The Abbey Theatre – should it stay or should it go
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I know the Abbey has many proplems, but a relocation to the south of the river will be very unpopular. I have no sentimental attachment to the present site, but I want the Abbey to stay on the northside of the Liffey. The O’Connell St area badly needs a cultural revival to match the fine plans to rebuild the Street’s image; at the moment it is a mess of fast food places, tacky shops, and miserable commuters. This part of the city has rapidly deteriorated while the southside has flourished. This is why the Abbey must stay. It should be possible to make major modifications and increase space, even if it means completely rebuilding on the present site. Or a move to the old Carlton would be great. RTE radio’s arts programme recently featured a discussion about the move. One person interviewed talked about the undesirable elements in the Abbey St area, and the proplems she has getting there from the southside! Thus, will the move to the south be a triumph for D4 snobbery? I wonder.
Who the hell wants to wander away down to the Grand Canal Docks… they think they have problems with tickets sales now… wait until they move away down there…
o’connell street is the nations’s main street (as the corpo likes to tell us) therefore the national theatre should be on it
The decision rests with the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands, Ms de Valera. According to her spokesman, she has personal reservations about moving it.
personally i’m for remaining in the area of moving to O’Connell Street or even Smithfield. But the docks will only be popular with D4 types.
The OPW examined alternative locations at this time, including 44-46 O’Connell Street (the old Carlton Cinema), the Maguire & Patterson site, State land at Infirmary Road, the North Wall Quay, Smithfield and the Grand Canal area. It said the O’Connell Street site appeared to have a number of advantages, including adequate space, but pointed out it was 70 per cent in private ownership. In all cases these relocations would cost substantial sums for site acquisitions and would take longer to develop than the existing National Theatre building, it said.
Maybe then they should stay at the present site (but that is not to heed what B..B..Bertie said ……..man of cultural opinion …….me arse!)
Demolish that present pile and rebuild anew!Or on the other hand if one considers that the present site is quite small and inadequate perhaps it would be a good idea to move to a new location as suggested.
A new high tech state of the art facility could be built overlooking the Liffey …..a landmark for Dublin city evoking the likes of the Sydney Opera House.
To construct or redesign a new theatre on the present site would be constricted by height and form limitations….. whereas a new spacious site down the docks would offer endless limitations. Think if the likes of the internationally renowned architect Frank Ghery (whom we discussed before)were to design the new theatre….what a plus for Dublin.
By the way the new proposed location is not that far from the city centre either, the city’s core is not that big and once we have a proper transport service.
Besides what has the present site to offer besides sentimental memories and an atrocious building designed by Scott which dates from 1966, (the original building was very small too ‘hence the fire’ ). The old ‘Abbey’ of Casey, Yeats and Co exists in name alone.
To add B..B.. Bertie Ahern ‘man of culture me arse’ should stop uttering his ‘pandering to the joe soap public’ vote catching remarks. As for Sile de Valera she seems more comfortable amongst the bogs.
The national theatre is for all the people of the nation.[This message has been edited by GregF (edited 14 February 2001).]
This is good news.
Dublin Corporation has made a Compulsory Purchase Order for the former Carlton Cinema in Upper O’Connell Street, an adjoining site that has been derelict since the Pope’s visit to Ireland in 1979 and other properties in the vicinity. This long-threatened action is being taken following the failure of the Carlton Group to proceed with plans for a major shopping and entertainment centre for which planning permission was granted by An Bord Pleanála in August 1999. One of the most intriguing possibilities for this pivotal site is that the Abbey Theatre might relocate there.
Ah ‘Jasus’ will they forever do something with this site…………….how long do they need…..It’s a prime location…..what a fiasco!
Bigger, better Abbey to star on same old stage
The Irish IndependentThe Abbey Theatre is to stay at its present site despite months of speculation that it was to move to a new location. The building, which also houses the Peacock theatre, is to be knocked down and rebuilt at a cost of around Euro100m. And it will mean that the National Theatre will have to move out of its home at Lower Abbey Street for at least three years while the long-awaited new building is completed.
http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=693483&issue_id=6919now…. from my point of view is it worth spending 100 million on this…. the abbey loses money anyway, having a slicker theatre wont cure that… especially when it has the same number of stages… why not move the damed thing to O’Connell Street and help rejuvenate the street
Let’s hope then that they’ll do a good job designing this one…… so as it will not have to be replaced in another 36 years time….as like the present disaster. €100 million is a generous amount to build something decent. And let’s hope it is of a generous scale…less of that small pokey architecture, with low ceilings, endless walls and corridors and no light…..trademarks of Irish 20th century architecture.
The site is to be the same size and believe that the size of the floor is the major problem with the existing theatre.
The same size! ….well then it will not succeed…unless it will be like the Tardis.
The idea of acquiring surrounding sites for space should be considered too….a Liffey frontage sounds appealing.“The decision does not preclude any additional sites being purchased to extend the theatre further. However, this would involve negotiating with more than 20 landowners.”
Also a river frontage would require building over Old Abbey Street above ground level or closing the Right of Way.
Oh dear ….we will have another small mediocre theatre to look forward too…they’ll no doubt build upward however…cramming it into the small site.
Heard somthing about a new theatre on the quays (Ormond quay i think) last night on the radio. Does anybody know anything about it?
Sile De Valera was on the 6-1 news tonight – it seems herself and Bertie wanted it to remain where it is from the beginning- although with the O’Connell Street Plaza gettting closer on the horizon the old Carlton just seems like the perfect location – a vast site that would have drawn some Southside luvie money across the river…it was mentioned they were “offered” a site in the docklands…anyone know exactly where? The current location is a greasy side street – surely the sentimental attachments went with the original building ..
Originally posted by pvdz:
Heard somthing about a new theatre on the quays (Ormond quay i think) last night on the radio. Does anybody know anything about it?A major new Liffeyside development is on the cards for Dublin 1 – complete with a new theatre/bar at basement level. Apart from the basement theatre, the scheme will includes a variety of bars, restaurants, bistros, lounges and dancing area with offices overhead. The site presently operates as Murphy’s Laughter Lounge and is fondly remembered by the older generation as the site of the Corinthian Cinema.
http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=51&si=693413&issue_id=6919Frank McDonald has a good write up today in the Irish Times about the potential of having the Abbey moved to the former Carlton Cinema site on O’Connell Street.With the ammount of land available here, Art Deco facade and all, it sounds ideal for a spacious ample theatre.
Too bad it’s not the case …..more then a case of a missed opportunity.[This message has been edited by GregF (edited 21 February 2002).]
Regarding the use of the Carlton.
If I recall correctly the Carlton has negligible dressing rooms, no fly tower and only a very shallow stage. It might be possible to build backwad, leaving the auditorium, but I suspect that the rear wall runs up to the lane, leaving no space to push back the stage.(That is unless the lane goes too).
In all the times I was there I do not recall ever leaving at the back of the cinema, from the exits on either side of the screen, -which seem to have been true emergency exits. I vaguely recall a gents toilet behind the screen on the right, if my memory does not play tricks, but I think I am correct in saying the space beyind the screen is characteristically shallow, as in all purpose built cinemas.
It does have a very interesting art deco decorative panels on each side of the screen. Again these should be preserved. I assume they are still in place.
re: art deco decorative panels
Were they original DC3? As the cinema was subdivided into four, I assume they were removed from other parts of the building and inserted as decor? As I remember it,the interiors were fairly bland like the current Savoy.
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