Bray Now and Then

poldebruin

Hi,

Hope people don't mind me posting these outside of the dedicated photo thread.

I had posted some similar shots from Greystones a while ago here


Men chat at Statue



Bray Town Hall



Looking up Main Street



Looking down Quinsborough Road



The International Hotel/Bowling Alley



Church Street

They're great! Thanks

LEIN

Brilliant!

bogtreader

Thanks for posting:) around what year were they taken.

poldebruin

Not 100% sure, I took the old photos from the national online archive:

National Archive Photos of Bray

most of the photos don't have an exact date, but the range seems to be 1840 to 1910

pixbyjohn

Excellent, thank you for sharing.

Pablo Sanchez

Excellent thank you!

The Bray Bowl is a poor subsitute for the old Hotel, the planners of the day should be ashamed:mad:

The Real B-man

Pablo Sanchez wrote: »

Excellent thank you!

The Bray Bowl is a poor subsitute for the old Hotel, the planners of the day should be ashamed:mad:

Yes and the Turkish Baths should of never being demolished!

shofukan

It's amazing how little the major landmarks have changed...
Looks to have been a beautiful place back in the day.. A far cry from what it is now...
Bring back the old town!

BlueSmoker

Brilliantly lined up shoots there poldebruin, excellent work. I'm really finding the threads here in the Wicklow Forum on old Bray, fasinating. The Arcadia Festival Bray Now and Then was also brilliant this year, hopefully it will continue again next year.

zoobizoo

There's a great facebook page to have a look at:

https://www.facebook.com/braydidyouknow

They;ve lots of old pics on it.

I always wondered who gave permission to build that horrendous building on Florence Road which houses Smyth's toys.....

It was built within the last 10 years - knowing what we knew then, surely they could have seen that it didn't fit in anywhere other than an industrial estate.

Maudi

zoobizoo wrote: »

There's a great facebook page to have a look at:

https://www.facebook.com/braydidyouknow

They;ve lots of old pics on it.

I always wondered who gave permission to build that horrendous building on Florence Road which houses Smyth's toys.....

It was built within the last 10 years - knowing what we knew then, surely they could have seen that it didn't fit in anywhere other than an industrial estate.

i agree...but theres lots of new builds in the last decade that are a disgrace around the town....and when you think someone went to college..and was trained in architecture and planning for years...submitted that particular plan AND somebody else excepted it! the mind boggles..

amtw

Maudi wrote: »

i agree...but theres lots of new builds in the last decade that are a disgrace around the town....and when you think someone went to college..and was trained in architecture and planning for years...submitted that particular plan AND somebody else excepted it! the mind boggles..

Yeah I totally agree. There should be a new quango set up the "good taste" quango. Before any planning application is passed they should be able to veto any decision where the building detracts from it's surroundings. There are buildings such as the Coilte HQ in Newtown that positvely enhance an area and then there are others like the aforementioned Smyths that would disgrace even the most modern town centre let alone one as old as Bray. I vote for the Good Taste Police.

Witcher

The Smyths building used to be a supermarket so it was there anyway, Smyths just added a new front onto it, it's better than the state it was in before.

gerbilgranny

These are wonderful! Thanks for posting.

Bubblefett

Brilliant photos.
Just wondering if anyone happens to see any old photos of the building that is now Dunnes on Quinnsburough road before it was dunnes could they let me know?
It belonged to my great grand uncle and I'd love to see an image of it. It was a grocery shop called Pembroke Stores.

Judgement Day

bubblefett wrote: »

Brilliant photos.
Just wondering if anyone happens to see any old photos of the building that is now Dunnes on Quinnsburough road before it was dunnes could they let me know?
It belonged to my great grand uncle and I'd love to see an image of it. It was a grocery shop called Pembroke Stores.

Before it was Dunnes Stores it was Lees Drapery - I remember they used to have a great Santa - way back in the mid 1960s. There was also a large deer's head on one of the back walls with a storeroom behind it. I was always fascinated by it and one day persuaded a staff member to let me into the storeroom to see the rest of the deer - it wasn't there!

Bubblefett

Judgement Day wrote: »

Before it was Dunnes Stores it was Lees Drapery - I remember they used to have a great Santa - way back in the mid 1960s. There was also a large deer's head on one of the back walls with a storeroom behind it. I was always fascinated by it and one day persuaded a staff member to let me into the storeroom to see the rest of the deer - it wasn't there!

Ah that's really cool, thanks for sharing
All I know of it is that my great grand uncle opened the store around the 1880s and named it Pembroke Stores after Lord Pembroke who was one of the main landlords in Bray.
Hopefully I'll come across some pictures some day

Setun

Anyone know what happened the International Hotel? It looks like a great building, shame they had to knock it down and build grim Bray Bowl.

Alun

Daddio wrote: »

Anyone know what happened the International Hotel? It looks like a great building, shame they had to knock it down and build grim Bray Bowl.

It burnt down in 1974.

Setun

Alun wrote:

It burnt down in 1974.

Ah I thought it must have been something like that. Shame

Annasopra

zoobizoo wrote: »

There's a great facebook page to have a look at:

https://www.facebook.com/braydidyouknow

They;ve lots of old pics on it.

It's a great page. They update stuff all the time.

StonedParadoX

what website did you use to get these photos?

Judgement Day

Can't see a general Bray thread so I'm posting this in here - hope that's okay.
Naylor's Cove more popularly known as 'The Cove' as captured for a late 1950s/early 1960s postcard. I have unhappy memories of being regularly frog marched here from Aravon School in the mid-1960s and forced to try and learn to swim amongst the rocks and crabs! However, I think it must have been later than when this postcard was taken as by then the place was in a more decrepit state. There's little enough left of the Cove today and even the luxurious concrete changing rooms have largely disappeared.

Sunbeam61

Love the old photos - thanks for sharing :-)

tdv123

Blay wrote: »

The Smyths building used to be a supermarket so it was there anyway, Smyths just added a new front onto it, it's better than the state it was in before.

Crazy Prices - Used to be my favorite supermarket.

Judgement Day

tdv123 wrote: »

Crazy Prices - Used to be my favorite supermarket.

I seem to remember that Smyths was Quinnsworth - in old God's time and before that Powers Supermarket. You're talking late 1960's/early 1970s when the only other Supermarket in the town was Lipton's on Main Street.

pixbyjohn

Judgement Day wrote: »

I seem to remember that Smyths was Quinnsworth - in old God's time and before that Powers Supermarket. You're talking late 1960's/early 1970s when the only other Supermarket in the town was Lipton's on Main Street.

Smyths used to be Crazy Prices ( which was Quinnsworth owned).
Do you remember Findlaters, that was the forerunner to the supermarkets too.

Judgement Day

I do remember Findlater's. It was somewhere between Woolworth's and Ledwidge's if memory serves me correctly. Lipton's used to be on Quinnsboro' Road near the Mellifont Hotel before they moved to the Main Street. Bray was a good place to shop back then.

Annasopra

I just came across this flickr page with lots of great photos

http://www.flickr.com/photos/brayphotoarchive/

Judgement Day

Was Bray ever this attractive?