GrahamH
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Interesting that as a result of the removal (blowing up?) of Victoria in College Green, Dublin is the only European city without an equestrian statue.
Still, we’re also the only city with 396 foot Spire!
Touche.
It is illegal. Mary O’ Rourke in the Seanad a couple of weeks ago said it will be reversed.
But when, well, don’t hold your breath…
A bad thing dosn’t come close to how appalingly undemocratic the measure is.
On the subject of shells, does anyone know whats happening to the Kildare Street Club thats recently been shrouded in scaffolding?
A good cleaning I hope…There’s a lot of activity around it’s base, the concrete supports for the cast bronze base are in, and metal grids of some discription are going down, could be the bronze itself, it’s difficult to tell. Nothing else happening though. No paving slabs etc.
Westland Row. The job has yet to be finished, but I agree that the standard of workmanship is poor, the corroded railings have not been restored, many areas need re-rendering, and they’re just painting over the problems. And yes, that nasty shopfront slap bang in the middle hasn’t been removed. Still the restored brickwork is WOW! And the some of the houses have really charming bootscrapers, in the shape of dragons.(just thought I’d throw that in)
It is one of Dublin’s greatest loss, that of the interior of the Custom House, esp the private apartments of the then Commissioner, which were regarded as amongst the most sumptuous in Europe, all records of which are utterly lost. (the surviving interior is very beautiful, & is worth a visit)
Yes. To be fair though, the interior of the Custom House, although not original, is very impressive, executed in a sophisticated Edwardian/Art Deco/Arts & Crafts style (if it can be all that) and works very well. (& Four Courts)
With regard to the manner in which these, essentially shells are flaunted as the originals etc, the reality is that nobody in this country actually visits them anyway, only appriciating their exteriors regardless of their interiors, which is a shame, esp when we have the real thing in many other structures in the form of City Hall etc.
True, confounded by the fact that the dome of City Hall is the only surviving 18th century copper dome in the city.
Oh niggle niggle niggle!
(Anyway, I was referring to Gandon’s bldgs)
The GPO could do with a good scrub, when was it last cleaned, the late 80s or something? The carved detail is particularly manky. And were the windows originally stained like the present? If not, painting them white would greatly brighten up the building.
More like they can’t be arsed to remodel the interior of the building to take account of this. How wonderful it would be to have sweeping views of Henry St through new windows, that filled the upper shopping floors with light and interest.
Arnotts also hasn’t bothered to utilise their upper windows.
Nope, only the front facade remained, the entire interior of the building, decoratively and structurally was utterly destroyed.
An 18th century window can never be overated! Ever!
I see they’re not even attempting to solve the worst aspect of the current Roches, the fact that it has a 3 storey, 6 building long blank wall as a facade. They’re pawning off the Millinium Wing’s sophisticated austerity as a solution to their problem.
Its not a solution.
Westland Row is looking spectacular at the moment, all of it’s (Trinity’s bldgs) house’s brickwork looks nothing short of ravishing(is that a word?), as it glows in the sunshine. As Ireland’s most impressive (only?) Regency styled terrace it deserves to be looking it’s best.
Which is more than can be said for the West Front of Trinity facing onto College Green, which has been shrouded in complete darkness every night for the past half year, which I pass every night. Its crazy. Whats happened to it’s spectacular white floodlighting? All of the lights are still there, behind the railing’s granite base, although some are pointed in the wrong direction.
And the disgraceful state of the Custom House’s lighting, and the Four Courts, the GPOs crappy orange uplighters are blowing by the minute, Christ Church is in permenent darkness, the statues on Gandon’s portico of the Bank of Ireland are blowing, orange light is an insult to the white Portland Stone of it’s main facade, the National Museum and Library have no lighting at all, Leinster House is laughable, and as for the city’s bridges…
I agree that most of his designs are quite cumbersome, but the portico of the GPO, even looking at the pic in the first post, is much ‘truer’ to the porticos of Ancient Greece & Rome, and I think it is one of the few of Johnston’s buildings that work well.
Not all Gandon’s designs are up to scratch either, although mostly neoclassical, some esp
the Kings Inns have a destinct ‘watery’ aspect to them, a lack of features and depth. His preference for niches over windows didn’t help, creating ‘blind’ or blank facades.Just discovered that Cassells was a personal friend of Mosse, and that in fact, donated the design of the Rotunda to him free of charge, which certainly explains its similarity to Leinster House. Cassells really only tweaked the order of the portico and a couple of other minor changes. The curved colonades to either side of the building are derived from his most famed country house, Russbourgh.
I never saw that elevation before either. More than likely the cupola proved too expensive, like the Blue Coat School. The Catholic Church wanted to build their national cathedral on the site at the same time as the GPO, but it was considered too daring as the penal laws, although significantly relaxed by this time (1810s), still had clout.
I love the portico of the GPO, possibly above all of Dublin’s classical buildings. It has such strength, yet is beautifully adorned with an exquisite frieze, ‘flutes’ on the columns and vigourously carved ionic capitals. Johnston’s buildings all have a very solid, ‘masculine’ as they say, appearance to them, including his country house designs.
Dr Bartholomew Mosse, who instigated the building of the hospital needed as much money as he could get his hands on, and so Richard Cassel’s design for Leinster House (1745-8) was pretty much churned out again for the Rotunda (1750s) at a significantly lower price.
The pleasure gardens to the rear and of course the public function rooms (now the Ambassodor & Gate theatre) provided much needed funds to help keep the hospital afloat, & to reduce the initial cost of it’s construction.
