City Centre: what do you miss?

Mc Love

Following on from the "any toy shops in the city centre?" thread where SoapMcTavish reminisced about the lost toy shops - what do you miss from the city centre?

What have we lost from our city that held some cherished/good memories for us??

SoapMcTavish wrote: »

Ah the good old days - toys everywhere in town -

Tots To Teens
Upstairs in Easons
Out the back of Boyds
Upstairs in Todds
Woolworths
Ryans on Patrick street ( downstairs for toys )
Roches stores
Upstairs in Bolgers

Action Man / Train sets / Airfix everywhere ...

All gone ..

You could definitely include the Smyths store on Henry st in that list! I can only remember Roches and Woolworths and the toys in Easons from that list.

I remember going into town and my parents parking in that garage on Henry st (what must have been one of the first covered ones in the city). Speights shopping center. The christmas window in Todd's - its certainly not the same anymore.

Kess73

Damn, Boyds is a blast from the past. Was like a toy wonderland. Full of airfix, zoids and other delights.

seachto7

zoids, ahhhhh, the memories...........

RikkFlair

Burgerland.....hmmm showing my age now

Aglomerado

Pizza place called "Ciao" on William Street where Centra is now I think, it would have been there in the mid 1980s, the first pizza I remember eating was from there.
Parking on the roof of Spaight's.
Java's (Catherine Street) for late night post-pub hot chocolate and bagels (late '90s.)-getting to sit in the cool suspended wicker chair!

roast

Game! I already miss that place.

h3000

Not a retail store but I really miss The High Stool

bazkennedy

Javas!

Berty

The Cafe where Flannerys on Upper Denmark Street is now.

sioda

Rubens BB God miss their club sandwiches

Mc Love

Forbidden planet on patrick st.

europa11

Roches Stores at this time of year had a great 'feel' of Christmas about it, much more atmospheric than anywhere else for some reason.........nostalgia on my part anyway as my Mam used make a beeline for the place when I was a kid. Used love playing with other kids probably annoying the f**k out of shoppers running up and down:) the escaltors

Tots to teens was another great stop for kids.

William Street......miss what it had and moreso what it's become.

....and in later life ......a lot of cozy little (and some not -so-little ) city-centre pubs that seem to have quietly disappeared.

Comhrá

Roches Stores for me too. Giving away my age but it was one of my favourite shops in Limerick. Always had a great ambience about it, great staff and their New Year's Sale was a real, genuine sale, not just bought-in rubbish as is often the case in sales nowadays.

Kess73

Tony's Music scene. Was pretty much a one stop metal and punk store that was based in the O'Connell Mall. Very similar to the Sound Cellar in Dublin save for the fact that TMC was a proper record store in terms of layout.



Black spot on Wickham street. Most second hand cassettes and records with a side line in other items.

There was another second hand music shop in a basement on Cecil street but for the life of me I cannot recall the name of it right now.


Golden Discs downstairs in Brown Thomas or Todds as it was back then.


Nestors sports shop on O'Connell street. What a brilliant (and big) sports shop that was. Everything from shotguns to handballs. There was a similar sports store in the Crescent shopping centre around the same time.

Woolworths on O'Connell street and then the O'Connell Mall on O'Connell street.


Termights (proper one not one of the many incarnations that followed in later years)

Boogie Wonderland in the Theatre Royal.

Cinemas in the city centre. The Carlton, The Central, The Savoy, and The Theatre Royal.

The Savoy Bowling alley and arcade. Another amenity that the city centre had.

Live bands every Saturday at 3 in the Savoy. Free gigs by the then up and coming Irish bands. Saw the likes of Kerbdog, The Cranberries and Therapy? play there.

Theatre Royal (yep it had a lot of uses over the years) for live gigs. Therapy?(yep them again) came back and played there during the Troublegum tour.

The novelty of things being shut on a Sunday. Used to spend my summers as a kid in Limerick and places like the Crescent shopping centre would close on a Saturday evening and not open until the Monday morning. Can remember kicking a ball around the big car park or cycling bikes in there on Sundays.


Spaights, Quins, Javas, Roches Stores, the knocking of the Ranks towers on the dock road, hell the knocking of a huge amount of things on the Dock road in order to build pretty much everything from Shannon bridge out.


The building of Shannon Bridge and the fishermen throwing eggs at Charlie Haughey during the official opening(was a protest about fishing licences). Some local FF lackey jumped in frontto take the brunt of the incoming eggs.


Liddy Street being a fairly busy street with all the units having shops in them.

Arthurs Quay Shopping centre being full of people pretty much every Saturday.

Aglomerado

Kess73 wrote: »

the knocking of the Ranks towers on the dock road,

Oh god, they were cool when the two of them were there, with the little bridge between them high above the road! I always wanted to go up there.

source

Javas, lobster pot, o'connell grill, the high stool, Quinns, termites in the savoy, forbidden planet Patrick St and roches St, Rubens comfy couches, paccinos, smyths toys, korova milk bar on Ellen St. loads more I can't think of now.

L.T.P.

Quinns Pub, Tropics, Burgerland, Bewleys, Docs, The Glory Hole, The 80's nite every Friday, Nestors Sports Shop (Even though they refused to sell me lings to make a slingshot), parking upstairs in Spaights, begging Joe "I'll get you there" for a taxi home in Shannon St

IHeartShoes

Shannon Arms:(

Mc Love

IHeartShoes wrote: »

Shannon Arms:(

What a place!! Hag great fun there as a kid out the back!

Sgt Hartman

tippman1 wrote: »

Roches Stores for me too. Giving away my age but it was one of my favourite shops in Limerick. Always had a great ambience about it, great staff and their New Year's Sale was a real, genuine sale, not just bought-in rubbish as is often the case in sales nowadays.

I really miss that place. I used to always buy my NES games and WWF action figures in there.

bazz26

IHeartShoes wrote: »

Shannon Shagging Arms

FYP


Anyone remember King Canut's on William Street where Guiney's is now? It burnt down back in the late 80s.

Friar Tuck's for a savage kebab and curry chips. Tropics in the George Hotel or Cheers overhead the Desmond Arms on Catherine Street for throwing shapes on the dance floor. Actually the choice in nightclubs back then was pretty good compared to what we have in the city these days.

Mc Love

Anyone remember the footy shop down by the Old Dunnes? Spent a good bit of pocket money in there.

Berty

IHeartShoes wrote: »

Shannon Arms:(

My OH's friend used to go there so often they used to say "It's like you live there" and they turned it into apartments and she DID LIVE THERE!!

I miss the pig slaughter house on Thomas Street where the multistorey is now.

I remember Roches Feeds where it was where the Clarion is now, not exactly but there were warehouses running along where Steamboat quay is and it was all cobbled with the old ship mooring metal things. Even as warehouses it looked much nicer and the coal yard where Dominos is now. Memories I suppose as I don't really miss the coal yard. :rolleyes:

I do miss the 80's night in the George though. Starting off in The Sibin and working our way upstairs to the mad house.

bazz26

Feathery Burke's Bar in the Shannon Arms in the early 1990s, a bottle of Mule for £1.

Buddy's bar near Foxe's Bow, bit of a biker's bar back then.

Kess73

Mc Love wrote: »

Anyone remember the footy shop down by the Old Dunnes? Spent a good bit of pocket money in there.

The one on Liddy street that was near the paint shop and the electrical shop or the one that was at the back of the Dunnes building near the newsagent?

Kess73

bazz26 wrote: »

Feathery Burke's Bar in the Shannon Arms in the early 1990s, a bottle of Mule for £1.

Buddy's bar near Foxe's Bow, bit of a biker's bar back then.

Ahh Buddys. That place had one of the best bar jukeboxes I ever had the pleasure of pumping coins into. Loved it when they used sawdust on the floor.

bazz26

The BMX track out in Corbally where Grove Island is now. Had a few bruises from that back when I was a kid in the 1980s.

Mc Love

Kess73 wrote: »

The one on Liddy street that was near the paint shop and the electrical shop or the one that was at the back of the Dunnes building near the newsagent?

Think it was on Liddy st - great shop!

Hermione*

RikkFlair wrote: »

Burgerland.....hmmm showing my age now

Was that on William St?! I was thinking of it the other day for some reason and couldn't quite place it.

Irwin's is one I really miss. All my jewellery presents as a child came from there.

I miss the old Todd's. The new BT doesn't do it for me.

Loads of great memories here!

IHeartShoes

Mc Love wrote: »

What a place!! Hag great fun there as a kid out the back!

Had great fun playing in there, not as a kid and not in the back;)

ZombieBride

The grocery section in the back of Roches Stores. The lightshop in Spaights, Route66 on Rutland Street, Newsoms, The Savoy even when the bowling alley was louder than the movie. Quinns.