City Centre looking good today

Doublin

Origin of this was a Japanese lad who was here 3 months going home the other day. His opinions (after spending 3 months in London before here) were a better standard of food, a welcoming open people and a much cleaner city than he was told to expect!

So, when in the city center today I didn't do my usual rush around getting what I had to get & getting out. I decided to saunter around, window shop & all that stuff. Some of the things I liked which I hadn't seen in a while: Stalls in the ILAC; one selling random wall posters which you flicked through on the upright stand. 4-5 stalls (ok selling probably rubbish) on the road from the ILAC to Henry St. A good few street performers/buskers on Henry St. including some old guy decked out in his top dancing gear including shiny tap shoes!

I thought it was excellent, good to have some character, small entrepreneurship type of things making a comeback. To me it beats the Celtic Bluff type top end generic brand shops that existed.. I know whenever I was in a new country, I wasn't interested in visiting these top end shops, I wanted to find out the local market & experience those thats how I formed my opinion of the places..

When I was walking back up O'Connell St. I saw a tourist couple looking at a map confused, I was walking by, then thought 'Doub, go back, offer them help' be a welcoming Irishman . So, I went back offering my help, they were looking at the map upside down, thought they were on the southside. Sorted them out, sent them in the direction of the 'river' as they wanted..

Coriolanus

Doublin wrote: »

Origin of this was a Japanese lad who was here 3 months going home the other day. His opinions (after spending 3 months in London before here) were a better standard of food, a welcoming open people and a much cleaner city than he was told to expect!

So, when in the city center today I didn't do my usual rush around getting what I had to get & getting out. I decided to saunter around, window shop & all that stuff. Some of the things I liked which I hadn't seen in a while: Stalls in the ILAC; one selling random wall posters which you flicked through on the upright stand. 4-5 stalls (ok selling probably rubbish) on the road from the ILAC to Henry St. A good few street performers/buskers on Henry St. including some old guy decked out in his top dancing gear including shiny tap shoes!

I thought it was excellent, good to have some character, small entrepreneurship type of things making a comeback. To me it beats the Celtic Bluff type top end generic brand shops that existed.. I know whenever I was in a new country, I wasn't interested in visiting these top end shops, I wanted to find out the local market & experience those thats how I formed my opinion of the places..

When I was walking back up O'Connell St. I saw a tourist couple looking at a map confused, I was walking by, then thought 'Doub, go back, offer them help' be a welcoming Irishman . So, I went back offering my help, they were looking at the map upside down, thought they were on the southside. Sorted them out, sent them in the direction of the 'river' as they wanted..

This in particular, kudos sir.

MarchDub

Doublin wrote: »

So, when in the city center today I didn't do my usual rush around getting what I had to get & getting out. I decided to saunter around, window shop & all that stuff. Some of the things I liked which I hadn't seen in a while: Stalls in the ILAC; one selling random wall posters which you flicked through on the upright stand. 4-5 stalls (ok selling probably rubbish) on the road from the ILAC to Henry St. A good few street performers/buskers on Henry St. including some old guy decked out in his top dancing gear including shiny tap shoes!

I thought it was excellent, good to have some character, small entrepreneurship type of things making a comeback. To me it beats the Celtic Bluff type top end generic brand shops that existed.. I know whenever I was in a new country, I wasn't interested in visiting these top end shops, I wanted to find out the local market & experience those thats how I formed my opinion of the places..

One of the worse things about the Celtic years was the loss of many Irish owned local businesses - Roches Stories was a big loss to the city. The demolition of Brown Thomas original shop was another - they managed to kill two shops in one, both Brown Thomas and Switzers essentially went with that crazy move. That fine old staircase in the centre of the shop was bloody marvellous - but all gone now. The old aesthetic character of both shops was taken away - in the name of 'modernisation' or up-scaling.

Don't even get me going on the front door of Clerys -:eek:

LXFlyer

MarchDub wrote: »

One of the worse things about the Celtic years was the loss of many Irish owned local businesses - Roches Stories was a big loss to the city. The demolition of Brown Thomas original shop was another - they managed to kill two shops in one, both Brown Thomas and Switzers essentially went with that crazy move. That fine old staircase in the centre of the shop was bloody marvellous - but all gone now. The old aesthetic character of both shops was taken away - in the name of 'modernisation' or up-scaling.

Don't even get me going on the front door of Clerys -:eek:

Huh?

The central staircase is still in Marks and Spencer in Grafton Street - it was never taken out of the shop when they took it over from BT.

And also, Brown Thomas has been Canadian controlled (the Westons) since 1971 so it can hardly be called Irish owned!

MarchDub

lxflyer wrote: »

Huh?

The central staircase is still in Marks and Spencer in Grafton Street - it was never taken out of the shop when they took it over from BT.

They moved the staircase from the centre of the shop where it had a really good location within sight as you entered the front door and it became marginalised - and they ripped out all the old wood counters. When they made the purchase initially they made statements that the inside of the store would not be changed. But they made big changes. IMO they ruined the whole feel and look of the store - it was a really upscale store in the 60s and then they turned it into a functional, high street commonality.