The State of O'Connell St

cson · 14-02-2012 4:50pm #1

Typing this out on my phone so it'll be brief, but its just struck me there how much of a hole the main thoroughfare in our capital city is. Wall to wall fast food places and tatty neon signs. And despite all of this it still has so much potential - some fantastic georgian architecture if only it was cared for

BeerNut · 14-02-2012 5:00pm

cson wrote: »

some fantastic georgian architecture

Really? I thought it was almost all post-1916, saving the shell of the GPO.

I don't really mind O'Connell Street. It's comparable to working urban thoroughfares like Wenceslas Square, Times Square or Picadilly Circus: lively, not stand-offish.

You can't buy hot donuts from a hatch on the Champs Elysées, for example

Paparazzo · 14-02-2012 5:38pm

Those doughnuts at the kiosk are only €3 for 6, and are the nicest ones I've ever had.
It's the best thing about O'Connell Street.

chin_grin · 14-02-2012 5:41pm

BeerNut wrote: »

Really? I thought it was almost all post-1916, saving the shell of the GPO.

I don't really mind O'Connell Street. It's comparable to working urban thoroughfares like Wenceslas Square, Times Square or Picadilly Circus: lively, not stand-offish.

You can't buy hot donuts from a hatch on the Champs Elysées, for example

Paparazzo wrote: »

Those doughnuts at the kiosk are only €3 for 6, and are the nicest ones I've ever had.
It's the best thing about O'Connell Street.

So donuts are the best thing about the street then? :rolleyes:

Also I'm sure you can buy tastier treats from a vendor on the Champs Elysées.

Ash.J.Williams · 14-02-2012 5:44pm

chin_grin wrote: »

So donuts are the best thing about the street then? :rolleyes:

Also I'm sure you can buy tastier treats from a vendor on the Champs Elysées.

Yes that's what they died for!!:)

BeerNut · 14-02-2012 5:55pm

chin_grin wrote: »

So donuts are the best thing about the street then?

They're nice, I'll grant you, but I wouldn't go that far. As I said, it's the vivacity of it that I like. It's a proper middle-of-a-modern-city street, not a planned ideal.

chin_grin wrote: »

Also I'm sure you can buy tastier treats from a vendor on the Champs Elysées.

I doubt €3 will get you much more than a newspaper. Le Monde Ne Suffit Pas.

Nolanger · 14-02-2012 7:15pm

Should have seen the state of the place before they cut down those horrible old trees and replaced with those Celtic Tiger new ones.

mikemac1 · 14-02-2012 7:50pm

It's an improvement on what it was two decades ago

A lot done, more to do as a disgraced politician once said

The Scientician · 14-02-2012 8:20pm

Yeah but does the Champs Elysées have Mary Mediatrix Of All Graces? Huh?

But seriously I think O'Connell St. looks much better than it ever did before. Especially coming into a summer's evening walking down from North Frederick Street. It's bustling and the Spire and the GPO look great, then you find yourself at O'Connell Bridge. Ah sure ya can't beat it.

Wishbone Ash · 14-02-2012 9:25pm

cson wrote: »

some fantastic georgian architecture

BeerNut wrote: »

Really? I thought it was almost all post-1916

George V (1910-1936)

kthnxbai · 14-02-2012 9:43pm

The Scientician wrote: »

Yeah but does the Champs Elysées have Mary Mediatrix Of All Graces? Huh?

But seriously I think O'Connell St. looks much better than it ever did before. Especially coming into a summer's evening walking down from North Frederick Street. It's bustling and the Spire and the GPO look great, then you find yourself at O'Connell Bridge. Ah sure ya beat it.

What the hell is that place anyways??!

I actually like how O Connell Street looks for the most part, with the exception of the section closest to Parnell Square. After Henry Street, on the north end of the street is a bit manky in fairness.

A Disgrace · 14-02-2012 9:49pm

cson wrote: »

Typing this out on my phone so it'll be brief, but its just struck me there how much of a hole the main thoroughfare in our capital city is. Wall to wall fast food places and tatty neon signs. And despite all of this it still has so much potential - some fantastic georgian architecture if only it was cared for

There's a couple of Gerorgian era buildings left, including one original house from when it was laid out as a residential street. Most is however post-1916. Still, it could (and should) be a grand main street. I particularly like the Gresham hotel, and the the rest of its stretch

Fizzlesque · 14-02-2012 11:05pm

I'd like it a lot better if they'd bothered to put in cycle lanes when they revamped the street. Proper cycle lanes, on both sides, all the way through. It's a horrible road to cycle on sometimes - and it should be/could be brilliant.

John_Rambo · 14-02-2012 11:20pm

Fizzlesque wrote: »

and it should be/could be brilliant.

Dead right there, lots and lots of room. Every city has it's O'Connell Street to cater for the fast junk food eating, crappy casino, going folk of the country and, it's close to Croke Park.

breadmonster · 14-02-2012 11:22pm

Its not actually that bad if theyd just get all the junkies off it. Need some sort of bylaw enforced to ban junkies from the city center.

Rangi · 14-02-2012 11:37pm

breadmonster wrote: »

Its not actually that bad if theyd just get all the junkies off it. Need some sort of bylaw enforced to ban junkies from the city center.

I opened this thread expecting it to be about just this. I work in the area,and am on the street most of my working day,all I see is blatant drug dealing,junkies,winos,beggars,etc,all doing what they do best,and on several occaisions seen them ****ting,not on side streets,but on Oconnell itself,in the middle of the day. There seems to be nobody with the balls or the willpower to do anything about. Management at Store St in their wisdom seem to have told the Gards to be in hi-vis all the time,the above mentioned love this,free to carry out their dealing undisturbed,Gards can be spotted miles away.

Rasmus · 14-02-2012 11:44pm

cson wrote: »

Typing this out on my phone so it'll be brief, but its just struck me there how much of a hole the main thoroughfare in our capital city is. Wall to wall fast food places and tatty neon signs. And despite all of this it still has so much potential - some fantastic georgian architecture if only it was cared for

It will never be all nice and Georgian like Merrion Square or Adelaide Rd etc. You think it's a hole now but do you not remember what it was like before the facelift? It had character but it was much seedier.

Add-on: Yeah the donuts are AMAZING!

dardhal · 15-02-2012 2:12am

Rangi wrote: »

I opened this thread expecting it to be about just this. I work in the area,and am on the street most of my working day,all I see is blatant drug dealing,junkies,winos,beggars,etc,all doing what they do best,and on several occaisions seen them ****ting,not on side streets,but on Oconnell itself,in the middle of the day. There seems to be nobody with the balls or the willpower to do anything about. Management at Store St in their wisdom seem to have told the Gards to be in hi-vis all the time,the above mentioned love this,free to carry out their dealing undisturbed,Gards can be spotted miles away.

As a person that has come to this city only a couple of months ago, and who lives in the area, it surprises me a lot that O'Connell Street (and other streets along it) being one of the major tourist attractions of the city can be so packed with "unfriendly" people, be them beggars, drunk people, outright brainless knackers and drug addicts to no end.

Somo of those people may deserve legitimate and charitable help, but most of them are giving a very bad image to the city, many of them can be dangerous, and just ignoring a problem doesn't make it go away. You'd better be alert when wandering around the place, day or night, because as someone said, Gardai seem to take it easy regarding those weird people.

Although, it must be said, any major european city suffers the same problem to a certain extent, and no city council seems to have been able to fix it no matter how hard they have try. You may not be able to do nothing else than putting most of those people behind bars for life, and that seems to be rather extreme to most politicians. Anyways, they mostly live in the Dublin fours of their respective ciities, so they aren't very concerned at all.

Davidth88 · 15-02-2012 9:42am

I have had cause to be at the northern end of O'Connell St quite a bit since Aug.

It is without doubt depressing , and sometimes downright scary, and that is in daylight.

On the North West side of the road you have the closed cinema ( The Carlton , that is a lovely piece of art deco , but destroyed by horrible ' amusement ' arcade , which only attracts the wrong sort of people.

As for the blatant lawlessness , it's scary.

Wasn't the police stn closed at the north end about 5 years ago ?

It's a shame , the Gresham , for example , is a lovely hotel , but can you imagine if you are staying there and you walk out of the door to be greeted by the sights you see daily in O'Connell St ?

If I can see it , why can't the Guards who stand outside the GPO see , they don't dare to walk north of Henry St.

Paparazzo · 15-02-2012 12:18pm

chin_grin wrote: »

So donuts are the best thing about the street then? :rolleyes:

Also I'm sure you can buy tastier treats from a vendor on the Champs Elysées.

The only 3 things worth visiting on O'Connell Street in order if you're a tourist:
1. GPO
2. Doughnut Kiosk
3. Spire (very distant 3rd)
That's it.

And try getting 6 freshly cooked doughnuts for €3 on the Champs Elysées.

Ash.J.Williams · 15-02-2012 12:30pm

I'm getting some doughnuts this weekend!

Jesus Wept · 15-02-2012 12:32pm

It's shite.

alastair · 15-02-2012 12:39pm

Its not that bad.

Marlborough street on the other hand...

pawrick · 15-02-2012 12:42pm

Have to agree with a lot of the posters here. No amount of work on making the street look nice will work as long as a few people are allowed sit around it all day drinking cans, selling drugs and all while shouting abuse at each other. I see it every day of the week and if someone asked me what sticks out in my mind most about O'Connell street I'd have to say the drunks/junkies.

I do think the politicians need a reality check on these issues which I doubt they will ever have since most live in the bubbles formed from a life in politics where they don't get to see these things up close every day. The guards need either more power or a kick up the **** in order to sort it out but someone definitely needs to take control of the issue along with many others like it.

PseudoFamous · 15-02-2012 12:52pm

breadmonster wrote: »

Its not actually that bad if theyd just get all the junkies off it. Need some sort of bylaw enforced to ban junkies from the city center.

Well, they should move all the methadone clinics, and low quality high density housing out of the city centre then, shouldn't they?

gurramok · 15-02-2012 12:55pm

Move the drug clinics to Grafton st to deal with the 'people' problem and get a council that actually cares about the architecture of O'Connell st.

Dyr · 15-02-2012 12:56pm

TBH the renovations they did took a street that was in poor shape and made it worse, it now looks like the prime consideration in its design was the ease with which it could be powerhosed down. the idea of going for a continental type plaza set up on a street that has four busy traffic lanes was nonsensical

And don't get me started on that spire....

MajorMax · 15-02-2012 1:06pm

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

George V (1910-1936)

Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1720 and 1840. It is eponymous for the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover—George I of Great Britain, George II of Great Britain, George III of the United Kingdom, and George IV of the United Kingdom—who reigned in continuous succession from August 1714 to June 1830

Paparazzo · 15-02-2012 1:10pm

Ash.J.Williams wrote: »

I'm getting some doughnuts this weekend!

Go for the sugar ones, they're nicer than the chocolate.

Fluorescence · 15-02-2012 1:12pm

gurramok wrote: »

Move the drug clinics to Grafton st to deal with the 'people' problem and get a council that actually cares about the architecture of O'Connell st.

The south end of O'Connell st is actually quite pleasant. It's really only from about Henry st upwards that the buildings get a bit worse for wear (I'm looking at you, arcade and Mary Mediatrix).

I think Grafton St and St Stephen's Green area are much nicer than O'Connell St - don't move all the junkies there! If the city council really want to do something about the "image problem" (and it disgusts me to refer to it as that) then the methadone clinics etc. should be decentralised and spread further around.

Proper policing in the city center would be nice too. One time I was waiting for a bus on the quays when a group of at least 12-15 guys were hassling me (a 5ft nothing girl fwiw) for a good 10 minutes for change; there were 2 policemen nearby who did absolutely nothing. Extremely frustrating.

Cool Mo D · 15-02-2012 1:14pm

The north end of O'Connell street is in such a shambles mainly due to the guy who own's Dr. Quirkey's allowing all the buildings on the west side of the street fall to ruin. He was trying to build up a land bank for a big redevelopment, which now looks like its fallen through.

The State of O'Connell St

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