GrahamH
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I see there’s a Centra ‘coming soon’ to Capel St now.
So as was coined here before, sadly Sparification is now so last year – Centralisation is the way forward 🙁I really despise those pukey pastels so favoured by them now in their new colour scheme, no doubt just a personal thing – but I think it looks as cheap as chips.
I think the 50p corner’s a great quirky feature! Of course that opinion is entirely generated by a rose-tinted view of the building and if something other than a straight corner was built today I’d be outraged at the watering down of the WSC’s composition 🙂 Agreed re the windows at least – those early 80s bronzy frames are the very worst kind of replacement window, esp when coupled with those horrendous cheapo mullions.
The corner specimens would look particularly fine in steel.Had a look today at the red-bricks on D’Olier St, it would appear they went no further than their existing site, i.e. D’Olier Chambers at the end was a newbuild when it went up in the 1890s – based upon the fact that the quoin stones of the last redbrick wrap right round the little corner which D’Olier Chambers is set back from (although the small 2-storey in the Brocas print may have covered part of its site)
Looking up Shaw’s is a good idea – amazing what a few sketched lines can tell you!I never understood the designs chosen for Carlisle Building and the Ballast Office. Why depart so lightly from the rest of the streetscape? Either go the whole way and put two landmark stone buildings there, or completely maintain the streetscape right up to the corners.
From what can be deduced from photos and prints, I think they quite substantially diluted the regularised effect being created, esp the Carlisle Building only featuring four storeys. Likewise with the Ballast Office only barely departing from the window dressings and string courses – doesn’t seem to work I think…People have probably heard already but a man died today on O’Connell St from injuries sustained in a very nasty fall from the second floor of the Lir Clock terrace on the street.
Apparently he was a window cleaner and something obviously went badly wrong.I wondered what had happened with the cordon etc at street level, and the poor man’s harness thing was lying on the ground. He pulled away part of the Chas F Ryan sign up there, bits of it lying on the street as well – whether he was tied to it or just grabbed hold in desperation. Horrible.
Just after passing Centra on the Green there – you’d need sunglasses during the day just to look at the place 😎 That’s better.
The one on Westland Row is the worst; it is vulgar in the extreme after dark, in marked contrast to the new coffee place nearby which has lovely muted lighting.River Island on Grafton St takes the biscuit though – indeed something of a talking point with Christmas shoppers.
Don’t know whether to hate it or admire their audacity.It may be a naive question – but if the P11 plan is feasible and so cost-effective and fundamentally logical – as it appears to be by all accounts – then why isn’t it being readily adopted? (this being asked by someone who would benefit directly from the planned diversion of much of the existing traffic from Connolly)
Interesting points re the RPA there…
I do believe it was me who praised the BoI recently 🙂 – and Phil too, who raised it on the Gaiety Centre thread.
I think it is an attractive piece of architecture, indeed one of the better modern infills in the centre.
There is no doubt though that what was there before was far superior; what a perfect setting for the ‘real’ BoI next door – especially the wrap-around facade actually facing the Lords portico you can see in the first old pic there, just imagine what that would have looked like with its red brick, Georgian sashes & exquiste proportions flanking the newly added giant doorway of the BoI. It would have been magnificent. And nowhere, except maybe with the GPO and Lwr Sackville St, did the flanking brick Georgians ever come so close to their centrepiece.
It doesn’t bear thinking about 🙁And there’s nothing like a Georgian corner either, what a daft thing to say, but really they’re so rare – to get a decent bricked Georgian corner with windows on both sides is something of a novelty, we’re so used to townhouses being so superficial etc. Corners make them so much more substantial and real.
I think we need to put things in perspective though with regard to the 50s BoI. If the originals on the site weren’t knocked (not that I’m defending it) we’d currently have two buildings with Victorian additions, coated in a layer of render and smothered in kiddies yellow poster paint. That would be an insult to what’s next door.
At least the 50s BoI acknowledges the big BoI by using red brick and similar coloured concrete/stone as dressing. It also fits in quite well with the distinctive jumble of buildings next door, indeed if anything provides something of a relief – halting them before managing to creep in next to the BoI – something of a buffer building 🙂Wahey – we have a WSC shopfront! Looks the same as D’Olier St’s ones.
Also interesting to see the original buildings on the site of the BoI 30s building – not sure I like it anymore now 🙂As this topic is raised again, I think I have an explanation for the red brick aliens on the east side of D’Olier St.
I have engraving from 1820 of the street and it would appear that that side was never properly developed, although it may have been subsequent to the pic.
In the very centre of the terrace, on the site of the Gas Building, is a large white building, probably stone and 5 bays wide. The building is the same height as the terrace but is only 3 storeys in total. The terrace continues down a bit more towards Pearse St, with the regular WSC buildings of T & C Martin, now D’Olier House, but stops before the site of the current red-bricked buildings and D’Olier Chambers, where there’s a small two storey building with a pitched roof covering pretty much all these sites.Hence, as the red brickwork suggests, these buildings are early 19th century and may not even have been built by the WSC. Wonder if they were built on the site of D’Olier Chambers too…
That’s a very good point about the nature of building in Ireland Devin – real living heritage being replaced with dead ‘heritage style’. The practice would be funny were it not so sad, and it’s everywhere – ‘Super Valu Syndrome’.
And it’s almost as if those involved want to create a new heritage; they have a idealised vision of what they think 18th & 19th century Ireland should have been like – made up of monumental strutures symmetrical and ordered to the point of blandness, covered in ‘heritage’ features like frilly electric lanterns, factory-churned shopfronts and fancy PVC facias – replacing the old rickety heritage with an easy-to-clean, wipeable surface version.
At least so much of the destruction that used to go on has stopped, esp with greater vigilance on the part of local authorities, but you still get the odd one slipping through the net 🙁
Yes it’s horrendous alright.
I do like the new signage – very sleek. The glazing’s a bit strange though, not quite modern, not quite traditional…
Thought I’d post these pics of a building that’s an interesting example of what could be considered as decent pastiche – indeed one of the best examples I’ve seen. Ironically it is in Dundalk sited right next to the location for the aforementioned proposed Market House, arguably the worst use for pastiche.
The building pictured is the circa 1900 Ulster Bank located on probably the most prominent site in the town. Can you tell what part of it is original? Well yes it’s pretty obvious as the new materials are crisp and clean but they’ll tone down with time.
When it became necessary to extend the original corner building, rather than add on a contemporary extention, it was decided to remodel the building as a whole by essentially building a mirror image of the original and linking it to the old with a central 2 bay facade.
Hence the 6 left-hand bays are new, while the 4 bay right-hand section is original. The attention to detail is exceptional in the upper floors, the sandstone elements were replicated perfectly – although the new granite down below looks more like cladding than a structural element as the original does. Maybe it just needs to tone down as well. The new sash windows are also perfect – all important 🙂Overall I think it works very well – one may question the design chosen in that it does come across a bit monumental when seen head-on, especially the roof, but otherwise it is a largely successful development and looks particularly fine when seen from a more natural, raking angle.
Also pleased to see discreet red floodlights were chosen for once for nightime illumination 🙂
Ireland Inc – what a monster.
This must be a bit of fun that was accidently released. Wonder if Bus Eireann had a hand in it 🙂Well here’s the new Ned Kelly’s. I think it is an disimprovement. It is ironic that the only decent shopfront on the upper street is the very one to be replaced, while the other ones in dire need of work still languish up there.
This replacement did not need to be done – the stained glass and iron lamposts were attractive and entirely in keeping with the building regardless of whether or not they were original. It had some character, whereas now, although undoubtedly attractive, is hardly distinctive. The appeal stems more from its newness than its design.
Four Courts?
Bank of Ireland?
College of Surgeons?
Trinity?
The Abbey site? – about to be vacated soon apparently 🙂What a gem of a building – especially how the shopfront is perfectly alligned with the two upper right bays in the classical tradition.
Also the carriage entrance is of the same proportion as the shop windows.Those windows are fantastic, really lovely – most certainly are very rare. They are the original, the prototype, for what has since become the traditional sweet shop or baker’s window, and so replicated in the 1980s.
They have a heck of a cheek next door to propose demolition, regardless of its protected status.
Surely it’ll just be flatly turned down? Even so, one would be concerned for the fabric of the building into the future if it remains in their handsCertainly an idea if it fits – as to the impact on the square at large I don’t know. Could have a positive effect though considering how built up the square is now – it’s not quite a square, not quite three streets, just in between. A new building could acknowledge that the square formation is gone now, and reshape the northern end into a more acceptable form. As it stands there’s no decent views of Charlemont House and terrace anyway.
As for the GPO I think a post office is the most civic use applicable to any building – although yes, its architecture isn’t exactly commensurate to its use (would be in other countries). But this is part of its charm, that people swarm in and out of the building around the bases of its reassuringly huge columns all day long, most never paying any attention to it. It’s just always there, a big clunky comforting lump that everyone loves even for all its faults, and a place everyone has the opportunity to use. What I’ve always felt about it anyways…
I’m afraid Lotts that glass flow is something of an urban legend, i.e. it doesn’t 🙂
Your Pilkingtons will be as flat as a pancake in 1,000,000 years let alone 100 – it’s a very appealing concept though!Just looking at this site below which is handy for dates, the way glass is made today is the original Pilkington method from 1959 (although invented around 56) where the glass floats on a bath of molten tin, resulting in a flawless surface.
It would appear that largely flawless modern glass came about in 1923 with the Pilkington Polished Plate – would have taken a few years to get to Ireland though, and for it to be in widespread use.
Presumably this is the stuff used in all Corpo schemes round the country in the 30s, 40s & 50s.Must take a look on late 1920s Upper O’Cll St and see if there’s any there (don’t have much to be doing) – though frankly I’d be lucky to find original windows let alone the feckin glass…:(
That’s an interesting pic in that the GPO Arcade is much further west that I thought it was. There seems to be enough space as a result. Presumably this is why other people were thinking about the depth being a problem – the GPO is a really huge building, most people are amazed when they see it the first time from the air.
The Public Office also takes up less room than I thought, which in itself could make for a grand foyer. The shed bit sticking out the back could be knocked (although admittedly this is quite a chunk of the public office, with attractive windows)
The cross-block could easily be knocked if necessary.Overall there seems to be just enough room for it, though measurements other than those made with fingers on a computor monitor may prove otherwise 🙂
It does seem a bit unambitious though to use the shroud of the GPO to house the ‘new’ Abbey – then again it is easily the most prominent building in the country, on the capital’s central street…I don’t think the GPO is wasted as a post office – it gives the people ownership of the country’s most famous building, but certainly the vast expanse of sorting offices etc to the rear is a terrible waste of prime city centre land.
