GrahamH
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Thanks everyone, esp ew!
The house is next door to the Louth Hospital, on it’s left, on the main Dublin road, opposite the Statoil garage.
Architecturally, its not exactly spectacular, but is a charming example of a late Georgian ‘gentleman’s residence’.
Its one storey in height, pebble-dashed (painted white), with a fanlighted doorcase in the centre (with tracery) Either side is a single 12 light, Georgian sash window, presumably therefore a reception room on either side.
It has a large exposed slate roof, and is crowned with two symetrically placed chimneys. The site is surrounded with very tall mature trees, and the house, easily visible from the road, is approached via a winding drive.
Numerous people I’ve been in the car with driving past have commented on how delapidated it has become, and how charming it once was.
Its one of my favourite buildings in Dundalk, so you can be damn sure I’ll be in the Library first thing tomorrow!
I’ve seen the ‘workmen’ on site myself, so there’s no vandalising of the standard nature going on here.I look at the Department of ET&E every morning as well, I’m always facinated by it’s size, its enormous! No doubt it’s existence was the resason Sam Stephenson got away with the scale of the Dep of Agriculture across the road.
I especially admire the interior of the Dep ET&E, it’s so elegant, so modern and sophisticated, executed with quality materials, and most importantly, is exactly as it was 60 years ago. Such a pity it isn’tin major public use for all to appreciate.Well its a week and a half on and our predictions have been confounded. Westmoreland St’s pavements & other areas haven’t been touched in the way of cleaning, they’re still manky from Patrick’s Day.
Also, Merrion Square & Merrion St which are kept in an immaculate condition by their users/frequenters is now covered in cigarette butts from the same day’s carnival/funfair, typical ignorance of visitors from, dare I say, ‘other areas of the city’. And it hasn’t been cleaned since.
God I’m sick of moaning, come on City Council!
The DIT college on the Rathmines Road, adjacent to the Library. It’s rather formal Edwardian styled facade conceals a refreshingly bright and curvacious Art Deco interior.
Nothing overtly dramatic, but still, unusual for this country.
And the Carlton on O’ Connell St, with a rather watered down Art Deco facade, but as a result, fits into the street.Saw the documentary too, all good except for narration by Jerry Hall.
So sad Ireland lost out architecturally on this fantastic period (with the exception of cinemas)
The Theatre Royal had a dramatic rather than lavish interior, and it seated literally thousands, can’t remember if it was 2, 5 or 6000!
And the Savoy on O’ Connell St, which had a magnificent single theatre, but subdivided into 3 in the 60’s.Eh, fast food wrappers and vomit on the salubrious southside? (although yes, there is that club on the corner of Kildare St)
But what is the point in having these prized buildings if you can’t appreciate them?
Put it this way, if you set out to design a national parliament building, adjacent to 2 national institutions, the existing set up of offensive railings etc is most certainly not what you would come up with, indeed it would be considered grossly offensive, symbolising ‘keeping the little people out’ and there’d be uproar over it.And surely we cannot let a minority of winos etc destroy our vision for the city. And as for security concerns, sure you can walk by the railings as it is! If they were to be removed, a strong security presence could still be held, with suitable posts for guards underneath parts of the colonnades of the Ntl Library & Museum, on either side.
It’s just a lack of vision and foresight that clouds such developments.The more I see the bollards, the worse they become.
And again, the granite paving?! Why have the concrete slabs been laid?
And, work on the plaza was supposed to begin ‘early in the new year’.
I don’t belive you! I knew it! I just knew it!
I’ve always been deeply suspicious of their cumbersome profiles but never dared venture inside the Houses’s hallowed grounds to find out what they were made of.
They look extremely clinical even from the other side of Kildare St, uPVC dosn’t surprise me in the least, although it disappoints me greatly.And I read in the Sunday Times a few weeks ago that the security huts at the gates are not to be removed but simply redesigned. Hence I am assuming that the railings to the front are also not going, nor the Victorian entrance lodges/gateposts, nor the barbarrac hoardings going down the sides of the Ntl Library & Museum that are pawned of as some sort of Victoriana.
Just imagine how fantastic this space could be, a vast imposing piazzia enclosed on 3 sides by the country’s most important institutions and architectural stock, imaginative paving and lighting, water features, benches, information on the buildings and the city, a fantastic tourist area, a wonderful backdrop for news reports and satelite up-links, a fantastic image to convey to the rest of the world on election days and events of national importance.
Spectacular floodlighting at night, highlighting the wonderful variation of colour, features, orders, ornementation and textures of the buildings, and culminating the vista up Molesworth Street in a manner it deserves.It would create a whole new area in the city.
It is disgraceful, shameful and bloody typical of this city not to recognise such potential for this space, esp how affecting it is on an international level, and more typical to do nothing about it.
If we cannot have our Parliament House on College Green back, the very least we can do is improve on what we do have.
There is a wonderful drive and a feeling of optimisim in the city now, esp in the CC which is great.
But the vast majority of all development that has taken place over the past decade has not been the fruits of the CC’s efforts or any other public body, but simply on the back of commercial interests. And wheras the quality of building has much improved, they’ve only happened out of fashion and companies’s desire to have prestige pemises, rather than stringent planning laws etc.
We can see even now on O’ Cll St, where there is a major effort underway to improve the quality of premises/retailers on the st by the CC, but there’s absolutely no commercial interest in the area and so nothing is happening, and nothing will happen for the forseeable future. Unfortunatly.This is crazy, it really is. We have put up with so much, and been so accepting of all other delays, ‘they need to get it right’ ‘there’s no point rushing’ etc, but this is madness, it really is.
And the granite base, after just laying down concrete slabs? What the hell is going on!!!
And there’s nothing current on their website…I’m so sick of granite cladding. It has emerged in reaction to poor quality finishes of previous decades. Any architect now simply throws on some granite to give their creation a ‘quality’ finish, moreover though, it’s used by developers to swoon the CC into approving their development, because of it’s use of ‘natural’, ‘quality’ and long-lasting materials, that ‘improve and complement the local amenities’, ‘reflecting the materials and historic building methods/materials of the area’ blah blah blah
It’s so cliched and utterly mundane. See the new building on (I think) Adelaide Road (the extention to Iveagh Court), the building is granite, the surrounding walls are granite, the paving is granite…
Wheras granite can work well, it has literally swamped the city in the past 10 years.
What about sandstone, Ireland’s forgotton stone? The Victorians loved it as it can come in beige, tan, red and many other shades (although some sandstones do weather badly)Presumably, I’ve never actually seen it, I had to make do with a pic of Trinity instead. I also have a wonderful watercolour of Gratton(Essex) Bridge with a view down Parliament St & the Royal Exchange which I availed of, (most people know it)
But thanks anywayThe lack of coverage of the Spire was noticable, indeed it’s footage was only shot in the past few days as the O’ Cll Bridge lanterns were evident.
The wide shots of the street from the early-mid 20th century were fantastic.
I could watch them all day.I agree, walking around the city centre the next morning, although dirty, I was really surprised at how little litter there was, indeed virtually none at all, and of course large amounts of litter will always accumulate at major events.
However, the point I made earlier about the Spire site, the fact is people went to the effort to throw their crap over the hoardings into the newly finished site and it’s this that I find appalling.All of the city centre streets are covered in the inevitable layer of mud and dirt, presumably these are to be pressure washed?
Exactly, why was the use of the Custom House as a backdrop/feature of the display abandoned? It was used in the first 1/2 years of the Skyfest and looked spectacular, esp for footage to be shown abroad.
The city looked pathetic at the location chosen, just a couple of low rise, sprawling ‘global’ style buildings to flank the Liffey’s most impressive course.Or why are city centre quays not used? (is the answer to that too obvious? ie sound pollution) It’s only one night for God’s sake, for 10 minutes!
