Devin

Was at Dundrum today for the first time. I would go along with most of the concerns aired here so far about the environmental sustainability of Town Centre S.C.s and their fuelling of consumerism, a disposable society, car-dependency/congestion and the extinction of the family-run shop.

But, on a physical level, I was quite impressed with how well the centre integrates with the older part of Dundrum (as was said already). If you arrive by Ballaly LUAS station and go into the shopping centre, go all through it and out the far end (which is actually the front of it), you’ve got that nicely-executed public space with pool, and from there the place seems to run almost effortlessly back into the two-storey grain of the main street.

This is very significant because it must be the first time ever in Ireland that efforts have been made to integrate a large modern shopping centre into an existing town or village structure. It’s vastly more ‘people oriented’ in this respect than anything else of its ilk. Having said that, the Balally end is not so good. The public entrance is quite anonymous and there are layers of car parks. Also, there is no signpost to the Luas station when you come out :confused: – you just have to follow the people – and worse, no name outside the Luas station itself 😮 – what’s the story there??? it’s just hidden down at the side of a road. You would not have a breeze where it was if you didn’t know..

But when you think of all those country town shopping centres just dumped in behind the main street and surrounded in a huge surface car park (like Sligo town, Portarlington, Navan etc. etc….) with no relation to the town structure, what has been done at Dundrum is a giant step forward. And, not to bash the country, the other big Dublin centres are dreadful in this way as well.

Regarding size, it’s not quite as enormous as I had expected. I’d guess that the Blanchardstown Centre is slightly bigger (but Dundrum would have more floor space because it’s on three levels & Blanch is on two).

Also, the chopped remnants of the pulpit are apparently in Thomas Read’s pub

And Frank McDonald is giving a lecture entitled ‘Chaos at the Crossroads’ at the Goat, Goatstown, at 8pm tonight (organised by the South Dublin Association of An Taisce).

The DCBA have to put out that impression anyway. They’re actually shivering in their boots that the city centre will be deserted for the likes of Dundrum and the Blanchardstown centre.

Graham, you’ve got me thinking about early/mid 18th century sashes; Given that there are no original chunkies surviving on the main facade of any pre-1750 building in the city, how do we actually know that front & rear sashes in early/mid 18th century buildings would have always been the same? – maybe efforts were made to have more refined windows in the front like you say. There are a few original chunkies in the front basements of houses here and there around town – like No. 4 Henrietta Street, a 1730s house. But these original sashes are so chunky – almost crude – that you can’t really imagine that the whole façade would have had them (the rest of the façade has late 18th century sashes). And also a couple of early 18th century houses on St. Stephen’s Green East – between Merrion Row and Hume Street – have originals in the basement & later windows above.

The circa 1760 west front of Trinity College must be one of the earliest buildings in the city with original windows mostly survivng throughout – you can see that the glazing bars, while still thickish, are becoming more slender by this date.

It sat on the horizon on the Georgian Mile as well.

esp. where there’s a concentration of towers & spires & things.

Proportions and brickwork-wise, the Flanagan’s façade appears to be (if you mentally strip away the architraves and shortened 1st floor windows) of the 1790-1820 period, but it could be older again. When you’re talking about this long ago, 1800 brickwork doesn’t look much different to 1750 brickwork!

The 2nd floor windows are certainly of the 1800 period at least (but I think the glazing bars would be a bit fatter if they were as old as 1750) – they have that aged look, with the build up of paint, and of course the absence of sash horns.

Must go & have a look at the building in person tomorrow.

It’s funny the way the houses were more ‘bitty’ at the Henry St. end and grander at the Parnell St. end of Gardiner’s Mall…you might have expected a bit more uniformity. The latter were much closer in every way to the Parnell Square East/Cavendish Row houses (also of circa 1750). Rocque’s map of 1756 is also good for showing all this.

I read a report of that Georgian house (1752) beside the RDH once which said its 1st floor windows were lowered in the late 18th century – apparently this was the fashion at the time, to let more light in, because mid-18th cen. houses had quite small window proportions. I’ve noticed those old sashes on the 2nd floor of the facade as well, and I reckon what happened is, when the 1st floor windows were lowered in the late 18th cen., all the façade widows were replaced. Then when the RDH extended into part of the house in the ‘80s 🙁 , they put those crappy Victorian-horned sashes into the 1st & 2nd floors. Imagine, the late-18th cen. sashes had probably survived in the whole facade up until then!

I was in that house as part of my work a few years ago and the rear tri-partite arched staircase window is original, with heavy glazing bars.
What the RDH did on the ground floor was absolutely disgusting…all that cheap nasty off-the-peg plasterwork & joinery, and destroying what were probably two magnificent rooms. But the remaining original rooms in the house are a wow…very authentic & atmospheric.
I look forward to the restoration of the house…thank god there is a system in place now that requires a professional Conservation Architect to be engaged in the restoration of a Protected Structure like this.

Or “Portaloos” according to the Irish Times’ ‘What’s Not Hot’ section on Saturday.

(I was away & missed the conversation about O’Connell Bridge)

Those trees in the picture look a bit weird alright…maybe it’s just the lighting.

Regarding O’Connell Bridge being included in the O’Connell Street upgrading, there’s no word of it happening from the Council, but the bridge is so integral to O’Connell Street that it has got to be repaved etc. sooner or later. I suppose it is in a slightly different situation traffic-wise in that it carries traffic that is going to turn right onto Eden Quay as well as go into O’C St.

The ornate lamps standards were restored in Spain at (presumably) great expense a year or two back and look great, but now the ones on the median sit in messy uneven tarmac.

As was said already, the pavements on O’C Bridge have massive granite kerbstones – 2 feet thick (I’m pretty sure they date from the 1880s reconstruction of the bridge). Some of the other old bridges have these 2 feet thick antique kerbs as well – the two hump-back bridges flanking the Four Courts have them. And Grattan Bridge had them until the refurbishment a few years ago. But the kerbstones on the median of O’Connell Bridge are even bigger – 2 ½ feet thick and some as long as 6 feet. They are unique in Dublin and should definitely be kept when the bridge comes to be refurbished.

Regarding the 19th century iron bollards that surrounded Smith O’Brien when he was on the south of O’C Bridge, it’s quite likely that they are the ones that now stand near the Parnell Monument. But, given the profusion of ornate street furniture in Dublin at the time, it’s also likely that those bollards were found in other places as well (that might account for their apparently slightly different shape).