URBAN EXPRESSION

All Types And Styles Of Urban Expression

built environment

TRAM STOP AT THE POINT VILLAGE AND NEARBY

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TRAM STOP AT THE POINT VILLAGE AND NEARBY

To be honest the immediate area is a bit bleak and unappealing, but this is only my opinion.

The Point Luas stop,the easternmost terminus of the docklands extension of the Luas Red Line light rail system, is located in the middle of the Point Village complex. This Luas link to Tallaght connects the Point Village to other transport options, including the DART, suburban rail, Busáras, mainline rail, and the future Dublin Metro. The Dublin Port Tunnel southern portal is located nearby.

The Point Village is a commercial and residential development in the North Wall area of Dublin, Ireland. The elements of the €800 million development completed to date include offices and residential and hotel accommodation, a small shopping centre, a cinema, a museum and a five-level underground car park. The development ran into a number of problems and was taken over by NAMA in April 2013.

The main building of the development – now branded as Point Square – containing the retail, hotel and cinema elements as well as office space – was completed prior to the post-2008 Irish economic downturn, however the retail element did not open except as an entry to the cinema.

Dunnes Stores had agreed to be the anchor of the retail element, but has delayed opening the store for more than a decade, appealing repeated legal demands to do so. Some of the internal units are to be combined and converted to health or leisure units due to continued low demand for retail.

The office space has been taken by Oath, moving some operations from their main location at East Point Business Park, and Voxpro.

The hotel element of the development operates as The Gibson Hotel, opened in June 2010 and including nine suites, with access to terrace gardens. It also includes a spa, gymnasium, two outdoor hot-tubs and large conference facilities.

The 73m Exo Building is, as of 2022, under construction on the site of the cancelled Watchtower Building at the Eastern end of Point Village.

UPPER RATHMINES ROAD

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UPPER RATHMINES ROAD IN JANUARY 2022

There is a building on Upper Rathmines Road which was opened as a Protestant And Orange Hall in November 1890.

The Westminster parliamentary borough of Rathmines had a unionist majority up to independence in 1922. The last Member of Parliament it returned was Maurice Dockrell.

For several hundred years Rathmines was the location of a “spa” – in fact a spring – the water of which was said to have health-giving properties. It attracted people with all manner of ailments to the area. In the 19th century it was called the “Grattan Spa”, as it was located on property once belonging to Henry Grattan, close to Portobello Bridge. The “spa” gradually fell into a state of neglect as the century progressed, until disputes arose between those who wished to preserve it and those (mainly developers) who wished to get rid of it altogether. In 1872 a Dr. O’Leary, who held a high estimate of the water quality, reported that the “spa” was in “a most disgraceful state of repair”, upon which the developer and alderman Frederick Stokes sent samples to the medical inspector, Dr. Cameron, for analysis. Dr. Cameron, a great lover of authority, reported: “It was, in all probability, merely the drainings of some ancient disused sewer, not a chalybeate spring.” Access to the site was blocked up and the once popular “spa” faded from public memory.

EVERGREEN STREET – EVERGREEN ROAD TURNER’S CROSS AREA OF CORK CITY

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EVERGREEN STREET – EVERGREEN ROAD TURNER’S CROSS AREA OF CORK CITY

It was misty and lighting was dull so the area looked somewhat dull and bleak when I visited

Rocque’s map of Cork of 1759 is the first to show significant housing in the Turners Cross area in the areas that are now Evergreen Street (then Maypole Lane) and Quaker Road (then Graveyard Lane). Previous maps of Cork in 1690 and 1726 show only occasional houses associated with what were then farms on the southern edge of the city. The oldest housing still existing in Turners Cross now dates from the mid 19th century.

GASWORKS LATTICE BRIDGE IN WATERFORD – RECENTLY RESTORED

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GASWORKS LATTICE BRIDGE IN WATERFORD – RECENTLY RESTORED

When I first photographed this bridge a few years ago I was under the impression that it was a new structure but it dates from from the late 1870s.

In early 2013, the Waterford Civic Trust became concerned that the Lattice Bridge connecting the Waterside and the Gasworks site would be removed and scrapped like the other connecting bridge. With the help of Waterford City Council a plan was devised and acted upon, whereby the bridge was safely removed for restoration. Work has been done to the bridge to bring it up to modern health and safety standards and to ensure it’s use in Waterford’s life.

SANDYMOUNT GREEN AND NEARBY

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SANDYMOUNT GREEN AND NEARBY

Sandymount Green is a triangular park located next to the village. The houses along the south side of the green are part of what once was Sandymount Castle and the roads behind this bear the name. There are shops, restaurants and cafés around the green.

Sandymount is located between 3 and 4 km south-east of Dublin’s city centre. At the northern end it begins where Newbridge Avenue meets Herbert Road, running to Church Avenue at the coast, and west along the DART rail line, and south to Merrion Gates. Sandymount Promenade runs along the coast road (Strand Road) from Sandymount Strand, down to Merrion Gates. It lies a little south of the Great South Wall in Dublin Bay.

The River Dodder passes nearby to the west, and three streams, the Elm Park, Nutley and Trimleston, come to the coast to the south, but any pollution of these impacts Sandymount Strand. In the past, the Nutley Stream came to the coast in what is now Sandymount, and severe flooding occurred on the old course in 1963.

The extensive Sandymount Strand, which is part of the South Bull, (a mirror to the North Bull sandbank, which grew into North Bull Island), is a major component of the south side of Dublin Bay. The strand runs from the curve of the bay at Ringsend to Merrion Gates. Sandymount Strand is a popular place for locals to take a walk. People and cars have been occasionally trapped by the incoming tide.

The promenade is a 2.5 km walkway along the coast from Gilford Avenue to Saint Alban’s Park, however, there are plans to lengthen the promenade to connect with the S2S Sandycove to Sutton Cycleway.

Neighbouring suburbs are Ballsbridge, Merrion and Irishtown.

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