Street Photography

I WALKED ALONG DORSET STREET AT ABOUT 3PM

June 3, 2023 by infomatique

AND PHOTOGRAPHED AT RANDOM USING AN OLD CANON DSLR

Dorset Street is an important thoroughfare on the north side of Dublin, Ireland, and was originally part of the Slighe Midh-Luchra, Dublin’s ancient road to the north that begins where the original bridging point at Church Street is today. Subsequently, yet prior to the street being given its current name in the 18th century, the road was known as Drumcondra Lane and was shown on maps as such. It is divided into Dorset Street Lower (northeast end) and Dorset Street Upper (southwest end).

The street runs north east from Bolton Street at Dominick Street junction, north of Parnell Square and Mountjoy Square, and leads into Drumcondra Road at Binn’s Bridge on the Royal Canal. It makes up part of the most common route from Dublin Airport to the city centre, and the R132 regional road follows Dorset Street for part of its route. It meets the R135 route at the junctions with Blessington Street, location of the Blessington Street Basin, and St. Mary’s Place; other major roads feeding onto this spine street include North Circular Road, Gardiner Street, Eccles Street, North Frederick Street, and Granby Row.

Physically the street rises up from the Liffey valley at its south western end to its apex at roughly where it meets with Blessington and North Frederick Streets; proceeding north-west the street slopes down again on the approach to Binn’s Bridge at the Royal Canal.

Some early Georgian houses are dotted along the street, primarily identifiable by the stone Gibbsian doorcase entrances, and close to the crossroads with Blessington and North Frederick Streets. Much of the street redeveloped during the Victorian era, with a number of significant buildings built, such as the Gothic style stone-built Dominican priory, designed by J. L. Robinson in 1884–87 at the corner of Dominick Street, while across from it is the red brick Italianette former fire station, designed by C. J. McCarthy and completed in 1903. Much of the street consists of vernacular Victorian terraces, with shops opening straight onto footpaths at ground-floor level. During the latter part of the twentieth century, stretches of the street were again redeveloped by Dublin Corporation for social housing flat complexes near Dominick Street.

AREA NEAR THE THREE SEA LOCKS

March 26, 2023 by infomatique

GRAND CANAL DOCK

Grand Canal Dock originally opened in 1796, as the terminal to the Central Line of the Grand Canal, at the time was the largest dock in the world. A group of three sea locks, Camden, Buckingham and Westmoreland were built in the same year, to connect the River Liffey to Grand Canal Dock. Camden Lock being the largest of the three could facilitate sea vessels. The three locks including two central dock platforms were constructed from tooled granite and designed to accommodate the tidal fluctuations of the River Liffey.

Within 50 years of the docks completion, the sea locks were deemed obsolete. Advances in steam power, left even Camden Lock too small for the new breed of steam ship. This along with the development of the railway led to a steady decline in the use of and necessity for Grand Canal Dock and the Sea Locks.

SMITHFIELD PLAZA 18 FEBRUARY 2023

February 20, 2023 by infomatique

ALSO KNOWN AS SMITHFIELD SQUARE OR SMITHFIELD MARKET

Yesterday I visited the Clock Bar on Thomas Street as it was the end of an era as it would not be opening again on Monday as the building had been sold for redevelopment. On my way hope I passed through Smithfield Square which I do not normally visit at night and as it was dark my iPhone camera did not work well as many of the images had excessive motion blur.

Smithfield is an area on the Northside of Dublin. Its focal point is a public square, formerly an open market and common, now officially called Smithfield Plaza, but known locally as Smithfield Square or Smithfield Market. Historically, Smithfield formed the western part of Oxmantown and lay close to Oxmantown Green.

The area known as Smithfield roughly incorporates the area bounded by the River Liffey to the south, Bow Street to the east, Queen Street to the west, and North Brunswick street in the suburb of Grangegorman to the north.

Notable landmarks include the Old Jameson Whiskey Distillery and the Observation Tower.

Recent commercial, residential and cultural developments led to the area becoming newly fashionable in the first decade of the 21st century. However, most notably in the period 2008 to 2010, stagnation set in as developments stalled and the Irish economy/property market nose-dived once the post-Celtic Tiger economic recession struck. The significant issues of variable apartment occupancy rates, coupled with closed retail spaces and a number of unfinished and unoccupied commercial units at Smithfield Market have created a highly visible reminder of the economic and community challenges still to be addressed in this historic part of Dublin.

THE REFURBISHED BATHS BUT WHERE IS THE POOL

January 8, 2023 by infomatique

DUN LAOGHAIRE 8 JANUARY 2023

After an almost twenty year local campaign Dún Laoghaire baths reopened as a public amenity in December 2022 but without a pool. Apparently a rectangular concrete void has been left below the surface of the amphitheatre and will allow for the inclusion of a tidal pool in future works.

My birthday was on New Years day and my brother had organised a party for me at his home not far from Scotsman’s Bay and I had planned to photograph the recently refurbished baths while I was in the area. Unfortunately, on the last day of 2022, my brother and his wife discovered that they had contracted Covid so my visit to Dun Laoghaire as well as my birthday party was cancelled and I did not get an opportunity to visit until today.

When I arrived the first thing that caught my attention was the number of dogs and I mention this because three dogs jumped over a wall into the water without knowing what was on the other side. One owner was very distressed but the dog survived and did not appear to be in any way distressed. The other two dogs were on leads and did not hit the rocks and were easily recovered.

Two separate bathing areas existed in, what is now, Dun Laoghaire in the 1790s. Baths were built by the Royal Hotel in 1828 but were removed to make way for the construction of the railway in 1836.

In 1843, John Croswaithe built baths on the corner of Scotsman’s Bay. Originally known as the Royal Victorian Baths, they were only used by those who had the means to afford them. This is the site of today’s Dun Laoghaire baths.

Victoria Baths were public baths on Queens Road. Over the years, they had a number of different configurations. They provided salt-water or fresh water baths, baths for swimming or baths for washing or “turkish” baths for cleansing the pores, hot, cold, or tepid baths, individual or shared baths. In their last configuration as Rainbow Rapids in the 1980s, they provided water slides and other ways of enjoying the water.

Restoration Works at the Dun Laoghaire Baths were substantially completed on 2nd December 2022. Works included the retention and securing of the existing Baths Pavilion and the removal of dilapidated structures to the rear of the Pavilion to create a new route between Newtownsmith and the East Pier. This walkway is at a level that provides a safe and secure walk offering panoramic views over Scotsman’s Bay.

The walkway features sitting and viewing points and the land adjoining this walk has been be regraded to create sloping grassed areas.

The long derelict Baths Pavilion together with a smaller outbuilding was retained, weathered and secured while the remaining dilapidated outbuildings to the rear and side of the Pavilion were removed.

The original Baths entrance along Windsor Terrace was restored to provide access. An outdoor ‘café terrace’ linked to the new café will provide an attractive sitting area for viewing eating and relaxing.

THE REFURBISHED BATHS IN DUN LAOGHAIRE BUT WHERE IS THE POOL 013

SCHERZER BRIDGES BY WILLIAM ARROLL OF GLASGOW

January 2, 2023 by infomatique

CUSTOM HOUSE DOCK DUBLIN

There are two sets of rolling lift bridges along North Wall Quay. One pair sits at the mouth of George’s Dock and Custom House Dock, and the other is beside the Convention Centre, crossing the mouth of the Royal Canal.

The Royal Canal was completed in 1817 and it connected the River Liffey in Dublin to the River Shannon.

At the Dublin end of the canal there is a twin set of lifting bridges (not the ones in my photographs). The bridges were erected in 1912 by the firm of Spencer & Co. of Melksham in Wiltshire to replace a rolling drawbridge placed there by the Midland and Great Western Railway Company in 1860. Sir John Purser Griffith, Chief Engineer of the Dublin Port and Docks Board, based his design on that previously patented in 1893 by William Scherzer of Chicago.

Each bridge consists of two main girders connected together by 14 floor beams, the floor been composed of patented “buckled plates” (an invention of the Irish Engineer, Robert Mallet) resting on and riveted to the floor beams and to the joists fitted between the floor beams. To the western ends of the main girders segmental girders are attached to form the rolling surfaces upon which the bridges bear. The segmental girders are extended so as to carry a large counterweight and the whole structure is suitably braced. To prevent accidental displacement of the bridges on their paths, teeth were formed on the cast steel track plates, and corresponding recesses cut and accurately tooled in the curved track plates of the segmental girders. Each bridge was worked by an electric motor (I think that I has been removed many years ago) , erected on a platform in front of the counterweight box, they could be operated manually in case of power failure.

A similar pair of bridges was erected by Sir William Arroll of Glasgow in 1932 over the entrance to the Custom House Docks further up river. The advantage of twin bridges was that the stoppage of quay traffic when vessels needed to enter or leave the canal system was reduced to a few minutes by alternately raising and lowering each bridge during the locking procedure.

Sir William Arrol (13 February 1839 – 20 February 1913) was a Scottish civil engineer, bridge builder, and Liberal Unionist Party politician. The son of a spinner, Arrol was born in Houston, Renfrewshire, and started work in a cotton mill at only 9 years of age. He started training as a blacksmith by age 13, and went on to learn mechanics and hydraulics at night school. In 1863 he joined a company of bridge manufacturers in Glasgow, but by 1872 he had established his own business, the Dalmarnock Iron Works, in the east end of the city. The business evolved to become Sir William Arrol & Co., a large international civil engineering business.

Projects undertaken by the business under his leadership included the replacement for the Tay Bridge (completed in 1887), the Forth Bridge (completed in 1890) and Tower Bridge (completed in 1894). He was also contracted by the Harland and Wolff Shipyard, Belfast, to construct a large gantry (known as the Arrol Gantry) for the construction of three new super-liners, one of which was called the RMS Titanic.

Arrol was knighted in 1890, and elected as the Liberal Unionist Member of Parliament (MP) for South Ayrshire at the 1895 general election, serving the constituency until 1906. He served as President of The Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland from 1895–97. He spent the latter years of his life on his estate at Seafield House, near Ayr, where he died on 20 February 1913.

COULD NOT BE OPENED FOR FOUR YEARS BECAUSE OF LOST REMOTE CONTROL