This was an amazing location for Street Art. These are not my best photographs but they do capture the ‘feel’ of the location. Last year I visited the new complex and it was bleak and the preserved artwork lacked soul.
I was amazed to discover than many of my friends don’t remember the Tivoli as it was and I know that they attend concerts there.
“Tivoli Place”, the scheme containing the square, is owned by the German asset management company DWS, in partnership with aparthotel operators StayCity. In my opinion the scheme is more than disappointing … it is depressing and while it is described as a public space it is a POPS [privately owned public space] it does not appear to meet any real local community requirements.
The Tivoli Theatre was a theatre on Francis Street in The Liberties, Dublin which closed in 2019 and was demolished shortly afterwards for replacement by a hotel. The theatre opened on 21 December 1934 as a replacement for an earlier Tivoli Theatre located on Burgh Quay, which had closed in May 1928.
Built to the designs of architect Vincent Kelly with seating provided for 700. The Tivoli Theatre opened as a cine-variety theatre, but by the late-1930s it had converted to full-time cinema use and was renamed Tivoli Cinema.
The Tivoli Cinema was closed in September 1964. It was converted into a nightclub and a shop; before finally re-opening as a live theatre in 1987 and renamed Tivoli Theatre. At time of closing, the upper theatre could seat 475; and the lower venue was in operation as a nightclub
The walls of the carpark had become a noted street art location and the planning permission to demolish the theatre required the extant art to be photographed and documented prior to demolition.
The venue had seen The Cranberries, Oasis, Blur, Sinéad O’Connor, Suede, The Beastie Boys, Rage Against the Machine, Deadmau5, Perfume Genius,[ and $uicideBoy$ perform.
That Petrol Emotion played the Tivoli three times, including their Irish farewell gig in 1994. Recordings from that concert were included on the live album Final Flame (Fire, Detonation And Sublime Chaos).
STREET ART AT THE TIVOLI CAR PARK AS IT WAS IN JANUARY 2016
CELTIC HIGH CROSS ON LEHAUNSTOWN LANE – SEE IT IN CONTEXT WHILE YOU CAN
This cross will remain but the context or setting is likely to disappear within the next few years.
I try to visit this area on a regular basis but because of Covid-19 restrictions I have been unable to visit for more than a year and I am beginning to become very concerned about the future of this country lane. Effectively the lane is public but every time that I visit access to the fields and sites along the lane has reduced. This visit I could not access the old church and graveyard or the old cross in the field across the lane from the church.
I would now describe Lehaunstown Lane as nothing more that a public path through a massive building site and I suspect that the hedgerows will disappear within two or three years. When all the development projects have been completed it is likely that the area will become a POPS [Privately Owned Public Space] which is not at all good.
I am willing to bet than most Dubliners do not know of this place or that if they see the name they will assume that it is a misspelling of Loughlinstown [which is nearby]. To add to the confusion the tram stop is Laughanstown but the laneway leading to Tully Church is Lehaunstown.
As you walk along a lonely country lane from the LUAS tram stop at Laughanstown to the old church at Tully the first thing of note that you will see is a well preserved high cross. The cross was saved from destruction by James Grehan in the later part of the nineteenth century. The road next to the cross was being lowered and James Grehan had this small wall built and the cross placed upon it at its original height.
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