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FRANCIS STREET [IMPROVEMENTS – WHAT IMPROVEMENTS]

On the 30th March 2021. Dublin City Council refused planning permission for the owner of 92/93 Francis Street to demolish it, but another section of the organisation ordered the owner to undertake “minimal taking down/making-safe works”. Unfortunately the end result was that a derelict four-storey building had been totally demolished and the site is to be seen in some of my [2 May 2022] photographs of Francis Street.

In June 2021 An eagerly awaited refurbishment of Francis Street in The Liberties is set to begin but I cannot see any positive signs of the promised improvements listed in the plan below.

With a strong emphasis on pedestrians, the plan envisaged widened pavements and new threshold spaces to the front of the Iveagh Market and St Nicholas de Myra Church. The, then, current awkward widening and narrowing of the carriageway was to give way to a consistent width and measures to reduce speeds and allow for more relaxed cycling and easier crossing. Changes to car parking and loading arrangements, 20 new street trees and landscaped areas, sustainable urban drainage measures (SUDs), new street lighting, street furniture and utilities were designed to create a much improved street and establish Francis Street as a destination.