GregF
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It’s all the rave, timber on floors, timber on walls …..A few new buildings gone up in James Street have the timber cladding too. Looks good mind ye. However I hope it ages and weathers well.
The railings around the Ambassador makes it look better than the way it is today. How did they get it into their heads to remove them. Another botch job again by the meddling maulers.
This is a really awful area of the city ….a real hotch potch of architectural disasters of the 20th century, including the rubbishy concrete case that is the wax museum itself. (and not forgetting that awful Garden of Rememberance.) Jesus what were they thinking. Looking at the photo of how this area once looked, it’s very sad to realize that all the buildings has since been demolished or somewhat botched. I think the Black Church nearby must be the only antique building that has survived. The Wax works/Plaza Cinema as it looks in the photo would have been a grand edifice bar the signage to house the waxworks today. Pity it’s all to go now , including the Finn MacCuill giant which has charm.
This area will be a certified non-event with a bland red brick hotel to match the bland appartments across the road. Although it will inject some capital into the area our tourist friends will need to look out for the ”friendly folk” from the nearby flats.
Too much damage has been done to the city fabric here to recreate what was once the charm in the photo. Gone forever and replaced with dross.@Sue wrote:
That’s a very selective list of 13 projects, and I think, Greg, you’ve set out to prove the glass is half-empty. Taking a starting point of 1995 (the birth of the Celtic Tiger), you could include a lot of other things that have been done, such as the redevelopment of Dublin docklands, the new library in TCD, the national gallery extension, the aquatic centre, the M1 motorway, the bypassing of Kildare and points west, etc.
Yes things do take ages, but the more considered approach sometimes work. Do we really need a Metro? Does anyone other than Michael O’Leary really think that a second terminal in Dublin Airport is essential? on the Abbey, for example, far better to take ages and get it right than rush into another mistakeAh yes …but these projects were mooted for ages , even before the Celtic Tiger. The saying then, pre Celtic Tiger was ”if only we had the money we could……”
A comparison, within the same time, besides rebuilding their rugby team and surpassing us, Wales have a massive National Stadium and an Opera House too. Scotland have their only Parliament buildings, London has the ”Eye” and a ”Gherkin”. Come on we can do better. Boundaries have to be pushed, else wallow forever in mediocrity!Good photos Graham.
But look at the stains already on the new paving….just as well we get so much rain to wash the filth away.I think work is really slowing down on the upgrading of O’Connell Street. It took ages to do that bit of paving near O’Connell Bridge, almost 6 months or more and there is still the opposite side of the street to be done. I bet the DCC will put the remaining upgrading of the street (the Gresham Hotel end) on the long finger. It will takes years and years in the long to complete like everything else. Read on the paper too, that the plan to upgrade the Garden of Rememberance, Parnell Square should be complete by the year 2016!
Anyone see the new infill on Eden Quay that was once the Laughter Lounge. At least it has windows, compared to what was there.
I agree, all these ”holes ” around the city need plugging, to create cohesiveness and unitformity within streetscapes.
The park beside City Hall should definitely go, after all it was only a temporary and cheap development to mask the eyesore that was a derelict site. One of the many that riddled the city. The new development looks real ”Temple Bar-ish”. Look at the crane projecting out of the roof., and as for the knob? Hard to make an opinion of it however from the images. It may be quite striking, stylish and contemporary within the street when built. Just hope that it won’t look dated and too incongruous in 20 years time.Of course I think Carson is a figure that relates “to rather devisive and inconclusive times in Ireland’s history, who’s after effects remain to this day”? I was just kidding, or being a little sacastic that I mentioned such characters. I thought that would be understood and not taken seriously. (I mentioned Carson and Barnardo as a lot of people today don’t realise that they were Southern Irish Dubs, born at a time too when the country was one).
I agree that the upper end of O Connell Street is rather bare with having just a statue of Father Matthew and the Sacred Heart adorning the street at the moment. A few new statues would be welcome, but I definitely would’nt have one of Dev nor maybe Collins. I think they are figures that relate to rather devisive and inconclusive times in Ireland’s history, who’s after effects remain to this day. (Dev was bit bit of an auld nerdish, religious, frugal, ultra conservative too. Hardly a figure of inspiration). But if one was to choose a political figure, how about Wolfe Tone, the father of Irish Republicanism and who was a Dub as well, or maybe Napper Dandy and the like of such Irish revolutionaries. Failures too, however, but having noble ideals as that of the French and Americans of the time. I love those equistrian staues that ye see abroad too. Would be great if one was added to O’Connell Street, although I don’t think there is an Irish historical figure noted for his equistrian skills; Brian Boru maybe, but Dev was not much good at the riding I’d say!
To keep our Unionists brothers and sisters happy, how about a statue of Edward Carson, a Dub born on Harcourt Street, or Thomas Barnardo, he of the childrens care fame, another Dub and Orangeman born/lived on Dame Street, (where they are erecting the new building beside City Hall at the moment).
Regarding the Arts, is there a statue of Sam Beckett in Dublin? Would he be worthy of a statue.
How about placing a remodelled version of Anna Livia fountain again. It would surely add a bit of life to this end of the street.
The new make over that McDonalds here got recently is not too impressive…..all those partitions look quite awful.
Just to remind ye’s but the Crown Bar faced the same fate as Bewleys many years ago. It was saved for Belfast by a group of people who mustered together and rescued it, turning it into the successful Irish Pub tourist attraction that it is today.
Was’nt Cathal Brugha Street and Sean McDermot Street newly created here after the 1916 Uprising/Civil War blitz …or did they always exist. See the hole to the left in the photo, was’nt O’Connel Street continuous and unbroken here prior to the devastation?
@Lotts wrote:
“the last architectural vestiges of a cafe destroyed”
But this is a listed building – surely the architecture is safe? Windows too for that matter.
Lets put it another way …..Would ‘nt it be good however to keep the building as a cafe rather than having it’s next door neighbours moving in and expanding into the premises or maybe some other retail fashion outlet utilising the building as a clothes shop. It has happened aleady recently with banks becoming pubs and in the case of the once Abbey Mooney pub becoming a building society.
You’re right when you say that it’s wrong to get nostalgic about something that never was, but in this case it would be sad to see the last architectural vestiges of a cafe destroyed and gone forever especially when there is still potential to turn it around and make it profitable with good maketing, quality service etc…..which in recent times Bewleys lacked which ran it into the ground in the first place etc….Ye’d hardly wish to see it replaced with a McDonalds!
