TLM

I think ownership of the GPO by the people can be retained while putting the building to other uses. It does’nt have to be put to a mundane use for the man on the street to feel he has an engagement with it. While having the building as a post office certainly draws people into it I think it would be preferable to have people interested and involved in the place for a more rewarding experience than posting letters.

I have actually furnished my flat here in London mainly with Ikea….AND managed to get it all home on the tube (even including a palm tree!) It is possible!

Finally some info on what seems to be happening with the Abbey saga.. I think the article’s conclusion that it would be better to await progress on the carlton site is the right one..if this is to be a signature building left to Dublin for many years after we should be sure we are making the right choices. The OPW concept of a tunnel entrance to the Cloaiste Mhuire site sounds bizzare to say the least..

The other interesting point the article raises is the future of Parnell Square. I think it has lots of potential but would like to see the current sculpture of the Children of Lir and poem incorporated somehow..

Interested to hear your thoughts!

What really matters is getting it right for the Abbey

The Government should not be rushed into relocating the Abbey Theatre at the north end of Parnell Square, writes Frank McDonald, Environment Editor.
The public may well owe a debt of gratitude to the two property owners who are holding out for a king’s ransom by the State to acquire their share of a building off Parnell Square. For this is almost certainly not the right location for a national theatre. The only reason it is being considered at all is that Coláiste Mhuire has fallen into the State’s hands. It happens to be one of a number of properties transferred to public ownership under the controversial 2002 agreement with religious orders to deal with compensation claims by survivors of abuse.

The former Irish-speaking Christian Brothers’ school consists of five Georgian houses, with more recent extensions to the rear, including a 1960s assembly hall (Amharclann Coláiste Mhuire). Though altered internally over the years, all five houses are protected structures, both inside and out.

So is No. 1 Granby Row, a three-storey, mid-19th-century building currently trading as Parnell Court, a business centre with five units. Last Wednesday, it was reported that negotiations on its acquisition by the State had broken down because some of its owners wanted too high a price.

The Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, Mr O’Donoghue, regretfully conceded that he was therefore not in a position to announce a new location for the Abbey before the end of this, its centenary year – as he had repeatedly promised. Now, with 10 days to go, his self-imposed deadline will be missed.

But why the rush?

Sure, the Government pledged several years ago that the National Theatre would be redeveloped. That was before it became apparent that sufficient property could be acquired in and around Abbey Street to create the larger “footprint” which the theatre has really always needed.

The dream was to extend southwards to Eden Quay, to give the Abbey a new frontage on the River Liffey. But, in the absence of compulsory purchase powers for purely cultural projects, adjoining property owners could name their price and the State might have to pay much more than market value.

Then the Abbey made the mistake of flirting with the notion of relocating to the Grand Canal Docks, on the south side of the river just a stone’s throw from Dublin 4. The Taoiseach was reportedly furious, not least because the theatre would be evacuating his constituency, and the idea was quickly dropped.

The Carlton site on O’Connell Street offered a more tantalising prospect.

In December 2001, despairing that it would ever be developed by its current owners, Dublin City Council issued a compulsory purchase order for the former cinema and adjoining properties, one of which has been derelict for almost 25 years.

When this order was challenged by the Carlton Group, the case was heard on a priority basis last spring by the President of the High Court, Mr Justice Finnegan.

After a lengthy hearing, during the course of which one of the plaintiffs (Richard Quirke) withdrew, he reserved judgment on March 5th last.

Nine months later, Mr Justice Finnegan has yet to deliver his judgment on the continuing challenge by Paul Clinton, an architect and project manager for the Carlton Group, who claims that he is the beneficial owner of some of its properties. The latest news is that the judgment might be delivered next month.

As a result of this lengthy delay and the possibility of an appeal to the Supreme Court, the city council was unable to give Mr O’Donoghue an assurance that the matter would be resolved any time soon. So the Minister felt he had no option but to exclude the Carlton site from further consideration.

Attention then switched to the site of Hawkins House on Poolbeg Street, where the Theatre Royal once stood, and to Coláiste Mhuire. Another proposal to relocate the Abbey to a State-owned site at Infirmary Road was ruled out because it was seen – quite rightly – as being too remote from the city-centre.

Yet the Coláiste Mhuire site is fraught with difficulty, not least the fact that it is fronted entirely by protected structures – including No. 1 Granby Row. The school’s former buildings also perform an important role in flanking the Hugh Lane Gallery in Charlemont House, as does the Georgian terrace to the east.

How then can the site accommodate a “signature building”, which is what the Minister has said he wants, without demolishing or drastically altering the existing buildings?

Or would the Abbey be left lurking behind retained Georgian façades? Either way, it would be less than satisfactory.

It could be argued that relocating the theatre to Parnell Square would fit in with emerging plans to develop it as a “cultural cluster”. The €12 million Hugh Lane extension, due to open in early 2006, is the first phase of a much bolder plan which might even see the Central Library relocating to the Ambassador. Given that Parnell Square is partially built-up, the idea is to reconfigure it as “a square within a square” – along the lines of Front Square in Trinity.

The very dead Garden of Remembrance would be one of the casualties, which should prompt a debate about how the centenary of 1916 might best be marked.

One of the more bizarre elements of the Office of Public Works’ scheme for a new Abbey on the Coláiste Mhuire site is that it would be approached by a “pedestrian underpass” (a tunnel, in plain language) from within the reconfigured square.

That, in itself, also casts doubt on whether the site is really suitable.

Instead of rushing into the wrong outcome, Mr O’Donoghue should wait to see how the Carlton row is resolved. Or the Abbey might pursue a more modest plan to extend its backstage area to the site of two adjoining unlisted buildings and acquire and redevelop the nearby health studio as a new Peacock.

This is the text of an Irish Times article in June of this year with details of the plans for RDH. An earlier article said the hotel had been acquired from the Fitzwilliam group by Park PLaza and was to become a 4 star hotel known as something like the Royal Park Plaza..

€8m revamp for Georgian townhouse
Refurbishment
Edel Morgan

The Royal Dublin Hotel is to undertake the €8 million restoration of the last surviving Georgian townhouse on Upper O’Connell Street which it will eventually lease or dispose of as an office complex or corporate headquarters.

To make it suitable for modern office requirements, Number 42 will be separated from the hotel – it’s ground floor has been in use as part of the hotel foyer – and a glazed link to its rear will connect it to a third generation office block which, remarkably, will encase another historic protected building, O’Connell Hall.

Built in the mid 18th century, the four-storey over basement townhouse is the last surviving example, on what was originally a residential street, of the original Sackville Mall Mansion.

All of the other houses where either destroyed during the 1916 Rising or demolished in the 1960s, some to make way for the purpose-built Royal Dublin Hotel. The Fitzwilliam Group, which acquired the Royal Dublin in the early 1990s, has also secured planning permission from Dublin City Council for a €14 million revamp of the hotel which will get a new facade, the existing one being regarded as somewhat of an eyesore.

The group purchased the adjoining Aer Lingus ticket office two years ago for an estimated €1.9 million and Number 71 Parnell Square will be razed and replaced by a four-storey bedroom wing and ground floor retail unit. Another 24-bedroom wing over the hotel will front Moore Street and the fifth floor will be extended to give seven bedrooms.

It is envisaged the townhouse will principally act as a grand reception area for the office complex with board rooms and some office space and an assortment of buildings to the rear will be demolished to make way for a courtyard and a link to the 18,000 sq m (193,750 sq ft) five-storey block fronting Moore Lane.

The futuristic building will have a glass tube lift overlooking the courtyard. O’Connell Hall will be visible through the transparent skin of the building and will be enclosed in a double height floor.

It is believed the ornate Victorian assembly hall featuring gilded capitals was built by either the Irish Farmers Club or the Catholic Commercial Club somewhere between 1860 and 1880. The Fitzwilliam group has appointed agents Richard Ellis Gunne and Finnegan Menton to handle the sale/letting of the building. Number 42, which seems to have had nine lives, was reputedly hit by three shells during the 1916 Rising, was occupied during the civil war and went on to survive the 1960s cull. In recent years it has been languishing “in a state of advanced disrepair” according to a planning report.

Richard McLoughlin of Blackwood Associates conservation architects, who is involved in the project designed by Ashlin Coleman Heelan architects, says the lower floors of the townhouse are the most architecturally interesting. Designed by eminent 18th century architect Richard Castle, the high ceilings of the first floor salon are similar to those of houses on Henrietta Street and it features magnificent stucco work by Robert West, who worked on Leinster House, Carton House and Powerscourt House.

As it stands, the plasterwork on the first floor has been overpainted in a profusion of greens and gilts and will be painted white to highlight its fine detail. “For the moment, emergency work to the roof is keeping water out and the upper floors have in effect protected the lower ones,” says McLoughlin.

The townhouse will have complete independence from the hotel which will allow it to be appreciated in its full glory, says Albert Noonan, project architect of Ashlin Coleman Heelan. In recent decades it has been entered from the hotel “which means you don’t experience the full impact. You were never meant to enter those rooms from the side.”

The original grand staircase will be restored and extended to the basement where a nightclub was partially-built some years ago which will be removed. The restoration of the townhouse and upgrading of the hotel will form an important part of the rejuvenation of Upper O’Connell Street, where the redevelopment of the nearby Carlton Hotel has experienced a series of delays.

I have’nt been in Dublin since September and am curious about developments on O’Cll St since then…or have things been moving at the same pace as before I left!?

I think the abandonment of a “La Ramblas style” continuous stream of trees down the street, preferably along the median, would be unfortunate. Is this plan dead and buried?

Finally, has anyone heard about the aqcuisition of the Royal Dublin Hotel by the Hyatt group and its proposed revamping as a four star? Hopefully that will mean the abandonment of the previous bland, block like facade that had been suggested as its facelift.

I’d be grateful if anyone could enlighten me!
Thanks….. t