GrahamH
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Indeed – most of this terrace survived, even if it didn’t survive the 70s!
I thought of Champion Sports as an original as well – unfortunately it is an example of very average Victorian design. And the dirt does it no favours either.
I saw the pics of the Georgians in the Harcourt book as well (then put it back on the shelf and sneaked out of the bookshop)
Supermacs is a fine building – unfortunately the schuh bldg beside it does it no favours at all, the window courses arn’t even continued.
Schuh is a disgrace as it stands out like a sore thumb.It’s facinating that the Henry St corner bldgs are amongt the oldest Georgians in the city considering how the rest of the street was destroyed, the fact that they were right beside the GPO in 1916, and that the street’s buildings have been subject to such changes in fashions – hence demolitions and alterations etc. For these to have survived is extraordinary.
One indicator of their age is evident on the Henry St facade, where there’s still an original window. Note how small it is, and the panes of glass, and how unadorned and simple the surround is – so typical of the early/mid 18th century.It would be fantastic if the render and pediments etc could be removed and the original brickwork exposed. It would look great and complement the GPO so well.
This is how so much of Dublin was planned – have simple classical, brick clad ‘ordinary’ stock contrasted with major stone feature buildings, like the GPO.In their current state they’re an eyesore, and slap-bang on the nodal point of the street.
Heh heh
If its going tall, GO TALL!
I’ve no idea what impact this building will have on the Royal Hospital until pics etc are produced – so I’m not commenting till then on that issue.
But it must truly be a ‘landmark building’ in terms of height and design.
And there mustn’t be any clustering of 7 storey ‘ancillary development’ around it’s base, tossed in for good measure.NEWS FLASH!
The first of the new lime trees are being planted on the street this morning!
It’s so weird to see them in ‘real life’ at last.There’s just the four going in at the moment, at either side of the plaza, framing the GPO. They’re being craned in, as they must weigh a ton not least because of their massive rootballs.
They are also quite mature – probably 6/7 years old. The canopies are already clipped into box shapes but they still need a lot of filling out.One of the bizarre aspects of them is their lack of leaves, because they look great without them! They’re very architectural and striking, and will change the street completely from summer to winter. And perfect for Christmas lights!
They instantly add character and definition to the street, and make the place feel more confident and civic etc.
They’ll look fantastic when all are planted, sweeping the whole way down the street.Here’s hoping their planting will convince the CC to finally put the old ladies at the northern end to rest.
Or without the sugar – hack em down with a chainsaw.Sodium lights should be banned form this country! White light is so much better, especially lighting Portland Stone buildings. It’s used right across Europe – sadly very little here, presumably it’s more expensive.
Stormont is a very ugly building alright.
Still, its got a Central Bank-type brutish charm to it also! And those imperialist 30s lamposts leading up it’s avenue and around the building are fantastic. Don’t like the uplighters on the columns though – they’ve got a yellowish tinge to them.I was watching a prog on Sunday about Spain, and the streets of Madrid at night were like daytime – its pavements flooded with white light, and I just compared it with dingy grotty orangey Dublin. There’s no contest.
And poor old College Geen, the CC are literally reling on the deflected light from the Bank of Ireland to illuminate the space!
I don’t know about architects involvement either – but there’s no doubt that there’s been a huge improvement in recent years in the understanding of lighting in new buildings, it being used very effectively, especially in interiors – although certainly not in all cases.
I’ve been interested in lighting for years, both in the entertainment lighting you speak of Plug, and the more practical forms, ie, street lighting etc.
I cannot believe the state of the Custom House’s floodlighting, its a joke. Many of the floodlights bulbs have just been replaced after being being blown for months and months, but its the architecture of the lighting thats so bad.
Horrible urban orange light is used, the lights are positioned on the back of lamposts and so blast concentrated light on only certain areas of the facade, leaving other areas dimly lit. The portico is then ludicrously lit with white light beams that jarr with the orange light.
The drum and dome are also lit in different colours to the rest, and again are too dim.
And then throw in the amount of blown bulbs there are and you end up with a big cluttered incoherent mess.And as for the Four Courts – the OPW can’t even be bothered to replace the bulbs that light the dome in the same colour – hence one part is orange, another white etc.
And as for Christchurch, Trinity, the GPO, Leinster House, the Ntl Museum, Library, Gallery & Natural History…
Leinster House being the most recent job – I can honestly say I’ve never seen anything so ham-fisted and pathetic in my life. The OPW should be ashamed of themselves.
I don’t bother listening to anything I hear in relation to ‘proposed’ this, or ‘coming on stream soon’ that – just laugh it off and it will work every time!
Street lighting in this city is disgraceful – even the very latest lighting in the city,like those recent repros on College St are very dim.
I’m just looking at a picture of the first building now, and certainly the window proportions are that of a Georgian – can’t believe I overlooked this building before, bloody Victorians and their Dutch frippery!
I’ve always liked that gable nonetheless.
The whole building was covered in nasty blue paint in the 70s.Here are some pics of the corner buildings with Henry St (from a previous posting) which are probably the oldest on the street – dating from around 1743-45.
There are differences in the various artists’ accuracy with regard to windows etc.
Maybe the building’s too big for such use, there’s literally acres of office space including the basement.
Whereas the corridors and open spaces are very fine, as far as I know the offices themselves are of the suspended ceiling variety.
Nonetheless they are high – but it would still require a lot of money and effort to convert the whole building successfully. Hopefully the current Visitors Centre in the 18th century part will act as an encouraging precedent.Its such a shame that the fire destroyed almost all the building, including the beautiful Long Room – what a fantastic place it could be today – a museum in itself.
John Beresford’s private apartments to the left-rear of the building at time of completion in the 1790s were described as ‘vieing with oriental magnificence – the palaces of Kings and Princes’. And in 1789, 50 mahogany doors at a whopping 6 guineas each were ordered for the apartments.
What a loss.The part behind the portico of the south front is the only surviving interior of the building, it’s a typical Gandon space – very architectural with vaulted ceilings and bold piers and niches carved from Bath stone. Some of it is still blackened from the fire.
The carved detail in here is superb as it’s not often you get to see cut stone that hasn’t been weathered by the external elements.The rest of the building is typical 1920s – a hybrid of Edwardian sophistication and early 30s styling. It would work well as an exhibition space; It’s not as if it’s a cluttered Victorian interior – but rather a more streamlined ‘old-fashionedness’
Please excuse my pathetic pettiness, but I always REALLY hate it when people call it the Customs House – especially in the media. It’s the Custom House. The only place you find the s is in the crappiest of American guide books and on TV3!
I think the replacement of the word airport with Ballymun is needed here, or at least the use of the two. It is crucial for Ballymun to be served, esp with the ‘new town’ developing, as well as all of the private development due to take place.
I don’t know what you mean Kefu about ecalators at the Green – if a Luas line was used as the city centre link, it would simply continue on with the existing line, like the current lines B & C.
Why we are even still talking about going underground in the city centre I don’t know, as the WS Atkins report, which massively held up Luas project to ‘sort the issue out once and for all’, overwhelmingly rejected underground in favour of overground through College Green etc – and this was when we were drowning in Exchequer returns.
The new paving on Harcourt Street is beautiful, what an improvement on the tarmac quick-fix job that prevailed for years.
Of course the very idea of eventually building a city centre link from the Green entails connecting with the Green station.
Hence – other than building a Luas line as the connection, how the hell did they think that any other link, ie, underground, would not completely wreck whats currently being built?!On the issue of the Port Tunnel – its not quite as black and white with regard to banning the largest of the trucks.
What the IRHA stress is that the extra foot or so in the height of the trucks results in something like a third to a half more capacity in the vehicle. Now I don’t know who’s to blame with regard to the issue being pointed out etc, but its worth noting.
Not least in the context of every cornflake in the country coming in from the UK, who use these trucks.
Tell them where to shove their big trucks – don’t know it’s that simple…Ouch
The issue of the state giving €68 million or so to the GAA is irrelevant – it was no strings attached as notjim says.
That’s like saying the state paid for the restoration of Castletown, therefore the public have a right to hire it out for weddings etc because the taypayer owns it.Did you hear on Prime Time last night – a whopping €12 million has been spent on reports & consultants etc on the issue of a national stadium! It really is pathetic the lack of leadership and clarity on this issue – what a shameful waste of resources.
Hill 16 was indeed built from the rubble of 1916, especially from the collapsed buildings on the east side of O’ Connell Street which included Clerys/Imperial Hotel.
(Sorry, but no one was killed in the Dail in 1916 – largly due to the fact that it didn’t exist)
Passed yesterday – they’re all Georgian – the corner building also, it was just rendered over because it’s brickwork was riddled with bullet holes. The building next door – its bricks were never rendered over, and although it fared better than its neighbour, its facade is crumbling away, presumably partially to do with 1916.
The quays are totally given over to traffic, it is horrible beinga pedestrian on the quay-wall side of the roads, esp around Grattan Bridge/Civic Offices
Saw this new building yesterday and it looked massive in the dark – really should see it in daylight!
The v-shape however, I don’t think works, it clutters up the streetscape.
The streets in this area especially are very linear, and follow a grid-like plan. This v-shape both projects and indents from the line of other buildings making a bit of a mess.One can argue that it breaks the monotony & acts as a feature building – I don’t think so.
But its very beautiful, the materials are fantastic and the little LEDs on the underside of the first floor are very fancy.
It is distinguished and different.
Heres hoping its nasty neighbour Apollo House gets the same treatment – minus three floors.Could always dismantle the Custom House and re-erect it in a field somewhere…
Wonder who’s going to move in – whoever is is going to very fortunate, the interior office space is fantastic – lots of sophisticated early 20th century charm with high ceilings, dark-stained doors, leaded glass, chunky radiators etc
Is the Dept of Comm & Marine not in that Setanta pile on Kildare/Nassau/Sth Fredrick/Molesworth St?
Considering that part of decentralisation relies on selling some of the Dublin properties, one would presume that the Dept of Agriculture is going to be sold off – should be lots of cash for the new building then – prime Dublin office building in the city centre v a field in the country.
There are extensive consulations being carried out now with the view to legislate – incl carbon taxes – next year. Apparently.
Only 2,600 of the 10,300 jobs are going to the designated gateways & hubs, this is madness.
I don’t know of any drawings but there’s a book in Hanna’s bookshop on Nassau St at the moment – I think its just called ‘The Rising’ – and it has loads of pics of the street just after 1916 – it would appear that these corner buildings survived with just broken windows.
The book was €30 last year but now is €7.99One of the buildings on Bachelors walk just underneath the nasty Baileys sign is an original Georgian I think, albeit in appalling condition and coated in yellow paint. For this to have survived is remarkable.
The drab corner building with O’ Cll St with the fire escape tacked on at the top appears to be pre-1916Little help I know but…
Might have some relevant pics at home I’ll drag outReally?
This is the first time I’ve heard of the plans being officially ditched for Hawkins.Couldn’t believe the Dept of Agriculture moving – one of the largest buildings in Dublin being vacated.
What’s going to happen to the 100 year lease the State stumbled into with this building on Kildare St?
Perhaps Health could move from Hawkins to here – and the OPW, from the goodness of it’s heart, knock Hawkins flat on its face and indulge in some faceless property development and build some quality 6 storey apartments in its place, hence rejuvinating the area, encourage inner-city living, and restore the low-rise skyline of this area of the city centre.Also to move on Kildare St (well kind of) is the Dept of Communications, Marine & Natural Resources.
Can’t you already hear the developers scrambling over each other to throw up more sprawling semi-ds to accomodate the armies of white-collars trooping out to the regions.
Well I never – benifitting the very supporters of FF
