Roches Stores, Henry Street, Dublin
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Yep, its awful, esp when seen from the far end of Liffey St.
Saw the Roches cladding this morning, looks rather snazzy, but of course it will, when it’s brand new, and before we see the other 3 acres tacked on…
perosnally i think the m&s buildings is one of the ugliest in the city.
the new roches store cladding looks fine, but as someone else said previously, it reminds me a bit of a B&Q warehouse.
It is certainly unusual, and not at all what I was expecting. It all hinges on what happens to the Ilac Centre now. If they can come up with something to compliment the new facade, it could turn ‘bold’ and ‘imaginative’ into bold and imaginative.
As for M&S, the front of it is a disgrace, but the side of it really makes Liffey St look cheap. At times you would despair of Dublin; for every okay street there is an unnecessarily rundown bargain basement street just around the corner.
I don’t like the lamps or the flags on henry St anyway. They completely crowd a fairly narrow street. The street should use wall lamps, and the flagpoles should be removed altogether. Every time I look down the street I can’t get over how cluttered it is.
and all the street furniture is starting to look old and tatty. I think its got alot to do with the facades of buildings as well. There doesn’t seem to be any guidelines to introduce uniformity to the street
Henry St is never appriciated for being one of the finest streets in Dublin architecturally, it really is stunning over ground level, esp standing outside Arnotts looking towards the Spire, the buildings lining this part are so beautiful and form what is really the only unified commercial terrace in Dublin, lots of red brick, terracotta, Dutch Billy features, sandstone mullions etc, all assembled by the late Victorians & Edwardians.
Its a pity that the middle part of the st is so poor, indeed you have to walk pass all these eyesores get to ‘the good stuff’ again, in the form of Jervis and it’s bumbling collection of ‘brick and sashed’ properties, and of course the exquisite and equally unappriciated Penneys building (I know it has a proper name, can’t remember!)
Penneys at last have applied for permission to replace its tatty 80s shopfront with cut stone that will not detract from the building, and no historic elements will be removed.
Work is already underway.I agree Stephen that a lot of the furniture is very tatty, largely caused by those bloody stickers that are put up by protesters and campaginers that are never removed, or are peeled at, leaving sticky residues behind.
Why is’nt this banned in the city, so much of our street furniture and lamposts have been destroyed by them, whats going to happen to the acres of stainless steel going onto O’ Connell St?was standing at the corner of liffey street looking at the new RS facade. could not think of what it reminded of. the security man from the jewelers came over and give me his opinion for some reason. he did not like it in no uncertain terms.
anyway, then it struck me. it looks like the side of one on those hugh ocean going cruise liners.
If I recall correctly the very first escalator in Ireland was installed in Roches Stores in Henry Street. Early 1960’s.
Not a lot of people know that!
You could be right – there was one very ancient set of escalators in the centre of the store – very narrow
On the Zara front – the initial plan was to locate in the Grafton St area… but property prices in Dublin had caused them to reach for the smelling salts. So (cheaper) Henry St was chosen – but I think Roches has since fallen out with them (premature announcements were made before deals were closed etc etc). Anyway where is this all leading??? The latest is that thy’re going to locate in the Bank Of Ireland on suffolk st assumming change of use permission goes ahead via DCC. So maybe – just maybe they’ll reach Dublin soon! They are going into Owen O’Callaghans rather large Mahon Point development in Cork alright though.
Everybody on the train…
Do you think the new building will look like M&S in a few years time once it has weather and gone out of fashion. Personally I think it does nothing for the street and is completely out of context to the surrounding buildings. Maybe the revamped ILAC and Dunnes Stores buildings will improve it.
I agree that Henry St is actually not a bad street, especially when it is quietish, and the upper levels of buildings are lovely.
However there are five problems:
1. Ilac Centre : soon to be fixed
2. Liffey St: for such a small street, it could be and should be a gem. I would add trees to it to compensate for the lack of colour on Henry St.
3. Mary St: Investment is slowly creeping down the street. Hopefully when the draft masterplan for the fruit markets kicks in it will really begin to get a facelift as the main link st.
4. Moore St: Dependant on Carlton Ilac etc…
4. Talbot St: I hate that street so much. Every second building is either in ruins, or virtually a prefab. I would issue an architectural competition to select sixty different architects; they get a building on Talbot St each to reface, 15 million per building, and are told to impress the world!
Did Newenham Mulligan do the new large Dunnes Stores in Limerick as well? Seen it last week and its very very similar in materials and detailing…
That new frontage on Roches Stores looks as if it was somewhat influenced by the new National Gallery of Ireland extension.
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