A Walk Along Main Street - Ballymun
Hello there! My name is Noel Martin. I work for Ballymun Neighbourhood Council and I am your guide for today. Don’t forget, you will need your Main Street Map.
Download Main Street aerial Map from Sept 2005 (1).pdf (206 KB) in PDF format.
Regenerating Ballymun from what is basically a local authority housing scheme into a twenty-first century sustainable town requires a multi-facetted approach. The multitude of dwelling types, neighbourhood and recreation facilities will define the Ballymun community, but the very impressive flagship projects situated along the Ballymun Main Street will define the new Ballymun town. These projects will help create local employment and underpin the local economy.
So let’s take a walk along the central median of the Main Street from the Collins Avenue crossroads and view some of the completed, near completed or planned developments.
Having passed the Ballymun Library and Senior Comprehensive School on the left-hand side of the road, we arrive at the first visual sign of the new town, a Section 23 housing project called Gateway Housing.
In front of us are two narrow housing tower blocks on stilts, one on each side of the road. The nine-storey block on the left and adjacent to the Gateway housing, contains private accommodation units. The eleven-storey tower block on the right-hand side is linked and adjacent to a scheme of Gateway Student Accommodation apartment blocks.
Yes, there is something missing from the student accommodation site. That is where Patrick Pearse Tower stood before it was demolished in July 2004. You will also notice when you look around that there are a number of decanted tower blocks which are in the process of being demolished within the Ballymun Regeneration Ltd demolition programme for 2005.
While we are looking to the right, we near the impressive Ballymun Civic Centre. The Civic Centre contains the offices of Ballymun Regeneration Ltd, Dublin City Council (including the Housing and Motor Tax and Driving License Sections) and (in the near future)new Ballymun Health Service Executive offices and Primary Care Unit. Adjoining the Civic Centre on the Shangan Road is the Axis Community and Arts Centre. By the way, a new Garda Regional Headquarters is to be built between the Ballymun Civic Centre and the student accommodation blocks, as you will see in your map.
Before we visit the Axis Community and Arts Centrefor some light refreshments, turn around to the left-hand side of the road and we're facing the Ballymun Swimming and Leisure Centre, the first of a number of new family sports and leisure facilities. The Main street Leisure Centre facilities includes swimming and aerobics and also steam and Sauna rooms. the Centre is part of a complex which includes 119 apartments and also ground floor shopping units. Right! It’s time for a cup of tea and a scone.
Firstly however, before we reach the road junction, we are passing the existing Ballymun Town Centre on the left-hand side of the Main street, but let’s have a glimpse at the proposed new Ballymun Town Centre which will replace the existing Centre. Facing the Town Centre on the right-hand is the site of Thomas Mac Donagh Tower which will form a Plaza at the front of the Axis Centre and the side of the Ballymun Civic Centre.
Ok! Nothing like a cup of tea and a chat, so if you're ready, before we walk back to the Main Street let’s have a quick peek at the apartments and shops at the rear of Axis Centre called ‘Shangan Hall’. This complex was built as part of the contract for the construction of the Ballymun Civic Offices and is situated on the Shangan Road. This road also forms part of the Ballymun East & West junction, joining Balbutcher Lane on the West-side.
We're now back on the central median of the Ballymun Main Street heading towards the M50 crossover, on the right-hand side of the road is the site of a proposed Mainstreet Hotel, for which planning permission has been secured. The hotel is being built on the site of Sean McDermott Tower.
A few yards from that site is one of the new access roads into the east-side Coultry area and we can see the future site for the Main Street Competition Site ‘B’ East. A number of the original dwellings on the site were the subject of an agreement with Ballymun Regeneration Ltd whereby the residents were supplied with new dwellings and the existing dwellings would then be demolished. On the western side of the Main Street and facing Competition Site B is another potential development site, Competition Site ‘A’ West.
We have now reached Santry Cross junction and on the western side of the Main Street adjacent to Competition Site ‘A’ West is Plot 1 and on the eastern side is Plot 2 of the Pierse Contracting built residential and retail sites.
These two impressive developments constitute the northern gateway into Ballymun from the M50 Motorway and are bounded by the Ballymun Main Street and the crossroads ahead now known as Santry Cross, encompassing Santry Avenue on the east, leading across to Balcurris Road on the west.
The Plot 1 complex incorporates two-hundred and sixteen Section 23 residential units.
What’s Section 23? Well as I understand it, this is a Government initiative directed at Investors in the rental accommodation sector whereby 50% of the unit costs can be written off against tax, over a 10 year period.
OK, while the traffic lights are in our favour, let’s cross the Main Street and take a look at Plot 2.
As you will have noticed as we crossed the road, this site incorporates a slimline sixteen-storey building. This section of the Plot 2 complex was originally supposed to be a retail and private residential building on a three-storey podium, however in 2004 during the initial construction, a successful amendment to the original planning application allowed for a five-storey podium and conversion of the building to a hotel.
However, the hotel is only one section of the plot 2 complex which includes:
- 125 Apartments consisting of 31 by 1 bed, 90 by 2 bed and 4 by 3 bed
- 146 Car Parking Spaces: (37 basement and 108 surface).
- 1,113 sq metre retail space - ground floor.
- 1,527 sq metre office space - ground 1st and 2nd floor.
- Block at Ballymun/Santry Ave. 16 storey / 5 storey podium - Hotel / residential (C).
- Blocks along Santry Ave and Santry Ave and parking court 4 storey residential (D1 and D2).
- Block along Ballymun Road 5 storey (ground floor retail and 4 residential above) (D3).
Well, I reckon we’ve seen enough for one day and it’s time for me to clock out, so let’s walk back to Axis Centre for another cup of tea or something stronger. I’ll give my buddy Eamonn who works for Ballymun Regeneration Ltd (BRL) in their IT section, a call on my mobile phone, then he can meet us with an excellent aerial photo of the Main Street. The photo was taken by Eamonn on one of his many photo shoots in a helicopter and is used by BRL in the ‘Contact’ page of their web site. On the way back we will pass by St. Papins Church which dates back to the Famine time and is now incorporated into a nursing home.
Don’t tell anyone I said so, but I think that since Eamonn started taking the ’copter flights he has become very religious, because the pilot told me that when he has to bank sharply to get into a good photo angle, Eamonn starts screaming “Oh God oh God,”.
Well, thank you for taking this walk along the Ballymun Main Street and perhaps you might take some time to visit the other sections of the Ballymun Neighbourhood website. Indeed, your comments would be most welcome.
This page was updated on 19th July, 2006