Spinal Tap
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we’ve been waiting long enough for some movement there and are still waiting for some Magic Martin Cullen moves to fix the appalling train station and face it towards the quays and integrate the bus[/QUOTE wrote:After the bad “make-up job” on the Citys bus station for 2005 do you really think that Corks Transport needs are being adequatly provided for ? Kent Station is getting the same treatment.
See the article on same in last weeks Cork Independent – The Government is taking care of the East Coasts needs – thats it in a nutshell.
@Pug wrote:
Calls for a caption competition
Its CIE’s latest marketing given that Cork is now twinned with Shanghai
It says
WELCOME TO KENT STATION – IRISH RAIL, WE’RE GETTING THERE ….EVENTUALLY
IRISH RAIL – SOMEDAY WE WILL BE A GOOD AS WE WERE IN 1875.
yorktown wrote:Just in case anyone didn’t notice, Manor Park Homes lodged an application at Horgans Quay bofore Christmas. The monster has development comprising 276 no. residential units, 8 no.retail units, 2 no. commercial units, 3 no. showroom units, a crèche facility, a gym facility, open space areas (including a first floor podium level open space area and residents roof gardens) , two levels of basement car parking, a temporary access road from Railway Street to Horgan’s Quay to serve future railway concourse building, a new access road off Water Street, demolition of Kent Station Goods Depot ( a protected structure), and demolition of portions of railway yard boundary wall along Horgan’s Quay, Water Street and Railway Street. The 276 no. residential units are located in 7 no. development blocks located generally to eastern end of Horgan’s Quay at its junction with Water Street]Appalling stuff allright – looks likes Le Corbusiers scheme for Paris from 50+ years ago.
Surely there must have been pre-planning discussions on this submission ?
Those large blocks will never get planning in my opinion.@mickeydocs wrote:
Where are Matthews moving to?
No bad thing as the Matthews centre is very poor and a great location underdeveloped.
I suppose Matthews may well take one of the new units proposed for the site.@goldiefish wrote:
Swansea was handy being close to the M4. Pembroke has no advantage over Fishguard,
One wonders what kind of business sells their single major asset before a replacement has been secured.
Exactly what business would sell their vessel and scuttle their business before a new one was secured ?
Mockery indeed.:mad:
@jdivision wrote:
I believe so
http://www.thepost.ie/post/pages/p/story.aspx-qqqt=COMMERCIAL-qqqs=property-qqqid=20000-qqqx=1.aspSound correct to me allright as I heard that Habitat were requiring at least 20,000sq.ft and keen to get into the Cork City centre area.
@jdivision wrote:
🙂 Gap, Next, H&M, Zara and several Arcadia brands are in talks for Academy Street. They’re planning on trying to get Habitat for the Half Moon site
What Half Moon site ?
Is that the demolished site opposite the rear of the Opera House ?
@Pug wrote:
Dont think its teh best spot for it anyway – Mr J Gavin is determined to have an event centre at horgans quay,a 5,000 seater which would be fine if the station had been moved around when promised (wont happen for at leat 3 years in my opinion) and it would make sense that people could come off the train/bus and go there
Will say it again but Pairc Ui Chaoimh needs to be razed to the ground and a 50,000 seater stadium for matches across all sports and concerts, add in the conference center and it would be superb
Its a no-brainer really is’nt it as Cork loses out to Killarney of all places for Concerts with the NEC holding 4,500 punters.The Pairc should have hotels,bars & a conference centre & a light rail from the city centre / Kent Station. A 4milloin waste of money revamp at Kent Station is a joke.The city is there for the taking on this development but we are destined to lose out yet again as with the airport debt issue & School of Music /Kinsale Road,Sarsfield Road & Bandon road roundabout delays but its an election year and any hir brained scheme may be promised.
Limerick is meant to be getting an 8,000 seated indoor arena & a redeveloped Thomond park.
Dundalk is also planning an indoor 16,000 arena & City west & the Point depot are racing each other to get their 16,000 & 15,000 events centres off the ground (the point is on site currently).
I am amazed at the amount of money Corks business leaders lose out to other cities & towns in hotel.pub & shopping revenue EVERY year as the city has very few attractions apart from being a great place to live and work there is no real draw for tourism in the City.jungle wrote:A better option might be to upgrade the existing road that runs from the N28 to Donnybrook (currently a boreen) and to extend it towards Pinecroft.That narrow road which goes up past the Pinecroft up to meet a “T” junction at Cooneys Lane / Airport – Donnybrook junction could be upgraded allright with the road from the Airport Roundabout to Donnybrook could also be upgraded but its narrow right now and lots of twists and turns etc. with one off housing on a lot of it also.Cork County Council were trying to purchace some land last year around some of the bends on that road.
@goldiefish wrote:
Another way of saying that would be the closer to the truth, “city centre is dead”. Nobody is going to the city centre any more, at least not in the same numbers as five or ten years ago. The scene before christmas made this more obvious. No traffic problems different to any normal shopping day. Oliver plunkett st as it stands is killing business. Shops can only accept deliveries before 11am. Loading bays in abundance along the street remain empty after that. The deliveries who arrive after 11am are forced to park on Patrick st, near Princes st, and usually encroach on the Taxi rank there.
I have know pople who have businesses on OP Street and have bemoaned the fact that Maylor Street was pedestrianised very succesfully and cheaply and are delighted with footfall and business on OP Street since the upgrade.As for deliveries after 11am welcome to organisation that occurs every day in every major European city that has pedestrianisation as part of a sucessful business and shopping core.
Just think back 2 years ago at OP Street – broken uneven pavements 3 feet wide with cars choking the narrow street.Cork City centre is probably the only area outside the capital where there is a significant footfall and athmosphere on a daily basis.Cork certainly needs a lot more quality large retail space 20,000 sq.ft plus which can take the likes of Habitat etc and some of the existing retailers could liven up their shopfronts and paint the upper levels etc.@Pug wrote:
thats fair enough, a good point but I’ve heard first hand of occasions where people have celebrated the granting of planning and the official announcement came 2 days later
Likewise.
After all this time the whole process is a complete mockery.@Pug wrote:
ABP have pushed out the Werdna decision to ……………?
14th December
and it now apparently is for 233 units instead of 304
The proposed heights of the blocks must have been reduced by a considerable number of floors so.
Interesting now with Horgans Quay going in for a possible “high rise” building also.kite wrote:Christmas Tree Praxiteles??
I avoid St.Patrick Street as much as possible as figures released this week confirm that people are abandoning the City center in their droves due to the blitzing of motorists by clampers, tow trucks, and wardens (some scumbag smashing a window in your car would be a welcome, and cheaper alternative)
Parking revenue from scratch cards DOWN
Revenue from clamping DOWN
Revenue from tow away DOWN
Mr. Gavin (150k –]Its not just Gavins Clampers etc. in”Pana” its the Shopowners/developers lack of vision.We have some great local shops & pubs but how many mobile phone shops with shopfronts visible from space do we need ? I am just back from Prague where they have Christmas markets,Christmas decorations (yes actual decorations) and above all else athmosphere ! Cork has lots of potential but it always feels like its playing “catch up” and never really gets there.
1. Lack of parking spaces. Why there is’nt a multi-storey at Kent Station amazes me ?
2. Poor choice of decent retailers.No Habitat,H&M,Zara etc.
3. Ongoing re-paving works leading to dead zones for economic activity.Grand Parade etc.
4. Neglect of physical infrastructure,paving,roads outside recently paved areas. Tuckey St and side Streets.
5. Massive derilection and neglect of buildings by owners above shopfront level.Singers Corner,Above Oasis & Burger King,Mothercare etc.
6. Empty shop units purchased by developers for some future massive development which may never happen,
7.Streets leading to Patricks Street “run down” and tacky i.e.McCurtain St, Washington St. & Cornmarket St.
8.Parking and lack of pedestrianation on side streets i.e. back of Easons leading to Quays.
9. Mahon Point.You can park for free take your kids to a film,go to the food court (fast food only) and shop !
10. Customers needs ignored :- If the City’s authorities and businesses developed and maintained the retail core to a high level and listened to its citizens and provided a clean,safe hassle free experience.If the “product” is good enough people will come and maybe even more tourists.Lots of top class hotels -adisson,Sheraton,Carlton etc being developed outside the city – why would its customers visit Cork ?
11.Apathy of business leaders as no conference/concert/sports in city environs.Go to show in Killarney,shopping and concert in the Gleneagle which is popular with lots of people.
12. If City Hall and shop owners/developers keep this up its going to be some job to get people back into city.@malec wrote:
Other stuff:
School of music:
City Hall Extension:
Where’s this development? I’ve never seen this render before.
Looks like Jacobs Island opposite Mahon Point ?
@Cathal Dunne wrote:
I saw an aerial view of the whole complex in the ‘Commercial property’ section into today’s Irish Independent and the whole site looked like it could do with a lot more than theusual paint-job and nice flowerboxes. The site looked hugely underused with vast expanses of car-park, very inefficient.
My idea for redeveloping the site is the increase of density on the site with the whole complex bult up several storeys in parts. The car-parks should be built on and replacemnt capacity created in multi-storey car-parking/underground car-parking. The site has plenty of access roads so a public transport could be routed into a new Wilton.
There’s a nice grouping of houses up arund an old church at the back of the site as well. That got me thinking, maybe they could have pedestrian access through a low-rise village-style area there. They could put loads of street cafés, open-fronted clothes and bazaar-like shops there in conjunction with things like street performers to really recreate the environment of old Town Centres.
There’s a black-box like building in the middle front of the site. That drew my attention as that building looks like its on a site where a central building could be put. I was thinking of a fifteen storey building there as a draw for the complex at a distance.
What do other Archiseekers think?
Long before the M&S debacle I have heard that plans are to be drawn p to turn it into a mini-Dundrum shopping centre and aimed at upmarket shoppers which does not exist in Cork right now.
@jungle wrote:
The public lighting in the City Centre is in a shocking state. As the evenings draw in, you notice it more. Over Jazz weekend, I remember noting that only two of the six lights on Patrick’s Bridge were working.
The section of Grand Parade between Bishop Lucey Park and Washington Street had no working lights. With the nearby construction work, this made it an intimidating walk after dark.
You can spend all the money you like on CCTV, but good public lighting is still the best way to reduce crime and make people feel safer.
Ironically, it’s not so bad in the suburbs where there are much fewer pedestrians.
It was very dark in the Western end of O.P.Street allright and in general of most streets around Rory Gallagher place.
The light standards on St.Patricks Bridge were banjaxed during the year of culture so I am sure that they are’nt going to bother fixing them now.Compare to light standards on Parliament Bridge.
Also the ammount of disused light standards and poles for old signage in Cork City is unreal.No thought whatsoever to the sighting of street furniture etc which end up as obstacles for pedestrians etc.@jungle wrote:
There are examples all over the city.
The 6 to Grange and the 7 to Donnybrook travel several miles beyond Douglas, yet even the near end of the Rochestown Road is on the non city bus fares.
Yet, many of the estates in Rochestown have been there since I was a young kid.
Just to re-emphasise how rubbish the buses in Cork are, I’ll give you a story told by my sister.
She was waiting for a number 7 on the Douglas Road (supposedly one every 20 mins). After 40 minutes, there still hadn’t been one and she phoned Bus Eireann. She was told that there had been a crash (We’ll have to take their word for that) and that the number 7 was disrupted. As she said, what really galled her was that around 5 or 6 Carrigaline, Crosshaven, Haulbowline buses etc. had passed her as she was waiting. Now, normally these don’t stop on the way into the city to provide a speedier service, but how hard would it be to stop them in circumstances where they know the normal city buses aren’t running?
Once last February whilst getting the No.6 in to town from Frankfield an almost fill 7.50am bus struggled to get back up the hill to Grange and then broke down ! The next bus 10minutes later picked up most of us and took us as far only as Douglas where it broke down at the start of the south Douglas Road and was told to disembark and wait for the next bus which continued to pass us out full on their way into the city !!! I hailed a taxi.Never again will I try to depend on Corks buses in the morning.
Valid ticket for sale !@Radioactiveman wrote:
Honestly ladies and gentlemen, I nearly fell over when I saw them!!
The long awaited bollards/lighting features for Oliver Plunkett have been installed (or most of them at least). Long term readers of this blog will know that it’s been a regular bug bear of mine and others.
They are now mostly installed, although they are not functioning yet (as lights that is, their function as a bollard requires no electricity!). They are basically stainless steel rectangular bollards, around 1.5 metre high with an inbuilt four-sided light at the top. Apparently the lights can be controlled to have different lighting colours/effects. It’ll be good to see them working…eventually for Christmas shopping.Anyway, if you’re around town, go and have a look at them. They’re grand, but hardly worth the wait.
Passed down O.P.Street last night and some of the street lights are’nt even working and it was dark in parts beyond Seville Menswear.
I am going to open a book on how long the new lighted bollards are going to survive !
