paddyinthehouse
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I took these photos ages ago, when this thread was still active, and never got around to posting them.
The shopfront of the Pembroke Restaurant, Pembroke St., Cork, deserves a mention on this thread as a stunning contemporary use of the material.
The replacement for the Buckley Bros. frontage is included also – looks quite smart in its own right, but somewhat lacklustre compared to what it replaced.
Malec, I think it should be pointed out that the east elevation of the Webworks is a party wall, and as such cannot have any windows. The sites to the east of the building will all be redeveloped in the coming years, so the blank wall will no longer be visible.
Attached is a photo from Lapps Quay, showing the Webworks in context with the adjacent classical buildings.
Arguably the best cycle route in Cork city is along the line of the Old Blackrock & Passage railway. From the east end of the city centre, head for Victoria Road, then take either Monahans Rd. or Centre Park Rd through the Docklands. Centre Park Rd. serves all the industrial premises, oil terminal, etc, but is worlds apart from its counterpart in Dublin Port – tree-lined for most of its length. At the end of Centre Park Rd., you emerge onto the Marina, which is a traffic-free, tree-lined boulevard along the banks of the Lee. Continue past Pairc Ui Chaoimhe and then take a right, onto the old railway reservation. Route is intact as far as Rochestown, beyond that I am unsure. The other benefit is that the track is, almost uniquely in Cork, flat! No lungbursting near-vertical climbs here!
In particular, I would love to see any images of the Showgrounds development… I have fears for the 20+ beautiful mature trees that line the roadside boundary of the site – has any effort been made to retail any of them? Could they be included on the Clonmel Development Plan register of protected trees?
It does not surprise me to see Route A emerging as the favourite from the online poll on grounds of directness, cost, etc. However, as someone who has, from time to time, had the misfortune to traverse the city centre by bus, it strikes me that any alignment involving Dawson St., College Green, etc, will be disastrous for all other modes of transport. Following changes in traffic management over the last number of years, the Nassau St – Suffolk St – College Green route is reserved almost exclusively for buses and taxis, and yet is chronically congested most of the time.
If much of this bottleneck is to be commandeered by a Luas alignment, untold disruption will be caused to every across-town bus service that currently struggles to crawl through. The connection along alignment A represents the best solution for those who are already fortunate enough to live in Ranelagh, Beechwood, Dundrum, etc, and the worst solution for everyone else who does not. The thousands of commuters who travel on 10’s, 11’s and 46’s of various descriptions will indeed be faster walking across town, just so that those lucky enough to zoom in on the Luas can connect with the Red line three or four minutes faster. (I assume no-one will be foolish enough to suggest that all bus commuters can disembark on Stephens Green and squish onto an already crowded tram to complete their journey. To those who suggest the possibility of shared-surface – this simply results in both trams and buses getting stuck in the mother of all traffic jams)
In my own opinion, Route B offers the best all-round solution for Dublin City Centre. It means that the critical stretch of Nassau St & College Green can continue to serve bus-travellers – the interaction occurs on St Stephens Green North, where part of the over-generous footpath could be sacrificed to facilitate all transport modes. Route B acts almost as a mini-inner-orbital, connecting three or four major radial transport routes (Buses 7, 10/46A, Dart, and the Luas itself) and also opens up a part of the city centre currently less accessible by public transport. In the longer run, it may have spin-off benefits of improving the Westland-Row, Pearse St. area, rather than adding another unwanted layer to the congestion around College Green. That this route also meets with aesthetic approval is merely an added bonus.
On reading through the posts on this thread, I’m getting a very negative impression of cycling in Dublin… which I find very hard to agree with. Over the last three years, I have clocked up a few thousand miles in and around the suburbs and city of Dublin. My various routes over that time include many of the cycle lanes that come in for such criticism in this thread, as well as numerous roads with no lanes at all. I have seen all of the dangers posed by inconsiderate motorists & jaywalking pedestrians, and have, for my part, broken the odd red light too.
Once you accept the risks to life and limb inherent in the activity, cycling remains the one and only way to get around the city of Dublin. It is the only transport mode that offers guaranteed journey times, at any time of day or night, unaffected by any external influence. While admitting that cycle-lane provision in Dublin is far from perfect, I feel that many of the posts on this thread over-state the negatives and, dare I say it, 😮 seem to be induced by the ‘siege-mentality’ of many cyclists.
Until this summer, I would probably have been as vocal as anyone in condemnding the under-provision of cycle facilities in Dublin city. However, I relocated to the Capital of Culture some months ago, via a brief stint in a provincial town. Cycling in these environments has made me see just how easy and accommodating Dublin city is to cyclists. Motorists anywhere outside Dublin actually don’t seem to know what a cyclist is, and certainly don’t expect to see one sharing their roadspace. In my time in Cork, I have yet to encounter a single dedicated cycle-lane. And if ye thought ye had potholes in Dublin, just wait til ye see the craters in Cork boy! And, for all that, I still wouldn’t be parted from my beloved bicycle!
In a nutshell – be grateful for what you have in Dublin, for the story outside the Pale is a lot less rosy!
