KeepAnEyeOnBob

I remember that Saxone Shoes building collapsing, I was in the city centre the next morning (Sunday I think). I thought they were doing refurbishment work at the time though?

@Tuborg wrote:

In the late 1940s, the old lamposts were removed from O Connell Street/Patrick Street and a new style of street lighting was introduced. Under this system, lanterns were hung from a series of cables and suspended over the centre of the street. These lasted until around the early 1980s? when they were replaced by the current arrangement.

Of course O Connell Street is set to get new “decorative” lighting as part of its new multi million Euro makeover, whenever that happens!

I can just about remember hanging lanterns on William Street, although O’Connell St. had already the building mounted floodlights the furthest back I can remember (early 80s). Wouldn’t it be nice to be rid of all the wires attached onto the Georgian buildings? I guess even with new on-street lighting on poles, there’ll still be wires on the front of the building for Cable TV, utilities, etc. Pretty annoying.

However, I was more wondering about the solid-looking cylindrical poles that all the other streets in the city centre have, and indeed various outlying avenues such as Clare St./Dub Rd., O’Connell Ave/Ballinacurra Rd, and part of Ennis Rd. These can be seen with older brackets and open lanterns hanging off them in quite a few old Limerick photos (such as the Tait Clock one), and have in some cases just been retrofitted yet again with new brackets and lamps (e.g. O’Connell Ave.) – they also had new lamps put on in the early 80s. They were also repainted a couple years ago, yet again in that dull grey with the black band at the base – I presume this is the original “colour” scheme and no-one’s thought to change it.

How long was that site a surface level carpark – I seem to remember quite a few of these in the 1980s. Amazing that buildings in Limerick were torn down with nothing planned in their place besides a bit of tarmac (and not much of it if I remember the state of these car parks).

I had seen a photo of that cinema before, but when I saw the photo of the original building above, I didn’t make the connection that the cinema was simply a refurbishment/alteration of the original. I’d still take that over the usual ugly box they’ve built now. There seems no intention anymore of building proper buildings that will look like anything in even 10 years time – although some seem reasonable, like Bank of Scotland house, and the one on the corner of Thomas/Catherine St. (despite the oddness on the top of it).

Interesting to see old lamp posts in the old photos that are still around the city today (retrofitted with arms on top of the pole, some retrofitted again just a year or two ago) – pretty plain and ugly, but I wonder how old they are? 1930s? 40s? 50s?

Well, it is interesting to read and note the issues concerning the work, and it does re-enforce a sense that we can’t quite acheive such high workmanship today. Overall though the job looks superb, the effect of the building now is striking.

Can’t say I like the shopfront on the right, but on the other hand the centre part of the building has so much more impact with the shopfront becoming distinct again.

Wouldn’t it be great to see more buildings on O’Connell Street get some attention?

Just an aside (not meaning to go too much off-topic), is there any reason Ulster Bank have chose to undertake such work on their buildings at the present time? They have been fixing up the building on O’Connell Street Limerick also (dated 1921), although there’s less to do there (the unveiled top two floors look pretty nice despite the RBS colour-scheme for the painted details).

That estuary quarter would at least not be too obtrusive if they got rid of the two top floors. But really, it’s just an ugly box.

Again the dodgy blue skies and bright pictures. That part of the Dock Road is always in shadow – even on the few occasions Limerick gets sunshine. They should make it that these mock-up photos have to be realistic. I bet the building will look even worse in real life and with even one year’s Dock Road traffic dirt (the existing buildings are getting blacker up to the 4th floor or so). The brick of the existing adjoining buildings does actually lessen the effect of that and the general gloom of the area. Boring as it might be, this Estuary building would probably be better off incorporating some similar design elements.

shanekeane:

Really? What about the Ellen Street side just past the corner entrance? The mockup is nice blue sky and sunny, but will the bland side facade there (which will not look white in dull Limerick weather) really look better than the brick buildings along the street at present? Sure the old AIB building is an eyesore, but I think the development will just change Ellen Street from a rundown brick facaded street to a modern faceless alley.

I’d rather have attempts to capture the style of Georgian buildings than completely soulless plastic/steel/glass boxes or stereotypical semi-Ds any day.

There should have been a day organised for throwing rocks at the visitor’s centre at KJC. Last time I visited the castle it was an embarrassment to have brought visitors to the city to see it – should have stuck to St. Mary’s, Hunt Museum and a city tour *. The displays inside with “Audio-Visual” demonstrations are like a hideous parody, simpson’s style, of the style used at historical parks in the USA. Very patronising and silly.

* The tour I’ve used is mostly the recommended one, with some modifications: O’Connell St., Belltable, Pery Square, People’s Park, Art Gallery, Tait Clock, Gerald Griffin St. (may be run down but tourists I’ve shown it to find it quaint – it has a style of Ireland of times gone by – Also “False Teeth Repaired While U Wait” is a required photo op), St. John’s Square and city wall, the Milk Market, Quays and Barrington’s, Potato Market, St. Mary’s, KJC (best to just pass by the outside), Treaty Stone, Clancy Strand and Sarsfield Bridge.

I’m skeptical that the Jetland and Coonagh Cross will ever do. They’re not really good enough to entice Ennis/Shannon shoppers and the rest of the countryside there is pretty sparse and probably would go to those towns too. Northside Limerick is either going to go to the Crescent or the city centre depending on area and status of the shopper.

I think Parkway Valley will be fine as that side of the city is a destination for a lot of shopping now, and serves a large cachement area if you consider North Tipp and even further afield will go there with Limerick being the nearest big commercial centre – and it would mean they don’t even have to get all the way into the city (with Limerick’s traffic, that’s a big deal). It’s probably at this stage with all the retail parks, enough to discourage people from some distance up the country from going to Dublin for a lot of shopping requirements. PV if it works will only cement that. The new M7 will also support that – it will be a lot quiter at the Limerick end than the Dublin end that’s for sure!

Agree re: Castletroy SC being a local shopping outlet really – but they are going to have problems ever getting all those small units let, so it is really an ill-planned failure all the same. If it was built as a simpler design (supermarket plus the usual 3-4 local amenities facing the carpark) it would have recouped its costs far better. To attract greater business it’s not big enough (i.e. only one niche anchor – Superquinn is not that big a draw).

Parkway SC is surprisingly busy a lot of the time. Dunnes there still manages to have checkout queues and be a bit mental at peak times. There’s still quite a few small units going, and it gets a lot of trade from UL students (Castletroy SC is far poorer for clothes and doesn’t have computer game shop). The most recent closure was a sandwich bar – not exactly a disaster (the place has five other eating places including the Burger King and Pizza place outside). It’s recent enough that a jewellers/gift shop opened, but maybe it was a case of low rent overriding good business sense?

As regards the city centre, a year or more ago people were still going on about the closures and there have been quite a lot of new openings since. I would certainly say that a lot of work is needed to keep the city centre going well, but it is not I think at risk of imminent disaster. A bit more competition would be nice for some shops though – certain shops have prices that I think are higher than even the usual UK chains ripping off Ireland.

I’m skeptical the Opera Centre will be anything other than a glorified version of Arthur’s Quay, rather than being some radical commercial dream as the proponents are suggesting. It will certainly be the death knell for the latter – not entirely bad but it looks like a lot will have to be lost in terms of streetscape just for the changeover. I’m skeptical too that anything sensible would replace AQ.

Take away too many historic buildings and the city just becomes *randomcookiecutterUKhighstreetstyle”.

The Opera Centre will just be filled with the same rubbish UK high street shop chains anyways. At least the city centre still has a lot of independent retailers and places where you can purchase particular things without having to go ordering online (and even that is pathetic here in Ireland). A pity we can’t have proper shops like on the Continent, and real department stores. Not yet more rubbish shopping malls and retail parks. We’ve had the Celtic Tiger – what more do we have to do to get decent retail? It’s getting worse the more shops that open – not better. All these UK chains sell the same mass market tat anyway.

Why not some new landmark buildings for the city centre, allowing larger retailers such as European-style department stores, instead of a crummy Arthur’s Quay Mark II?

The existing building could just be fixed up and an alternate use found if the boat club goes under.

I see no need to bung an ugly monstrousity into the middle of the bridge, or indeed put any other building. The existing boathouse etc. is interruption enough to the line of the bridge and view down the river.

There’s no shortage of sensible locations for developments in the city centre.

justnotbothered:

Certainly that area of the city needs some work, and many of the buildings need fixed up or indeed replaced. However, the area does have distinct character and it would just turn into a soulless series of tunnels between apartment blocks if the development is just crude money-making. I think in that area of the city any buildings replaced should be replaced by the kind of simple buildings built on Wickham street recently. The kind of buildings in a lot of towns in Ireland – they are new and have apartments etc. but do not jar with the remaining old style buildings.

There’s plenty of other areas in the city for high-rise.