GrahamH
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Oh go on then:
Only in Ireland, only in Ireland…….
These two say it more than words ever could.
And whatever about the irony and the humour and the maddening nature of it all, the CC have seen fit to plonk a crude, lop-sided, dirty, lumped-in-with-concrete, galvanised steel pole with no less than four signs attached, right in the centre of the plaza, outside the portico of the GPO.
Had the workman or operations manager a set of eyes in their head?! It’s unbelievable!
And it makes not the slightest bit of difference either way:
And further down where the signs are mounted on nice chromed poles, again not the slightest bit of difference:
Indeed I just stood there watching as motorcyclists came and went as they pleased – just itching to go over and point to the signs and inform them as to what an ignorant shower they all are (but they are motorcyclists after all so…..yeah, kinda kept quiet…)
Rigorous enforcement is the only answer, including by the Gardaà who stand about outside the GPO – they simply must have a role to play in this.
Some welcome signs have been provided like this one pointing down Princes St:
…but all you need is one bike on the plaza and straight away everyone follows suit.
In other more uplifting news (quite literally), as has been mentioned the GPO is being shrouded in scaffolding, including the portico; only the left-hand wing has to be covered now, as well as the pediment and maybe as high as Hibernia up there.
There were no contractors about except the scaffolders up above, so nobody to ask exactly what is happening, but considering the portico is being covered I think it’s safe to assume the building is being cleaned.
It’s quite an impressive sight and has everyone on the street walking along looking upwards – really draws attention to the building.
The contractors are having a great time up there 🙂
The scale of the detailing must be fantastic so close up:
😀
lol, what a farce – well on the face of it anyway: the notion that this significant building is ‘missing’, but once it is found out which one it is, well then that found building will be of importance, while the other one will return to being a heap of junk again 🙂
Ah not fair, but funny all the same. I would have thought this a doddle to sort out – surely there’s loads of relatives/family members and Rising anoracks who know for sure which building it is.
The right-hand picture here is a grand c1926 chimney on the corner with Cathal Brugha St, and also a little baby version next to it 🙂
The image on the left is of the equally impressive chimney between….actually this would make a good quiz question – anyone care to guess?! (though yes the stonework might give it away)
Finally, returning to the Wide Street’s Commission terrace of Lower O’Cll St, are there any of their chimneys left?
Well, what remains of even Victorian stacks is disappointing thanks to the efforts of the 1970s and 80s. What few there are do make use of WSC foundations.But I’m glad to say that yes, there is a single remaining WSC chimney up there, in all of its stock brick glory – and here it is!
What a remarkable survivor! And not just because of all the 20th century interventions, but even by the 1890s the entire terrace opposite had lost all of its Georgian pots and some chimneys had been extended.
For it not to have been altered in any way, not even render applied is truly extraordinary, though it is possible that the pots are not original, but they certainly look it!All WSC chimneys featured a large chunky base with a tapered top as can be seen above. This gave way to the chimney proper, sited on top of the base and made up of about six courses of brick before being adorned with a simple raised course or two for decoration.
For the Sackville Street chimneys the WSC decided on seven pots per chimney, but as can be seen above in about 1898, later Victorian ones were so large as to warrant a reduction to six!
This surviving chimney is going to have to be watched as it may very well disappear overnight – especially given its positioning over Burger King of all places! 😮
Also the right-hand side of the gabled building still features a WSC foundation.
A little further up is the old Bank of Ireland building next to Clery’s with a big stack on the boundary with the dept store, and a fun tiny little one on the other 🙂
The right-hand picture shows the only chimney on the GPO roofline visible from the street: an unusual tall narrow stack or granite viewed here from an upper floor of Clery’s. It pales into insignificance when one considered the magnificent array of chimneys extant until 1916:
At the corner of Henry St now, and the Joe Walsh Tours building features a chimney matching the building’s apparent provenance – a simple stock brick Georgianish stack, with pots that seem to date from oooh – c1994? 🙂
Crossing the street again to the North Earl St junction, and the Georgian-styled post-1916 terrace here features some simple red brick chimneys, which have an almost suspicious 1980s look to them, but they are original.
O’Connell Street Upper features some of the largest chimneys on the street, including these fantastic Mary Poppins-like stacks over the ‘Come in and Visit’ and National Irish Bank buildings. When the Spire was going up there was a group of 5/4 people standing up here offering me every finger gesture under the sun, so there appears to be access to up there anyway 🙂
The right-hand chimney is a bit further up the street.
And here is that chimney again just past Dublin Bus, along with two impressive late-1920s chimneys apparently dating from their building’s re-facing post 1922.
Just before Dublin Bus is this great Dickensian-like chimney with sinister pots protruding:
…along with this fine elegant rendered stack over Flanagans:
Well some newer pics now – we usually focus on facades above street level here, so to take that one step further what about the skyline of O’Connell St, notably its ‘chimneyscape’? 🙂
Lots of interesting things going on up there worthy of a bit of attention. Sorry about the res and colouring of the pics, they’re VT stills of all things that I took ages ago 😮I was tempted to make this into a ‘guess the building’ competition but then just decided that I couldn’t be bothered 😀
Here’s probably the most famous of all at the entrance to the street – why the architect even bothered to clad just the front edge of the chimneys in granite I do not know, how ridiculous is that?! Nice rendered stacks up there too towards the back.
Facing them from the Bachelor’s Walk corner is a Victorian stock brick chimney everyone probably knows, positioned on a WSC foundation (more about these later).
Just a few doors up is a fine big red brick Victorian stack with a sculpted render top:
Across the road are these fantastic Champion Pots over the corner Grand Central building (there’s also more of these over the Lir Clock terrace).
Moving further up the street and you can’t but not notice the impressive stacks of Manfield Chambers/Clarks. Built of limestone, they have some fine pots, and at least somewhat make up for the lack of a cupola on this corner:
On the opposing corner the Adams Family building 🙂 has some fabulous classically inspired chimneys flanking the mansard roof, with Doric detailing near the tops. They act more as book end architectural features than chimneys:
(right pic http://www.fantasyjackpalance.com)Yes, that seems to be as a good a description as any.
Some vaguely French influences in there too, but nothing that can be really pinned down. It’s one of the few examples left in Ireland today of a public building before the advent of rampant classicism (though elements of it have always been with us).
And to think that much of the country’s stock was of this mongrel form of architecture before the Greek wigs came along – some great stuff.It looks like a poorly minaturised version of the pre-revised Freedom Tower, with a big fat block of flats tacked onto the side!
And what is that cladding material?These Georgians here altuistic near the Court House?
Some lovely stuff, and a bizarrely large roof to boot!
You can just make out the swirls of crown glass in some of the panes – really fantastic that these most unusual pane-arranged sashes were preserved. Saying that, they could do with another lick of paint at this stage…
(Suffice to say they also feature in that Roche/IGS book)
Really?! Good to see the estate seeing happier times again in terms of the success of the gardens and improving house.
Great ventilation grill there on the last one – indeed it’s interesting how nearly all of them not only feature a grill, but also place emphasis on their design and material used.
The Jordan one is my favourite, and fantastic sashes upstairs too, tucked in under the eaves :). What’s the likelihood of them still being there….?
The coloured version of vitrolite is striking, esp the blue, though frankly the peachy coloured one doesn’t quite do it for me – yuck!
Subsidence always adds an interesting twist to architecture – as with Boyles 😉
🙂
Yes, and the hall is often used for photoshoots too. A magnificent i/12th scale model has been built of it, it’s in the US now I think.
In a similar vein to Russborough, who owns the house and gardens now – Wicklow CC?You can hire it out for weddings now too – so that’s why the Ritz looks like a cake…
Have to agree with you 100% Alex – this is absolutely scandalous. I too used the crossing recently with no markings and motorists were just bewildered as to where to stop once the lights began to change – likewise pedestrians crossed just anywhere they could.
It really beggars belief that the City Coucil Roads Division or whoever is responsible for this are even daring to leave College Green of all places like this – it encapsulates their attitude to public safety 100%. The fact that they know they can get away with College Green being left in such a state is nothing short of frightening, both in terms of the possible implications in this instance, and their wider operations in the city.
How dare they endanger public safety because they can’t be bothered to get up of their backsides and finish the job.
I use this crossing daily, often twice, and am only too well aware of the dangers of this crossing. Both the speed and size of the vehicles using this stretch of road, and the volumes of pedestrians availing of the crossing ought to make this of all jobs in the city – if not just from a shallow PR perspective – of greatest priority in the protection of public safety.heheheh – as screwy as ever Morlan 😀
AND you’ve managed to satisfy all the whingers by providing that all important viewing point – they can all climb up the service ladders!
The concrete would’ve matched the archie lampposts too were they still in place 🙁As an aside that’s one of the very few viewpoints on the street that really captures the beauty of Johnston’s portico – I really like it, a lot of people don’t I know, but much of the ‘weight’ that’s often criticised is lost from this position, a view no doubt Johnston considered when draughting. It is imposing rather than heavy when observed from here.
O’Connell St was afterall a very different place in 1814…A fine understated piece – nice set of windows there too.
Thanks for Carlow ctesiphon – wow!
Is this Washington or Carlow town?!
The site the picture is linked from says Cork’s courthouse was originally planned for Carlow but they go mixed up. Sounds credible considering their similarities in the portico department.Is that Graham doing his contemporary ‘little match girl’ routine on the steps?
The photographer stays behind the camera ctesiphon, behind – to press the button like.
And I do not appreciate being compared to Stephen Gately in appearance thanks very much 😀The famous Three of course have to feature:
– utterly depressing to see the derelict Georgian being used as an access point to a car park, and especially standing in such a prominent position. It ought to be compulsorily acquired if not secured immediately by the owner and plans put forward for a full restoration.
The state-hung houses next door though look just fantastic in real life 🙂Came across this stunning example in Bantry recently – it is in a perfect state of preservation:
Surely one of the best in the country?!
The panels are excellent condition, as is the chrome trim around its lovely big picture windows:
And the oh-so-glamorous overdoor detail :):
A remarkable survivor. Indeed so many shopfronts from all periods survive in the southwest that you just don’t get anymore in the developed east and increasingly developed mid-west – shopfronts you forgot ever existed like tiled or mosaicked facades from the 40s and 50s that were once prevalent in every town in the country until 1996.
Most of them relatively insignificant architecturally, but culturally important.When saying there were no vitrolites left in Dundalk I forgot all about Connollys (perhaps understandably ;)) – but it’s notable all the same as seemingly being the last vitrolite shopfront in a town that used to be full of them. A later plastic is used for the sign.
Haven’t been in the shop in years, but I think it just might have vestiges of Victorian/Edwardian cornicing inside – serving to highlight this practice of putting glitzy new facades onto old buildings.
Any house with alm as a prefix just screams chocolate box appeal 🙂
Yes the Washington St Court House is spectacular – are there only two octastyles in Ireland?! I knew there was less than 5 or so, but 2? What’s the other ctesiphon?
I was very impressed with the stone used in the portico which has a wonderful grain to it:
Ah modrin technology 🙂
Interesting info about Grant’s Lexington, here’s a wider view including that terrible Burger King shopfront.
The upper facade could look great if properly restored. At least the windows are all intact.
Burton’s condition is also disappointing – especially that clunky Oasis sign. Can’t get over how that was permitted by Cork CC, especially given how recent it is.
Just wait till the Spire starts wobbling too though….:)
Good question about the material used for the building, I was wondering too but assumed it was made of timber.
Likewise with that spectacular altar that was erected in the Phoenix Park that seems to have been forgotton about – wood there too?Always wondered where that ended up: a vast vast pile made up of curving steps and collonade etc – surely one of the largest temporary structures ever erected in Ireland.
It wasn’t something that would fit into someone’s back garden either as is usually the case with these things…
Yes a good point – O’Connell Bridge has always been a nightmare for pedestrians in this respect.
It has improved a bit recently with the tweaking of sequencing, but there’s not much to be improved with this method if lights don’t exist in the first place, as you mention Bill on the Eden Quay side of the bridge!Could be very tricky though to accommodate so many streams of traffic, pedestrian and vechicular with such an array of lights…
Coming from the Westmoreland St island lights down the bridge median to the lights at O’Cll Mon has improved recently, providing you run down the length of the bridge that is…
