Dundrum Town Centre - Blessing or a blight?

Exclamation Marc

Interested to see what people think about Dundrum Town Centre and whether its a good thing or bad thing for South County Dublin?

As the years go on, the more and more I resent the place. Whilst I find it great that it has all the shops under one roof, it's destroying a lot of commercial areas on its march.

Stillorgan Shopping Centre has become a shell of what it used to be, and I'm fairly sure if McDonalds and to a lesser extent Tesco wasn't there it would all out collapse.

Dun Laoghaire is losing more and more small businesses by the month and the shopping centre which had a fantastic facelift is looking emptier every time I go in there.

Blackrock Main Street has more or less collapsed as businesses have gone under left right and centre and nearly every second floor premises is to let. The two shopping centres there are still losing tenants (Roches Stores bookshop is the latest casualty) and were it not for M&S, Debenhams and Superquinn, I'm convinced Blackrock would be the new Dundrum Shopping Centre (old one )

I know there's a recession on etc so its not entirely down to Dundrum but I personally hold it somewhat liable for a lot of once wonderful shopping areas and bustling local areas now being fairly deserted. I know Dundrum wins award after award and its impressiveness can't be denied, but its really ruining a lot of South County Dublin in my opinion.All the small family shops can't afford the rent in Dundrum, but can't afford not to be there and end up closing (ive seen so many great little shops in old Dundrum and Stillorgan just vanish).

Anyone else got any thoughts on this? (I needed a bit of a rant )

LXFlyer

To be fair Dundrum serves a far wider area than any of the centres than you list above - they are all on the coast. Dundrum is bang in the centre of south county Dublin with a much wider catchment area.

Tragedy

lxflyer wrote: »

To be fair Dundrum serves a far wider area than any of the centres than you list above - they are all on the coast. Dundrum is bang in the centre of south county Dublin with a much wider catchment area.

Rathfarnham Shopping Centre, Nutgrove and the already mentioned Stillorgan have all suffered quite badly since Dundrum launched.

meemeep

i never liked nutgrove, but I'm more likely to go to Stillorgan or Blackrock than DTC - hate it. I use LIDL and Flemmings in the old town centre, and Tesco in Stillorgan if I have to. Choice Boutique is great, there's a bookshop, Nimble Fingers, BookStation, and plenty of others - very little i need to go to DTC for.

S.R.F.C.

Tragedy wrote: »

Rathfarnham Shopping Centre, Nutgrove and the already mentioned Stillorgan have all suffered quite badly since Dundrum launched.

Good enough for them , they were all ****holes long before DTC came along, as was the old centre, my family was personally affected by it in terms of a business but i still don't feel for any of the other places listed there, obviously small independent shops i do feel for and i use Flemmings in the old centre and until it's unfortunate close 'The Fruit Place' too, but these are the way things are going. I can't give out about it one day and then head for dinner/shopping/cinema the next, it's incredibly handy, i hate the place really but i can't argue with what it offers.

So to sum it all up, i don't have a clue whether it's a blessing or a blight.

u140acro3xs7dm

Tragedy wrote: »

Rathfarnham Shopping Centre, Nutgrove and the already mentioned Stillorgan have all suffered quite badly since Dundrum launched.

In fairness they offered very little, especially rathfarnham and stillorgan.

Tragedy

Dunno, nutgrove offered us everything we wanted back in the day and it wasn't run down or illkept. Ugly, yes, but that's hardly a crime.

Rathfarnham was fine for locals, but it was more like say, a bigger superquinn knocklyon, than a proper shopping centre like nutgrove.

Anchor supermarket+various sundry shops.

dogmatix

Blight.

I'm originally from Ballinteer and the town centre has destroyed Dundrum main street. And then there is the traffic - get a wet Sunday or Saturday afternoon and half the population of Dublin suddenly decamps for the DTC causing traffic gridlock in the immediate area.

And i'm still trying to figure out why they cut down all the old mature trees in front of the old shopping centre in the summer of 2008, especially as the original planning permission appeared to protect these trees. It certainly hasn't helped the appearence of the old main street which is looking tatty enough as it is.

Tabnabs

dogmatix wrote: »

Blight.

I'm originally from Ballinteer and the town centre has destroyed Dundrum main street. And then there is the traffic - get a wet Sunday or Saturday afternoon and half the population of Dublin suddenly decamps for the DTC causing traffic gridlock in the immediate area.

This. This is the reason it's a blight and the reason I stay well away from it and the entire Dundrum village area at any time. I've queued to get off the M50 at Ballinteer on a wet Sunday afternoon because of the monstrosity that is the DTC.

sdanseo

I must say I like DTC as a building, I've worked in it and as far as shopping centres go, it's quite simply different class. Everything is of a higher standard than we Northsiders would ever grow to expect.

It should however have never been given planning in its current location. The other side of, and closer to the M50 would have been a much better place yet only a mile away. The Luas now crosses the M50 and so could easily have still connected - look at all the ghost stops along the Green Line extension with so much vacant land beside them.

It's a pity that it's worked out as disruptive to local business as it has but it's still a nice place and I wouldn't be advocating knocking it down any time soon - then again, I don't live anywhere near it so I don't experience the traffic.

enda1

I think its great. The old style urban shopping centres are a no go. They are so uninviting with such a limited range of pretty crap shops (Nutgrove, Rathfarnham, Stillorgan, Dun Laoghaire). The fact they are surrounded by a moat of car parking (besides Dun Laoghaire), almost inaccessible by public transport and just not at the critical mass in terms of size to works in the modern world.

Maybe they should redevelop Stillorgan and link it well to Dublin. This could compete well with Dundrum. Put put the car park underground - underneath the building and actually use your real estate!

Cookie_Monster

enda1 wrote: »

Maybe they should redevelop Stillorgan and link it well to Dublin. This could compete well with Dundrum. Put put the car park underground - underneath the building and actually use your real estate!

N11 and 46a (the most frequent bus in Dublin) connect Stillorgan... Luas is just up the road too.

The original plan for re-development was to extend the centre fill the car park and put the car park on the roof. Dunno if thats still a runner, in these times I doubt it.