Smithfield, Dublin
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I agree with tommyt, Smithfield Resi…the horse fair is a sham. Its a disgrace to allow it to continue because of some legal nicety. 1,000 years of history or not. If its necessary to continue a horsefair then it should be at a proper modern facility, just like a mart. And why on earth is it needed in the centre of a city! I cant imagine any tourists being interested in seeing 11 y/o boys being sold malnourised, poorly treated horses.
On the issue of the plans to finsih the square… I totally agree that €4m is a big budget. I would be interesrted to see the plans as well and I imagine a public consultation will take place. Another big site not to be forgotten is the triangular site bounded by Church Street and the Square. What is the story with this site?
Recently granted permission to demolish the derelict structures on the site and contineu seemingly endless archaeological excavations.
link hereMoving the Children’s Court would be one means of removing knackers from the area. It’s one of the most menacing parts of Dublin at any time of the day or night. Not in the same Looney Tunes/Night of the Living Dead sense as Eden Quay… but still bad.
There’s precisely four reasons to visit Smithfield at present.
1 – If you’re a minor being arraigned on a criminal charge.
2 – If you’re a tourist doing the Jameson tour.
3 – If you’re a cinephile going to the Lighthouse.
Or
4 – If you’re going to the lovely Fresh supermarket.
One side of the square is luxury apartments. One side is derelict. One side has three storey Corporation(?) houses – and is mostly derelict – and one side is cut off from the rest by a road and Luas line and is mostly officey stuff in any case.
There are cars strewn about the square. There’s no seating worth mentioning. There’s no attractions particularly worth listing. The only attractions for a local are the moderately pricey supermarket and an up market cinema.
Abject failure for any urban space.
Oh just though of another, the Motor office where u go to get your Driving license.
6. Drivers license applications.
I think the Children’s Court is a problem here. Too much space to hang around in before/after hearings.
I also think the area needs more apartments and more of a family focus.
These large preipheral squares rarely work successfully in my opinion. It just too difficult to create enough activity outside city centre.@StephenC wrote:
I think the Children’s Court is a problem here. Too much space to hang around in before/after hearings.
I also think the area needs more apartments and more of a family focus.
These large preipheral squares rarely work successfully in my opinion. It just too difficult to create enough activity outside city centre.Smithfield isn’t as peripheral as you might think. The “legal quarter” is all around it, the Luas runs through it and the Guinness Brewery, Collins Barracks, the Phoenix Park and some great old suburbs like Phibsboro are right beside it.
The quays are at their most pleasant from the Four Courts up to Hueston. It’s a sedate part of town, to be sure. But sedate is good. Smithfield needs to be given a point and an immediate hinterland. It has precisely the same problem as O’Connell Street; it’s a crossroads to other points with very little to commend it on its own merits.
I used to live in Smithfield 15 yrs ago. It has certainly improved since then. The horse fair is occasional and I only noticed it on a couple of occasions. It makes the area more interesting although the more ISPCA type policing the better. The children’s court has to go somewhere and many of the attendees are locals.
Not every area has to be a tourist destination. The population has increased greatly with plenty more private tenants. Population and transport links create a market for more facilities. The planners can be blamed for allowing development that is unsuitable for families and resulting in a narrow demographic of young working tenant residents. This leaves the area quiet during the day.
I preferred living there to temple bar where the noise was too much at night.
To improve smithfield in the future, I would like to see new accommodation suitable for families (large 2/3 bed apartments that overlook green enclosed common play areas, segregated from cars).
In immediate proximity of Smithfield is the Bolton Street area which also suffers from dereliction. The students of third year in Bolton Street spent the year addressing the problem by shifting the proposed site for DIT Grangegorman towards the city to create an urban campus serving the student population and the community.
They have a book launch and exhibition at the end of October but you can see some of the work online.@Michae1 wrote:
In immediate proximity of Smithfield is the Bolton Street area which also suffers from dereliction. The students of third year in Bolton Street spent the year addressing the problem by shifting the proposed site for DIT Grangegorman towards the city to create an urban campus serving the student population and the community.
They have a book launch and exhibition at the end of October but you can see some of the work online.Very impressive Michael.
Is it simply an exercise or do you consider it a viable alternative to the MRY Plan for DIT/HSE at Grangegorman?
Bolton Street, should use their immersion in gritty urbanism to their advantage instead of following UCD into starchitect gazing.
There might be token zany shapes, but is this not 1970s planning?
Do we want Church Street to go underground at Constitution Hill?
Is there someone out there who thinks tunnel portals are not one of the most damaging things you can put in an urban context?
Do we need more grass in the city centre?All of this stuff has been tried before and it’s incredibly destructive of real urbanism. We need to learn how to mend the city, not replace it with Sandyford.
I don’t want to be discouraging.
@Michae1 wrote:
In immediate proximity of Smithfield is the Bolton Street area which also suffers from dereliction. The students of third year in Bolton Street spent the year addressing the problem by shifting the proposed site for DIT Grangegorman towards the city to create an urban campus serving the student population and the community.
They have a book launch and exhibition at the end of October but you can see some of the work online.To be honest I wasn’t too enamoured with this. The forensic level of analysis is welcome but I find calling a decent, functional urban neighbourhood with organically diversifying uses a ‘wasteland’ to be irritatingly bourgeois.
On one level there is talk of Kreuzberg and its invigorating squatter counterculture then we get a fairly typical city ‘fix’ based on dated ideas of urban renewal.
Don’t mean to piss on anyone’s chips and I appreciate the huge amount of work a student has to put into such a project but it’s analysing urban renewal from a very narrow prism, yet demonstrating an overreach regarding what architecture can deliver for real communities.@StephenC wrote:
I agree with tommyt, Smithfield Resi…the horse fair is a sham. Its a disgrace to allow it to continue because of some legal nicety. 1,000 years of history or not. If its necessary to continue a horsefair then it should be at a proper modern facility, just like a mart. And why on earth is it needed in the centre of a city!
On the other hand why should it be moved to down the road from where I live (as planned). It’s always been there, why move it? I agree on the welfare front but also believe that a centralised location should facilitate, rather than inhibit it.
Smithfield Plaza to be completed
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/1015/1224256691498.htmlanyone know what the completed plazza will look like?
No matter what it looks like, without more to *do* there a la the Lighthouse, it won’t be seen.
Can’t understand why they don’t have a good, top quality, daily covered market a la Granville Island Market up there permanently.
Droool?…sounds like the most bnoring load of old tripe. Who on earth would visit a Legal Museum?
Perhaps….perhaps Not….
One of the best visits I ever made was to the Museum of Irish Music and Culture which had a brief existence in The Chief O Neill`s complex.
It was IMO the best interactive and informative exposition of Irish Music to be found in this City.
Sadly,it died a death due to all of the Smithfield Factors so accurately depicted in this thread.
The final nail in it`s coffin came when the Museum`s creators were asked to “Funk it up” and consider allowing it to be used as a Nightclub in order to stimulate night-trade income.In the current economic and social climate it is debatable whether Smithfield can in fact be saved from the Sandyford effect…ie: demolition and the return of the land to largely agrarian purposes…. 😉
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8310910.stm
Can’t help but feel like Smithfield is the ideal location for a southbank type area in Dublin, but in order to do that it’s going to take more than just posh lamps, rather actual things to do and buildings of substance like the above.
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