South Great George’s Street
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It’s very interesting what long-term dereliction can do to you. When I saw that this site was finally being developed, I was absolutely delighted because the ground floor of these premises had been vacant for so many years. But when you see a picture like above, you realise we’re still losing the fabric of the city in a wholesale way. The Georgians are safe, but almost everything else is disposable.
Thanks for that, Morlan.
I’m pretty handy when it comes to invisible mending with a needle and thread, but photos have thus far eluded me. Funny how the corner buiding in the composite takes on a slightly Gehryesque feel with its bendy walls. 🙂It’s going to be Dunnes New HQ building – not sure about what retail element is on the ground floor though
@Rory W wrote:
It’s going to be Dunnes New HQ building – not sure about what retail element is on the ground floor though
its going to be new Dunnes Home Ware store.. i see the advertisements for it in the Dunnes in the Green Centre
It´ll be worth keeping an eye out so that they put the brass plaque back on Dunlops factory – it being the worlds first pneumatic tyre factory & all that. V. important it goes back up – Im all too tyred when vernacular history simply disappears. Up with the plague of plaques! 😀
Agreed, hutton. Where social history is concerned, which is not always immediately apparent from the physical fabric of a building, it is important to tread softly. ( 😮 I’ll get my coat…)
The site is owned by Dunnes Stores and Cassidy’s Shoes to the best of my knowledge. Dunnes Stores took a short term lease on Beaux Lane House (owned by Royal College Of Surgeons) to allow the redevelopment take place. I like it but am sceptical of the windows throughout. I expect a certain amount of the offices will be let. It’s great this redevelopment is finally up and running. Dunnes owned so much property in this area that they had not been utilising to its full potential but now seem to have reversed that policy at long last – see the supermarket on the other side of the street and the sandwich bar behind it. They’re also planning to bring the upper floor of the George’s Street supermarket back into use – I think either as a restaurant or cafe. Will they close the supermarket in St Stephen’s Green after they move back in to the new hq? Sounds like replication by having drapery and food on one street and an anchor store offering both within five minutes walk of each other.
It would seem logical to cut down on the number of stores….especially as rent in the St Stephens Green Centre must be quite high. But its a major store in the SSGC and I wouldnt be surprised if they felt that the area could take stores at both locations. There’s a lot of new retail space coming on line in this area (South Anne Street, South Kings Street, change of use on South William Street). Good to see.
Back to an earlier point about the new pedestrain element abutting a protected stucture. It seems the wall is getting a curved frame which should tie the developments into each other.
@ctesiphon wrote:
Agreed, hutton. Where social history is concerned, which is not always immediately apparent from the physical fabric of a building, it is important to tread softly. ( 😮 I’ll get my coat…)
Yeah- get yer coat, take yer hat and all the rest of it – such puns wheely bore me :p
jdivision wrote:Dunnes owned so much property in this area that they had not been utilising to its full potential[quote/]No offence jdiv but thats an understatement if ever.Often the term ‘speculators’ is associated with the word ‘faceless’ -but Georges St is certainly not that. (BTW Re the Dunnes currently open on G st, has anybody else noticed the lack of fresh fruit and veg therin, or is it just me? :confused: )
What thoughts anybody on the idea that the wonderful gothic brick block from Fade St to Exchequer St needs a plan to deliver on its own particular specific conservation/ usage needs?
what ever happend to the plan to tear down and rebuild the block towards the north end of south great georges st????
i like the look of what dunnes are doing but i seem to recall a proposal to tear down the building further north which was originally designed for an industrial estate in england!!?!! if that gets built and along with the dunnes work it will have a great effect, at least physically, on the street…Yes it really ought to boost things on this side of the street, and the magnificent Victorian across the road on the junction with Stephen St is hopefully due a new lease of life soon too considering its recent sale.
One of the finest Victorian commercial red bricks in the city I think with that deep-modelled facade – much of it is derelict at present:
@hutton wrote:
What thoughts anybody on the idea that the wonderful gothic brick block from Fade St to Exchequer St needs a plan to deliver on its own particular specific conservation/ usage needs?
Was drooling over it only this morning :), especially the virtually ignored network of planned terraces to the rear. Some of them need ghaslty paint stripped off the brickwork of the upper floors, and the odd shopfront could do with renewal. Miraculously all the windows seem to be intact – in fact the only ones that were replaced if I remember correctly is three or six windows above Dunnes on the George’s St facade. Otherwise all of the tens and tens of originals in the Markets block and ancillary terraces are intact!
The chimneys of the terrace to Drury St are a fine feature in particular. A decent floodlighting job of the George’s St facade wouldn’t go amiss – it could look spectacular.
In the last 10-15 years, the Market Arcade has really come back to life. There was a student conservation study carried out in around 1989 (in UCD Richview library) that showed considerably more dereliction than today. Agreed, it’s a bit shabby, but it is a living building complex that really adds vibrancy to this part of town, not least the mix of shops, stalls and cafes. I’d be worried that any major conservation project might push up rents on the units, forcing out the existing traders and altering fundamentally the character of the place. It changed hands a few years back and the new owner/s have done a good job of maintaining or introducing just the right mix, both inside and outside. In fact, I’m not sure whether the external units are separately owner or are part of the whole. Anyone know? Also, I’m intrigued by the basement- apparently it’s huge, but I’ve never seen it (aside from the individual basements of some units- Road Records, a couple of the cafes, one of the hairdressers).
There’s a picture of the interior of the arcade from the 1950s or so in the cafe at the George’s St end (Simon’s Place) showing cars parked inside, and the entrance to the Market Bar retains shopfronts in the ‘lobby’ area (unsure if they’re original though). If it was to change, I’d love to see an English Market style daily food market, i.e. butchers, fishmongers etc., rather than a fancypants food emporium. It’s something this city sorely needs. But I’d rather it stayed as it is for now, with maybe minimal running repairs, particularly as the DCC project for the old fruit and veg markets on the northside will hopefully provide such a food market as you see in Barcelona and elsewhere. Then hutton could have all the fresh fruit and veg he needs!PS One criticism of the market- a few years ago they took out the old floor of what seemed like sandstone flagstones (doubtful, but my memory’s hazy) and replaced it with the current tiled surface. Not only does it look too new, it’s lethal when it rains.
Worth a wander is down under the arcade in the carpark accessible from Drury Street
Re the shopfronts in entrance to market bar, afaik, originally there was a second “mall” intersecting with the first one and running out through the Dunnes onto Wicklow Street
Interesting point- I could well believe it. The little olive/fudge/lentil stall on the inner north side of the arcade is set back from the line of the main arcade passage. I presume this was the other arm and was truncated in later years.
Now I’m off to find someone with a car so I can explore the basement. Cheers for that.Worth a wander is down under the arcade in the carpark accessible from Drury Street
Definitely. It’s like being in a dungeon or something with the arched ceiling. All the stone/bricks have gone completely black. Compared to the purely functional design of modern car parks, it’s wonderful. I’ve only been
there in the evening; I heard they have a valet (or whatever it’s called – a guy who parks and retrieves your car) service during the day.
. . 
Some more pictures of the Dunnes site pre-redevelopment to augment ctesiphon’s view.
One of the demolished facades on George’s Street had an extraordinary cracking pattern in the plaster (top right pic), like a dried lakebed. At first glance you thought it was part of the finish.
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