up and seeing those old photographs of the wonderfully wide strcture makes it all the more appealing. Imagine a city centre axis (Parnell sq-Stephen’s Green) devoid of the private car! It would be such a great location for trams, though of course DCC won’t be inclined to agree with the digging up of O’Connell St again!
@Graham Hickey wrote:
Cobbles.
Thanks. In fact, looking more closely at the pic Morlan posted, it’s fairly obvious they are cobbles if you look at the lower edge. I suppose I could blame my screen resolution…
I’ve often wondered when cobbles were introduced and became widespread in the city, figuring the 1870s was about right. Dublin was presumably far ahead of other towns, where Lawrence Collection and other photos often show towns with muddy roads into the 20th century.@Graham Hickey wrote:
what a shame O’Brien was moved.
“I see a little silhouetto of a man…” ๐ฎ
Hi all. I guess I’m what you could call a ‘lurker’ on these boards: I enjoy reading them every day, but rarely post anything. However, on my way into college today one thing cought my attention, namely the ballustrades (is that the right word?) on the east side of O’ Connell Bridge. Having not passed this way in a few days, I looked out from my bus this morning and noticed that one was missing, about halfway up on you left hand side as you go from Westmoreland St. to the northside. A little bit further up, a huge chunk has been gouged out of the stonework on top of the ballustrades. Looks like someone took a sledgehammer to it in the middle of the night. Has anyone else seen this? Does anybody know what happened? It’s a pity to see such damage, especially so soon after the bridge was given a well-overdue cleaning.
Yes this has been kinda annoying me too for the past 6-8 weeks at this stage eoin82:
It disappeared around that time – did it plunge down into the river? If nothing else it is very unsafe for small children whatever about being unsightly, located in the very spot where people stop to take pictures of the Liffey looking west.
Surprised it hasn’t been dealt with yet, suppose it’s up to us as the public to contact the City Council about it as a matter of safety.Also the concrete patch-job on the lintel revealed by the recent cleaning. Classy :rolleyes:
That looks reallly bad, but I’m sure the council have an eye on it.
The trees have been planted on the central median. Its all gradually coming together. Looking great too.
Anyone see the new Christmas lights on Henry Street. A rather modest affair. Sad to see that the old cast iron black bins are still installed. Totally incongruous with the look of the street. Put the silver bins back pleeze!Gone are the days of the spectacular extravaganza of lights on Henry and OConnell Streets….or is that because we were kids. I agree this years ‘illuminations’ are a bit of a let down. Even Clerys seems to be opting for a muted display.
The trees are moving in and should really bring back a bit of structure to the street, There’s two rather large gaps though which cause concern. The first is the taxi rank as mentioned above which is nothing short of a scandal and the second is just after the Spire – a large empty space with no trees and by the looks of the finished paving no lighting. Its most likely going to be the spot for one of the kiosks. We’d probably forgotten all about them. They’ll realy alter the look when installed
Yes things are progressing fast up there, so much so it’s still a bit difficult to make out exactly where is getting trees and where isn’t – so much for the kiosks arriving in July though. Still very wary about the impact of these on the street……
Yes I’ve been getting very annoyed with Clerys over the past three years – their Christmas trees have been getting progressively meaner and their lights duller over this period. I remember when the MTV Music Awards of all things came to Dublin in November about 5 years ago, and the establishing report of the city showed the Clerys Christmas trees in all their magnificent glory, big, bushy and grand, and covered in sparkling white lights. By 2005 they are little more than twigs with a couple of strings of coloured lights strung around ๐
Also they ought to turn off the main floodlights as they blast up under the trees completely wiping out the tree lights.
Henry St is very dull looking alright, though this could be down to the problems of mounting decorations on buildings as there’s the big derelict Dunnes site, plus the Ilac redevelopment that would have interrupted the traditonal ‘big star’ scheme ๐Yikes now I see what eoin82 means about the cracked lintel of the bridge in the pic below – what happened here?!
It’s the very piece of concrete featured above as taken a few weeks ago, clearly it’s all just caved in!Interesting all the same to see the supporting iron armature encased in the middle of the baluster; this is what must be holding much of the bridge together. Not electrical tape as previously thought.
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