The scaffolding dissappears…
- This topic has 82 replies, 20 voices, and was last updated 17 years, 4 months ago by
.
- Posts
Yes, the conversion to offices is extremely unfortunate, even if the physcial manifestation of which is ‘light in touch’, ‘reversible’, ‘readable’, ‘independently structurally expressive’ yadda yadda. The loss of the pews at least gave some cause for such a radical new use, but the restriction on public access is most regrettable, as is the compromising of the interior’s original spatial qualities. Reversable or not, what is there is what is there – and is likely to be there for a very long time. We have weak policy on the conversion of historic churches.
Otherwise, the exterior restoration has not simply been excellent, it has been masterful. It would be an injustice to post pictures of the building until such a time as the last fragments of scaffolding (currently in the form of mesh about the vents of the tower) have been fully removed.
@johnglas wrote:
It’s hard being churlish about this and at least the externals are preserved, but is its conversion to ‘offices’ – however skilfully done – does still seem a loss of a valuable ‘public’ space. I do remember once having heard the bells ring out over North Dublin, but I suppose the Northside’s loss is Dundrum’s gain. What a home for small-scale music performances this would have made; I think there was such a proposal once, but the main objection was that Southside nobs would not park their Volvos in such an area. (!)
When it was relaunched as the Temple Theatre about 8/9 years ago I was at the opening night and I didn’t think it worked as an entertainment venue at all. the basement was a really awkward space and felt extremely claustrophobic and the main space had awful acoustics for amplified music. It would be preferable to see a civic or public admin use for the building but I don’t know if it could take over (for example) the role the Hugh Lane currently provides for small scale musical performances. Compared to the Black Church it is difficult to recycle as a secular space and it’s as decent an effort as could have been expected. Fabulous exterior job done for sure.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
