Is Dublin An 'Ugly' City?

RockinRolla · 29-03-2011 5:15pm #1

Just walking around the city centre, you can kinda get a vibe - that reminiscence of a colonised past with all the Georgian and Victorian buildings. And it's nice to walk through history but having been to other European cities - is our capital the worse laid-out? It doesn't really have much to offer - a small centre with huge urban sprawl. Even flying into the airport, a glance down is not very welcoming to the tourist who see's row upon row of housing estates.

Add to that, that our planning authority rejects everything over twelve inches and the massive derelict land down by the port that could be used. Nothing stands out - and that spire that cost the taxpayer €4 million to erect is worthless because you can't even go inside and up to the top. having been to other cities, is Dublin one of the worse?

donvito99 · 29-03-2011 5:18pm

Yes. I don't see how its an aesthetically nice city at all. You need to lose much more than Hawkins House, Liberty Hall etc.

Pavements poor, lack of trees, road quality, goddam signs (shop fronts and street)

The list goes on. I don't see what tourists find great about Dublin, unless you're over for a pissup.

Krusader · 29-03-2011 5:18pm

It is badly laid-out, a grand place would be nice for tourists and artisans to mill around

Krusader · 29-03-2011 5:19pm

donvito99 wrote: »

Yes. I don't see how its an aesthetically nice city at all. You need to lose much more than Hawkins House, Liberty Hall etc.

Pavements poor, lack of trees, road quality, goddam signs (shop fronts and street)

The list goes on. I don't see what tourists find great about Dublin, unless you're over for a pissup.

The people!

brummytom · 29-03-2011 5:19pm

I wouldn't say it's ugly, it has some nice buildings like St Patrick's and Trinity; but it does seem a bit cramped. That's to be expected though with a capital city.

But no, I wouldn't say it was ugly.

number10a · 29-03-2011 5:19pm

Well being from Corkonia, I'm gonna say yes. But you can discount that answer because I'm obviously biased.

But in Dublin's defence, I can think of few cities that look amazing from the sky. Flying into most European cities, all you see is row after row of concrete block apartments and massive industrial estates. There are exceptions like Barcelona and Rome. But from the sky, I think Dublin isn't all that bad. It's a really green city.

Blisterman · 29-03-2011 5:19pm

Most cities have a small city centre surrounded by sprawl. Not nice, but Dublin's hardly unique in that.

And you can't go inside most public artwork. It's hardly worthless for that reason.

CreepingDeath · 29-03-2011 5:20pm

No, the cramped buildings and narrow streets give it a nice "old" feel.
For tourists, they probably like the fact that everything is within walking distance in the city centre.

Contrast it with Washington DC, 3 lane roads around the city, large open spaces and no clear sense of where the centre is.
The Americans like their malls, so there's little or no shops on the streets.

Although we certainly don't compare well to the likes of Rome, Stockholm, Amsterdam etc. But I wouldn't say we're the worse, Dublin has character.

EL_Loco · 29-03-2011 5:21pm

give it time, the high rises will go up and in 20/30/40 years time you'll be wishing we didn't look like every where else.

not that I "like" it's flat sky line, but I think it's part of the charm of the place.

Ev84 · 29-03-2011 5:23pm

RockinRolla wrote: »

our planning authority rejects everything over twelve inches

he he...

RockinRolla wrote: »

erect is worthless

he he he...

prinz · 29-03-2011 5:24pm

Dublin goes from extreme to extreme. Beautiful in parts. So ugly in other parts they should be razed to the ground and started again.

Micky Dolenz · 29-03-2011 5:27pm

Moved from AH.

Ev84 · 29-03-2011 5:33pm

Micky Dolenz wrote: »

Moved from AH.

Moved? Oh well, in that case, I like the look of Dublin city. I think it's cool. I used to love going up there to my Granny's (ye say Granny in Dublin) house around Christmas. Used to love heading into town on the top floor of a double decker bus and looking at all the mad displays in the windows when we got there. And going up moores street getting shouted at by all the fruit/vegetable sellers. Do they still do that now?

Cool Mo D · 29-03-2011 5:35pm

It has ugly parts and beautiful parts, right next to each other in the city centre. But you get jaded towards the beauty after a while, and never stop noticing the ugly. Especially because some of the ugly streets could look great with a bit of care.

It's certainly a lot nicer looking than many cities of a similar size around Europe, but it's not exactly Venice or Prague either.

tony 2 tone · 29-03-2011 5:48pm

It has its moments but there is an awful lot of ugly buildings and as some one mentioned above, ugly shops and shop fronts. In particular I hate the redeveloped area around the Point and Grand Canal dock, soul-less concrete mess.

BraziliaNZ · 29-03-2011 5:52pm

number10a wrote: »

Well being from Corkonia, I'm gonna say yes. But you can discount that answer because I'm obviously biased.

But in Dublin's defence, I can think of few cities that look amazing from the sky. Flying into most European cities, all you see is row after row of concrete block apartments and massive industrial estates. There are exceptions like Barcelona and Rome. But from the sky, I think Dublin isn't all that bad. It's a really green city.

a) Cork is an even uglier city than Dublin

b) Barcelona is surrounded by hideous poorly planned high rise schemes

Anyway yes Dublin isn't the prettiest city, the place is in tatters, the Northside anyway, covered in rubbish and terrible signage. Even the roads in city centre are in bits, you notice it a lot more as a cyclist. As much as I try to like it, I think I've given up on Dublin ever being aesthetically pleasing. It's impossible to keep the place clean and nice with all the junkies and pajama classes walking around. The city centre being surrounded by a ring of social housing/flats doesn't help either.

diddlybit · 29-03-2011 6:03pm

I don't find the fact that the centre is small problematic, I detest going to cities where it takes me an hour to get anyway and that I can't find a centre point. It makes it ideal for a weekend trip and at least if tourists can walk around, they don't have to deal with the absurdity of that which is Dublin bus.

tony 2 tone wrote: »

It has its moments but there is an awful lot of ugly buildings and as some one mentioned above, ugly shops and shop fronts. In particular I hate the redeveloped area around the Point and Grand Canal dock, soul-less concrete mess.

Completely agree with this, especially now that the recession has hit, and these areas are like ghost-towns. Smithfield square is similar, had a good buzz once that they were hoping to capitalise on with Tiger money, but now it's a little horrid.

The older areas are nicer, but the buildings have been allowed to fall into disrepair by neglect and generally, ignored as they are in socially deprievd areas. Infirmary Road has some of the nicest houses I've seen in Dublin and they are falling apart, but would I walk there at night? Hell, no

BraziliaNZ · 29-03-2011 6:04pm

I like the new Grand Canal Dock area, some nice bars and restaurants there too. Smithfield has always been a sh*thole. Full of homeless drunks and young offenders during the day, travelers at the weekend, and like a ghost town at night. The gentrification of that area was a total failure imo.

diddlybit · 29-03-2011 6:11pm

BraziliaNZ wrote: »

I like the new Grand Canal Dock area, some nice bars and restaurants there too. Smithfield has always been a sh*thole. Full of homeless drunks and young offenders during the day, travelers at the weekend, and like a ghost town at night. The gentrification of that area was a total failure imo.

It aws never that bad, and has some of the best bars in Dublin, but they've been there before the re-development. It's getting worse though, as all the new businesses are shutting down. You're right though, complete failure.

Lawrence1895 · 29-03-2011 7:31pm

No city or town is bad all thr way through, there are decent and bad areas everywhere. Same applies to Dublin.

The majority of the cycle lanes are bad though and I'm always careful passing some housing estates.

Poor Craythur · 29-03-2011 7:38pm

BraziliaNZ wrote: »

The gentrification of that area was a total failure imo.

Yup, agree. Smithfield never really took off as a happening area, did it? But I find the Grand Canal Dock area soulless.

Sunnyisland · 29-03-2011 9:08pm

Imo people who live in there own city/country never appreciate its beauty (usually to busy or working) and it takes tourists or people visiting from outside city/country to appreciate them.

I personally wouldent find Dublin any more uglier than a lot of other similar sized cities,Of course it has places in which it could improved but it all takes time and money.

The Scientician · 29-03-2011 11:24pm

Dublin has its beauty spots but it could do with a hell of a lot more effort on the part of retailers, planners and residents alike to make it beautiful. Also, what's with all the signposts with nothing on them? Or 3 or 4 different types of bus stop in a short row? Would it kill them to put all the information on one post?

[Jackass] · 30-03-2011 1:24am

There are so many things wrong with Dublin city, I don't even care to mention them any more. I'v given up on the place.

John Mason · 30-03-2011 4:46pm

we were in Bahrain over the New Year, now that's an ugly place but it kind of made us realise how great dublin is, everything in the City is walkable.

Nothing was walkable in the Bahrain City, it was taxis the whole time and tbh,they were not that much cheaper then Dublin Taxis

There are some parts that are lovely and other parts that are hidious.

That Dublin Bus Building on O'Connell makes me want to cry everytime i see it but cities evolve all the time.

seamusfamous · 30-03-2011 4:47pm

Parts of dublin are fab it has to be said

Grid. · 30-03-2011 5:28pm

....it'll be nice when it's finished!!:pac:

eric hoone · 31-03-2011 11:50pm

Nice city for the locals.
For instance sandymount would off the beaten track for tourists but you'd be hard pressed to find a beach so close to the centre of another european capital city.
You'd have to worry about what tourist stumble accross wandering around the city centre. Drug dealing on the Liffey boardwalk, social inequality staring you in the face near Christchurch/St Pats cathedrals. Temple bar on the weekends, mortified.