Arnott's Stillorgan

annieoburns

I am sad to report that this branch is closing this week. I think it is one of few original shops that date from the opening of Stillorgan Shopping Centre in 1966. A specially good shoe shop not replicated in any of the other out of town centres and probably where I bought most of my shoewear.

Poor Stillorgan!

Cookie_Monster

the sales in there were fantastic, always got my runners 75% off in there.

annieoburns

Apparantly it is to be taken over as an Ecco store. But the beauty of the Arnotts was that it has several leading brands in the same outlet. In town the brands are split between the Henry Street branch and the North Earl street.

Grid.

Thats tough alright, bought some reasonably priced stuff in there.:(

christmas2010

Sorry to see it go. But just wanted to add that it was definitely not there since 1966. It was Kennys for all of my childhood.
I can't remember when Arnotts took over, I'd guess it was in the 1980s.

annieoburns

Apologies, quite correct. It is to be taken over by an Ecco outlet but that will not be the same thing as a general shoe shop serving all types and ages.

Exclamation Marc

Shame that its going.

I imagine a lot of their problems stemmed from the planned upgrade and refurb they were doing.I remember they had about 1/3 of the store closed off for upgrade and it just never got finished and they ended up trying to lease it I think.

Its a shame, it used to be a fantastic store.

Pablo Sanchez

Its a shame alright, the place is almost like a shadow of its former self, Arnotts gone, Body shop, Golden Discs, LifeStyle, Totterdells, EBS.

At least Donneybrook Fare will give the place a new focus, and Eddie Rockets being extended will be very welcome.

omb0wyn5ehpij9

Pablo Sanchez wrote: »

Its a shame alright, the place is almost like a shadow of its former self, Arnotts gone, Body shop, Golden Discs, LifeStyle, Totterdells, EBS.

At least Donneybrook Fare will give the place a new focus, and Eddie Rockets being extended will be very welcome.

Has work started on Eddie Rockets yet?
I worked in one of the above shops and was made redundant when it was closed, and it was no surprise really. That was just over 2 years ago now and the centre was in a bad way already at that stage

Reesy

It's a pretty crap shopping centre, isn't it? The only shop I really like in there is Fenelons (which is, IMHO, brilliant).

I'm hoping that Tescos will clean up their store & sharpen up their act when Donnybrook Fair and Lidl (am told they will take the Reid furniture site) arrive.

Exclamation Marc

Reesy wrote: »

It's a pretty crap shopping centre, isn't it? The only shop I really like in there is Fenelons (which is, IMHO, brilliant).

I'm hoping that Tescos will clean up their store & sharpen up their act when Donnybrook Fair and Lidl (am told they will take the Reid furniture site) arrive.

It is now but it was once a great place. Countless knockbacks on the planning permission doomed the entire area unfortunately.

SerialComplaint

FireballPitcher wrote: »

Countless knockbacks on the planning permission doomed the entire area unfortunately.

The fact that the banks are no longer giving away money they don't have to fund speculative commercial developments for which no market exists have doomed the entire area.

Exclamation Marc

SerialComplaint wrote: »

The fact that the banks are no longer giving away money they don't have to fund speculative commercial developments for which no market exists have doomed the entire area.

Stillorgan hasn't been doomed since the financial collapse, it happened well before that actually.

Stillorgan have been trying to redevelop since 2003 but have been constantly knocked back because of various different planning permission reasons from piping to roads.

The banking crisis is only recent in comparison to Stillorgans woes.

Slideshowbob

and the developer that "owns" SCC looks really concerned about SCC and his other sites bound for NAMA .....

https://twitter.com/#!/namawinelake/status/65531460844662784

:rolleyes:

SerialComplaint

FireballPitcher wrote: »

Stillorgan hasn't been doomed since the financial collapse, it happened well before that actually.

Stillorgan have been trying to redevelop since 2003 but have been constantly knocked back because of various different planning permission reasons from piping to roads.

The banking crisis is only recent in comparison to Stillorgans woes.

Their planning woes are self-inflicted. Other centres had little difficulty in getting planning permissions.

Exclamation Marc

SerialComplaint wrote: »

Their planning woes are self-inflicted. Other centres had little difficulty in getting planning permissions.

Considering that their planning permission was shot down most of the time because the roads around the center are not capable of handling the car capacity how is that self inflicted??

Slideshowbob

FireballPitcher wrote: »

Considering that their planning permission was shot down most of the time because the roads around the center are not capable of handling the car capacity how is that self inflicted??

Why did they buy a centre expecting to achieve planning with such surrounding roads and neighbours? Maybe they didn't do their homework - hence - self inflicted

SerialComplaint

FireballPitcher wrote: »

Considering that their planning permission was shot down most of the time because the roads around the center are not capable of handling the car capacity how is that self inflicted??

They were refused permission in 2001 and 2003, for a number of reasons each time. Traffic was just one of several reasons. Have a look at the 2003 judgement, where their bad design and excess retail capacity were noted.

http://www.pleanala.ie/casenum/120568.htm
http://www.pleanala.ie/casenum/201656.htm

They were granted permission in 2006, at the time when the banks were pi$$ing away money to all developers - so who have they got to blame now?

http://www.pleanala.ie/casenum/214710.htm

r3nu4l

Reesy wrote: »

It's a pretty crap shopping centre, isn't it? The only shop I really like in there is Fenelons (which is, IMHO, brilliant).

It is now and has been for years but it was Ireland's first proper shopping centre and at the time was a remarkable place! My Mam grew up less than a 5 minute walk from the place and I used to go there a lot when we visited my Granny as a kid in the late 70's and early eighties.

Even at that time it was a very interesting shopping centre. The local infrastructure was never going to be right to support a big expansion, even if the plans had been good and there were no other objections.

old hippy

I miss Murrays Record shop, much more personal than Golden Discs. We were quite intrigued when The Plaza opened up across the road. What a lemon that was!

annieoburns

Stillorgan was the first of the 'planned shopping centres' in Ireland... even had one of first supermarkets? (Pat Quinn)

I fondly remember the delicatesson 'A La Francaise' .... ah the exotic smell of those strange foreign foods in an era before mass package holidays and the discoveries of the delights of different ingredients.

There was Bolgers, a department store and the Way In where I bought my first mini skirt

Oh and not forgetting Fullers and those coffee cream cakes ..... and Ann's Bakery, merengues and 'gur cake'....

I think Stillorgan missed the boat when Dundrum Shopping Centre was being planned and stole the march on them. Only need for so much shopping in a geographic area.

Makaveli

The old Dundrum shopping centre? That place was awful and never a patch on Stillorgan. I'm surprised SSC is still open at all these days.

annieoburns

No I meant the Dundrum 'Town Centre' got all the top shops at a time when Shillorgan was trying to get its redevelopment off the ground c 10 years ago.

homer911

C&D shoes has definitely been there since the start. They still have the same model shoe maker banging away in the window(!) Anyone remember the Sewing Box? They moved over to the Plaza and died a death!

I think we had 5-Star (?) in the spot where McDonalds is now

Pablo Sanchez

Anyone remember 'Videodrome'?