George_Kaplan
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Where abouts was that Mal Mart on Talbot St? I took a photo of it about 10 years ago, and spent a few very entertaining minutes walking around inside, but can’t remember where exactly it was. Is it where Supervalue is now?
As for Guiney’s: why didn’t they just submit a realistic planning application in the first place… instead of chancing their arm and wasting everybody’s time. While they’re at it, they should give the next-door telephone exchange (on the corner of Gardiner St) a good lick of paint.
@GrahamH wrote:
To be frank, you can change the buildings and paving but you can’t change the people.
I know it’s terrible to stereotype, but its so true, its on the tip of every CC offical’s tongue but they just can’t say it.
Its a genuine concern that the upgraded elements of the st are just going to be trashed with chewing gum, late night brawls, urine, urine, urine etc
What absolute twoddle! I live on an adjacent street to O’Connell Street and think your post is way off the mark. O’Connell St is actually a rather pleasant street these days. It’s an outdated perception that O’Connell St is a yob-infested area full of “late night brawls”. There’s a Garda presence on O’Connell St, visible 24 hours a day, right down Talbot St and Gardiner St, this nucleus of streets being packed with Tourist accommodation. Yobbish behaviour is clamped down upon and is no different than any other part of the city. This “urine, urine, urine” really is not in evidence on O’Connell the way it is in Temple Bar, perhaps down to the constant cleaning by the council workers with those motor-bins.
I also disagree with some posters’ negative take on the commercial make-up on the street. What’s wrong with The Savoy, Eason’s, Beshoff’s, Penney’s (socks and boxers), Ned Kelly’s snooker hall, Clery’s, the Kylemore for some quality Dublinesque people-watching, the Grand Central Pub? Upper part is a bit tatty, around Dr Quirky’s Good-Time Emporium, but isn’t that down to a protracted planning dispute? Also, it has 6 fast-food restaurants, which really is no more excessive than any other comparative European main-street, and the banks of course.
A favourite feature of mine is the tall, pointy thing in the centre of the street.
I know: why not visit, and perhaps browse the archival pieces on display in the General Post Office on your way back from cashing in your bus tickets? Enjoy your paper, picked up at a news stand, over a pint in the Grand Central – won’t find any riff-raff here!
I think it’s worth keeping this church-front as a quirky little footnote on the street, even if the overall design is lacking. Perhaps something a little more sensitive to its surroundings would be more suitable though? Around the corner (on Lower Gardiner St), there’s a Cosgrave built mock-georgian apartment complex which seems to retain that Georgian elegance, petering out on Middle Gardiner St, only to return to thunderous applause at Mountjoy Square!
The loss of the Georgians is certainly lamentable, but it’s a much more pleasant area these days altogether, a far cry from the bleak outlook portrayed in these pictures http://www.dublin1850.com/old_and_new.html
