Also cafes, restaurants and pubs in the city centre are dependent on footfall from people being in town to shop or work or both but Julio canāt seem to get that into his thick fucking skull.
Itās a Spar, might even be a Eurospar given the continental feel they offer the area.
He canāt have a wank in a restaurant
Never stopped me before
Shouldnāt then
Maybe if they cleaned up the shit off Graton Street it might encourage more people to visit?
Iām WFH on my hole but also strolled up to Baggott Street to support local business today
Pedestrianising OāConnell Street wonāt help it. OCS public realm isnāt actually bad, it has wide footpaths and plenty of money put into it over the years.
College Green would be but traffic flows remain a big issue. We need a tunnel there.
OāConnell Street and the North Inner City generally saw big steps in the 1990s. It retained the strong retail elements, there was mass regeneration of the likes of Parnell Street and the heroin addiction in the city abated. This was the north inner city in the 80s.
Lots of money was spent in the late 80s and into the early 2000s with great strides made, unfortunately many of the eggs were put in the retail basket and insufficient private dwellings were built. Northside āindustrialā redevelopment came in the form of the IFSC which is always marooned to an extent given Aungier Street.
This would have helped OCS but it still had the aforementioned problems that itās cinema/theatre elements had been hollowed out. But overall the North Inner City became a far nicer place into the 2000s.
The North Inner city needs more offices, students, improved retail/entertainment and more private dwellings.
The likes of the Clerys development gets the ball rolling on that. The Connolly Quarter close by should bring in more office worker foot traffic to Talbot Street (the IFSC is marooned as I mentioned, so there is no guarantee of this). The likes of Aldborough House offers a great chance for a high quality tech firm to make a campus.
TUD moving their campus to Grangegorman is a real positive, there is a whole spine there of students on the Green Line extension which should help gentrify around the likes of the Inns and Dorset Street. In time Broadstone (where Bus Ćireann and Dublin Bus have their garage) offers the chance for a major cultural, residential and office space, greatly expanding the footprint of the CBD.
Thereās lots of other opportunities, Liberty Hall and the Abbey Theatre getting redeveloped eventually will help things.
Sadly Ra heads are continuing to hold up Moore Street with delusional objections. Other moronic blockers include the delay on the new Dublin City Library at Parnell Square.
Lots going on, but far more needed.
In short, for OāConnell Street needs its surrounding areas to improve more than itself. Of course reversing it being a soup kitchen, moving some addiction services and proper policing could return it to what it was 10-15 years ago, a little bit rough but safe enough.
The Lego Store is set to open on Grafton Street. Very positive.
I kind of hope a longer term impact of Brexit will be more international retailers coming here. Ireland has suffered a shock in terms of Brexit on existing retail and commercial flows but it always lost out a bit on retail. The fact that people looked at our market as the U.K. & Ireland but we used a different currency made things a pain. They just didnāt bother opening shops here. Retailers will be more aware of the nuances now and might be more willing to look at Ireland. Apple for example, baffling there isnāt a store in Ireland.
British Retailers have been in serious bother for a number of years and it has an impact on Irish high street. Debenhams unit on Henry Street for example, itās absolutely huge and will never be let again in its current state. Most British Retailers left on the Island of Ireland are not spending money.
British ones always mostly here alright.
More internationally, less likely to be here.
Thatās the point weāre making mate. Theyāre letting it go to shit. Literally.
Of course it would. Canopy either side and the middle and would become a lovely space for restaurants coffee shops and real ale type experience bars. Youād just need to police it really well. It would in short order become a destination.
Thereās been plenty of options for that for years, itās made up of eateries in the main with on street dining there. It still doesnāt attract good active footfall.
I donāt think pedestrianising it will make any difference in the short term. It already has lovely wide footpaths.
A beautiful sight. The spire notably absent. The first thing they should do is rip that down and toss it in the Liffey, erecting a giant replica syringe kinda sends out the wrong message, that was the start of all O Connell streets woes
Agreed, bring back Nelsonās Pillar. Canāt believe I left it off the list.
Iām not old enough to remember Nelson Pillar. @anon67715551 would rebuilding it restore O connell street to its former glories?
Youāll sit out and eat or drink when youāre not breathing in diesel belching out.
It works. Itās epic.
The whole place should be a food and boutique court.
Presume you mean Amiens Street here? I was trying to figure out what you meant. What would you do with the IFSC? Itās always been a fairly grim shithole in my view. That CHQ building or whatever itās called improved it a bit but thereās no decent pub in it and thereās some amount of crappy lunch outlets and a lack of good restaurants! A lot of the units were empty during covid but some new/replacement places are opening up now. I see 3fe have a place. Boojum is gone. Thereās a new Tesco Express at the back of the Convention Centre. I thought those units were destined to be empty forever.
Peats
That photo brings back memories. There was a time when a good chunk of inner city Dublin was those kinds of surface car parks.