Smithfield Village

jonny68

Who's living in Smithfield Village now then?

Gotta be THE area to live in Dublin right now,always something happening did anyone see all the bicycle couriers earlier they all stopped in the square roaring and shouting for half an hour then fuc*ed off bizzare,im originally from up the road in Cabra myself but Smithfield has gone under some transformation in recent years, unfortunately greedy landlord and letting agents are charging high rent for this area but overall glad to be living here, how many others are living here right now and tell us your story?

We could in time even arrange a Boards meetup in Thomas Reads although The Cobblestone is better and less expensive.;)

arybvtcw0eolkf

There's a "village" in Smithfield?.

Smithfield has come on a little, but jaysus, its hardly as you paint it.

Sesheta

I've lived in Stoneybatter right next door to Smithfield for the past seven years and the area has transformed all right. Not all of it's for the good but for the most part it's managed to keep a lot of the original atmosphere.
There's a market there for the next five weeks every Saturday - and longer if enough people go to it. Could be just what the area needs.:)

monkeyfudge

That big Chief O'Niell's hotel is currently up for sale... I don't think it ever really worked out for them.

The chimney hasn't been open in a long time is it? And their Irish Music Museum didn't last long either.

latenia

The original developers of Chief O'Neill's built it mainly for tax purposes. The capital allowances have now run out which is why they're selling it. That said, I don't think it was ever very busy.

As for Smithfield being THE place to live in Dublin right now, I say meh. If you aint in D4 or D6 you're nowhere man

afatbollix

jonny68 wrote:

Who's living in Smithfield Village now then?

Gotta be THE area to live in Dublin right now,always something happening did anyone see all the bicycle couriers earlier they all stopped in the square roaring and shouting for half an hour then fuc*ed off bizzare,im originally from up the road in Cabra myself but Smithfield has gone under some transformation in recent years, unfortunately greedy landlord and letting agents are charging high rent for this area but overall glad to be living here, how many others are living here right now and tell us your story?

We could in time even arrange a Boards meetup in Thomas Reads although The Cobblestone is better and less expensive.;)

some were naked!!!!! looked like they were about to have a race... also knackers showed up and tryed to nick a few bikes... idiots...

ixoy

I moved out of Smithfield and was glad to! Definitely not a place to be for me..

"Always something going on" --> The only thing that really went on with any frequency were the drunken scum roaring their way across the square and waking me up multiple nights a week.
As to the ice rink... I'm shaking almost at even contemplating it..

"Local atmosphere" --> The nice young residents who hung around in large groups drinking and the occasional attempt at mugging.

"Lots of history" --> Free horse crap once a month covering your square.

...And Thomas Reads just irritated me when their Friday night music sessions played clearly in my apartment in them, forcing me to turn up my TV too loud to drown them out.

Jay D

Unless I was on a top floor there I don't think I'd like it too much. As has been said the drunkereds etc and lets not forget the little "batter burger heads" going into the kiddy's court with their heads held up high, hanging round outside etc.....

As for living there around Christmas, I think I'd go mad. I don't like the idea of thousands of screaming kids converging on my doorstep all day every day for a couple of weeks.

As for the pubs around there I don't think I'm missing out on anything.

ixoy

Jay D wrote:

Unless I was on a top floor there I don't think I'd like it too much. As has been said the drunkereds etc and lets not forget the little "batter burger heads" going into the kiddy's court with their heads held up high, hanging round outside etc.....

Yup. Double glazing on the windows there is nowhere near adequate to keep the night out (you can hear people just walking across the square at night - think how bad shouting is). I had to invest in ear plugs to sleep well at weekends.

As for living there around Christmas, I think I'd go mad. I don't like the idea of thousands of screaming kids converging on my doorstep all day every day for a couple of weeks.

Couple of weeks? HA Try two months - 7 days a week, 12 hours a day. The kids weren't the worst part though: that was the music that was ridiculously loud and penetrated easily through the aforementioned double-glazed windows. With their limited selection of tracks, on rotation, I was driven demented for about sixty days straight. *stops shaking*
So yeah, didn't like it.

As for the pubs around there I don't think I'm missing out on anything.[/QUOTE]

arybvtcw0eolkf

I bet the OP is sorry he/she posted anything

Smithfield is a sh*thole.

spaceboynz

We've been here for a couple of weeks and while it is noisier than we were hoping (we kind of investigated it at night a few times before moving in) it's not _too_ bad.

Have said that, we're on a top floor. Our neighbours are all ordinary people. Some of them have pot plants. One has a cat.

However last night the bicycle couriers were at it until about 4am and that enraged me a fair bit. I wonder if the concierge did anything. They possibly called the Guards, who may have done nothing. I think given they were all hanging out in the courtyard next to Thomas Reed's which is part of the development, they should be able to to kick them out. But I'm thinking like an outsider. Dispearsing crowds of noisy people doesn't seem to be very popular in Dublin. I must post about our experiences living in Temple Bar sometime.

I hope the property management keep some of the problem tenants at bay as the apartment is beautiful and I like the local character (even with the problems) more than I would like living in the IFSC / Docklands. The carpark is great. Fresh is good enough. And the location is awesome.

sb

Sesheta

All this thread is proving is how much blatant snobbery there is in Dublin. I mean shock, horror it's a working class area - get over yourselves!
There are scumbags everywhere and the Smithfield-Stoneybatter area is no worse than a lot of places. We've rented in Stoneybatter for almost 8 years and I wouldn't hesitate buying round here.
It's one of the few places in Dublin there's still a sense of community and people actually watch out for each other. So what if there are some knackers? There's a huge mix of people living round here ranging from families who've lived here for generations to artists, actors and people in the legal profession. Dismissing the whole area is silly.
The area has changed a lot over the past five or more years, especially since the apartments went up - we now have a great cafe, a couple of decent restaurants and several excellent pubs (and I'm not counting Thomas Reads in that) not to mention excellent facilities.
Ok, so I wouldn't live on the Southside if you paid me. I lived in Rathmines for years but the place has really gone to pot. This area reminds me alot of Rathmines the way it used to be. And by the way I'm not from Dublin and simply don't get this stupid northside/southside rivalry.

yomchi

I used to rob the lead off the roof of the old Jamesons factory, waaaaaayyyy before any of you would walk through it during the day let alone the night.
Where the lavish apartments used to be was a huge car yard owned by Duffy. The place was a kip, much nicer now altho not much lead to be had

arybvtcw0eolkf

Sesheta wrote:

All this thread is proving is how much blatant snobbery there is in Dublin. I mean shock, horror it's a working class area - get over yourselves!
There are scumbags everywhere and the Smithfield-Stoneybatter area is no worse than a lot of places. We've rented in Stoneybatter for almost 8 years and I wouldn't hesitate buying round here.
It's one of the few places in Dublin there's still a sense of community and people actually watch out for each other. So what if there are some knackers? There's a huge mix of people living round here ranging from families who've lived here for generations to artists, actors and people in the legal profession. Dismissing the whole area is silly.
The area has changed a lot over the past five or more years, especially since the apartments went up - we now have a great cafe, a couple of decent restaurants and several excellent pubs (and I'm not counting Thomas Reads in that) not to mention excellent facilities.
Ok, so I wouldn't live on the Southside if you paid me. I lived in Rathmines for years but the place has really gone to pot. This area reminds me alot of Rathmines the way it used to be. And by the way I'm not from Dublin and simply don't get this stupid northside/southside rivalry.

That explains everything you just said.

Welcome to the 'big shhhmoke Muldoon'.

yomchi

Lmao

joker77

I've been working in Smithfield since January, I knew a bit about the area beforehand as the company I work for have their offices down here and I've passed through a few times.

While it's by no means the worst area in the city, I wouldn't choose to live here. Fair enough it's undergone a lot of development over the last while, but in my opinion there's still relatively f*ck all to do. Ok there's 2 pubs, Thomas Reads and the Cobblestone, but if want to do anything else except drink, what is there? A gym that's well over a grand a year. That's more or less it. Can't think of any other forms of entertainment or things to do. Ok sorry, there's a Chartbusters...

Restaurants or somewhere to grab lunch? Very limited. The 'Stew Station' or whatever it's called around the corner is a rip off with their tiny portions of canteen fare slop. The last time I went in there was a few months ago and the girl who was managing it managed to lose the 2 customers in front of me as well as myself because of her portion size (the guy in front asked for some more, she complained that it was good value etc, ended up giving him an extra teaspoon full I kid you not, really broke her heart). Christophe's ain't cheap either, but fair play to them the food is nice and they give decent size portions, however it closes mid-afternoon.

A previous poster mentioned Stoneybatter and the sense of community, I really don't think the same can be said for Smithfield.

Sesheta

Mairt wrote:

That explains everything you just said.

Welcome to the 'big shhhmoke Muldoon'.

While you've just proved everything I've just said! Actually I come from a real city, London, so I don't need telling about any big smokes!

yomchi

Touché
lol @ mairt now

g-punkteffekt

I lived in Stonybatter for a year recently and it's a decent enough area. It doesn't try to be anything it isn't, which is what Smithfield is doing. The fact is, Smithfield will never really work as a trendy place because it's a corporation house/flats area. I've had bottles thrown at me and stuff walking across the square, I've seen the Chinese staff in the Spar getting attacked and racist abuse hurled at them etc. from the locals. I've seen HUGE gangs of local youths starting a mini-riot with the police, throwing bottles at their car etc. The police just got back in the car and left them to it.
It's a sh*thole full of knackers, it's never going to be anything else unless they move the knackers out of there.