Castleforbes/Sheriff Street

Don Jon

I find myself in a bit of a predicament and I'm looking for some insight from people who have a better knowledge of Dublin than I do.

I'm currently living in D6 but due to my lease expiring got to move in the next week, this day next week actually. I'm looking and will be viewing a place located just off Upper Sheriff Street which I have been told and have read is fairly dodgy. I'm in a bind because I work in the city centre just off Dame Street but am going to college in Dun Laoghrie so have to need a Dart line such as Connolly nearby.

I've read threads from years ago on here about how it is sketchy and how it isn't but would like a more updated view on it. I've been told its a bit better than it was even a couple years ago due to developers coming in and building banks, apartment blocks and the like but lets say if I were to walk home some night even along the Quay - is that safe or am I playing Russian roulette?

Any help here would be appreciated.

chopper6

Stay away from that area.

Mr Simpson

chopper6 wrote: »

Stay away from that area.

Fancy reading the charter? No statements like that without expanding on them

chopper6

Apologies.

In my opinion this area is unsafe especially for people who aren't natives...the new apartments round by castleforbes etc are set in an existing run-down area that has long been blighted by criminality and anti-social behaviour.

At night the area has a ghost town feel to it and the apartments themselves are badly constructed with terrible sound and noise pollution.

cson

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057028990

Seems that high rents are pushing more 'outside' folks into these areas. With any luck it'll result in gentrification.

ProudDUB

OP, you aren't all that close to the Dart down at Castleforbes. It is a good 30 minute walk from Connolly down to Castleforbes. It's not a walk I'd want to be doing in the evening or late at night. If you don't mind the trouble and expense of another train journey, you could always get the Luas from Busaras or Georges Dock down to the Luas terminus at The Point. The Castleforbes apts are about a 5 minute walk from there. If you really want to be close to the Dart and still live in town, try up at the other end of the IFSC in Custom House Harbour Apts. It is an older development than Castleforbes and the apts are generally smaller, but it is literally right beside Connolly Station.

Threads like this one can tend to be tad contentious here. Some people will recount bad experiences and tell you to avoid the area at all costs. Others will tell you that bad things can happen to anyone anywhere and if you carry yourself with confidence, you'll be grand sure.

I looked at apts there a couple of years ago and I decided against living there, mainly as the general run down nature of the area made me feel nervous about my safety. I chose to live instead up at the other end of the IFSC in the apts mentioned above. Being so much closer to Connolly, Busaras town etc etc the area is always busy & it just felt safer in general. It is not perfect by any means, but nothing ever happened to make me regret living there for the 2 years that I did. I never had any issues walking on the quays during the day. I wouldn't do it after dark though, unless it was the really busy ones around the Custom House or the Samuel Beckett bridge.

Noopti

We have a company flat in Castleforbes Sq which has been stayed in by people from all around Europe (coming for interviews, staying while they found their own place etc) and never had an issue.

Not saying the area is perfect, just relaying our experiences.

TheBandicoot

Someone in that position is unlikely to complain and risk losing the job at the interview or in the early tenuous stages of employment..

Hootanany

If its down by The Benson Hotel it should be Ok, further up the road "there Be Dragons"

Noopti

TheBandicoot wrote: »

Someone in that position is unlikely to complain and risk losing the job at the interview or in the early tenuous stages of employment..

Many current employees have stayed in it also. As have people who have been employed for a good while. Just passing on information.

CatLou

I live near there and I've had taxi drivers telling me those awful stories - stories with decades, mostly.
I've moved here only three months ago but it's been mainly ok around this area. I walk to and from the cinemas at The Point, I walk home from nights out at the city centre and use the Luas at different times of the day. Yesterday I arrived alone from the airport wearing a dress and carrying a trolley bag (left the bus at The Point); no evil foe came after me.

I find it amusing every time i hear/read about how bad this area is. That's how I get to live in a far better and bigger flat than my friends who live here in Dublin for the same/less rent. Thank you all

It's not the prettiest of areas around Dublin, there's a lot left to be developed, in my opinion. I don't understand how they left a whole newly-built shopping centre with no stores but the cinema/Costa Café. And there's a lot of buildings that weren't even built, so the only thing left are the walls around the piece of land where they could have stood.
About the castleforbes apartments I can't tell you much, But the Luas station is very close by, you have a Spar open until 10pm and the cinemas as I've mentioned before.

For me, the real downsides are:
- Lack of amenities (more stores, cafés, restaurants, etc. though you can walk a bit til mayor square where you'll find all these)
- Not a nice decent pub around (I sometimes end up in Ringsend for that :P)
- Ugly streets with big walls
- I don't think Eddie Rocket's does deliveries in this area, there goes the chance to have a burger delivered to your house at 3 am

Pluses:
- Luas
- There's a yoga/dance studio
- Sherrif street and the street where the Luas runs are fairly empty/safe
- Lower rents for nice flats (though you should check the apartment you're renting very carefully as anywhere else, you can't trust anybody ^^)
- Within walking distance of city centre and very close to the Grand Canal Dock area
- You can smell the sea sometimes
- Less traffic
- Near the river so you can take walks/run
- Cross the bridge to Ringsend and you have a nice park to play sports or simply enjoy a nice day

Do as you see fit, I just came to see most of the locals as a bunch of scared girls always telling the same old stories and perpetuating the prejudices about certain areas of Dublin, while choosing to keep a blind eye on the real problems going by.

alastair

Know nothing about the apartments themselves, but the rep the locality has here is pretty much exaggerated. There's a lot of empty/industrial space for sure, so it's 'gritty' looking, but the nearest residential areas, although (shock horror!), both working class and 'local' are pretty un-eventful in terms of criminal/anti-social activity. Further beyond, it's not such a boring story, but even so...

power pants

"both working class and 'local' are pretty un-eventful in terms of criminal/anti-social activity"

I disagree.

In the past most posters on these forums would always exaggerate how rough certain areas are.

These days the trend seems to be in reversal.

I do believe Sheriff street to be a rough area in general. The chances of somthing happening to somone walking through their every night for example? Chances are you will be fine but the risk is significantly higher than most areas in Dublin

spurious

There is a world of difference between Upper and Lower Sheriff Street. Can people really not see that, even by just driving through?

peterb23

lot of scaremongering on here, it's a grand area... have a brother with an apt in castleforbes, loves it... never had any issues

alastair

spurious wrote: »

There is a world of difference between Upper and Lower Sheriff Street. Can people really not see that, even by just driving through?

This.

Lower Sheriff street has nothing to do with Upper Sheriff street - they don't connect, there's no need to walk down the first to get to the second, and one is devoid of the social problems the first is afflicted with. The locals around these apartments are grand.

peterb23

lovely place really