Statement of Character
Building Typology
1.189 The character of the area, of architectural and historical significance, varies as you move from St. Patrick’s Place, Sydney Place along Wellington Road and up to St Luke’s Cross. The first section from St. Patrick’s Place, Sydney Place, and the lower part of Wellington Road as far as York St. is more city-centre in character, with a mixture of uses including offices, warehouses, schools, and apartments, aimed at city-wide users. Physically, it is older, with large Georgian terraced houses entered directly from the street along the north side, and with a mixture of smaller generally later buildings facing the street along the south side. 1.190 The middle section of the area along Wellington Road is mainly domestic in character. The area is made up principally of Georgian and Victorian houses, some in single-family occupancy, some subdivided into self-contained units. Most of the houses are grouped together in formally designed terraces or in pairs. The terraces are designed to face south, although the principal access is generally, but not always, from the street side irrespective of whether the house is on the north or south side. Many of the buildings are designed to look out over and be seen from a distance from the city centre and the south side of the river. The section to the east end of the area around St. Luke’s Cross is made up of terraced buildings containing shops, public houses, a post office, and other local services in terraces of individual buildings with access directly to the street. Adjacent to the Cross on the east side, there are further blocks of grouped south-facing formally designed terraces, designed to be seen from and to look out over the immediate area and the harbour to the south.
1.191 The buildings which make up most of the area are built of brick or stone, usually rendered in lime or old cement. Where houses retain original elevational features, they have timber sliding sash windows, roofs of natural stone slate and cast-iron rainwater goods. Many houses have architecturally composed boundary walls with doorways or gates, cast-iron railings, and external steps with metal handrails. The area contains significant lengths of footpaths, with stone steps, cast iron railings and stretches of stone-kerbing. There are mature trees along the footpath on Wellington Road.
Issues
1.192 The area is undergoing change. Houses in multiple occupancy are being refurbished and returned to single-family use and into larger self-contained units. New houses are being built on former mews lanes and at the rear of large, terraced houses. Car parking for users of local services and residents is at odds with the parking by city centre commuters who park in the area and walk into the city centre.
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Cork City Draft Development Plan 2022-2028
Volume 3 I Part 1
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