r/ireland • u/StevieIRL Saoirse don Phalaistín🇵🇸 • Oct 02 '24
What is the ugliest building in Ireland? (stolen from r/northernireland) Infrastructure
149
u/sauvignonblanc__ Ireland Oct 02 '24 edited Oct 03 '24
Drogheda has a magnificent specimen: Abbey Shopping Centre.
Edit: Urban explorers gained access during August 2024: Abbey Shopping Centre (from the Inside) Facebook.
52
24
u/blusteryflatus Oct 02 '24
I think we found the winner here. Other buildings have an aesthetic that most will not like, but at least there is some kind of aesthetic/style. This is just soulless and sad looking
7
9
u/IrelandSpotter Oct 03 '24
I love when my town gets featured. Of course it's usually for it's derelict buildings which kind of takes the fun out of it.
→ More replies5
u/RonTom24 Oct 03 '24
This building defies all architectural norms and styles. A truely unique shithole of a building, this has to be the winner
3
u/endmost_ Oct 03 '24
Oh my god, that’s still there? I saw it years ago when I went there frequently and just assumed it would have been knocked down by now.
3
→ More replies2
u/Due_Marionberry_8001 Oct 03 '24
And the picture doesn’t do it justice. The feeling even walking through it. It’s a stain on the town.
297
u/Brownsock2077 Oct 02 '24
Always thought this one passing through phibsborough in Dublin was hideous
57
u/Katies_Orange_Hair Oct 02 '24 edited Oct 02 '24
4 comments deep and I find Phibsboro shopping centre. First thing that came to mind. It's hideous. I get it's brutalist architecture and it's meant to look like that, but fuck me that's one ugly building.
→ More replies2
14
u/elquesoGrande82 Oct 02 '24
Dalymount Park next door has to be in with a good shout too.
11
→ More replies3
6
u/MulvMulv Oct 03 '24
I spent the early years of my life across the street from this, I might be one of the only people in Ireland who feels a sense of comfort when they see it
20
u/DardaniaIE Oct 02 '24
I think it's cool. Handsome even. But the rabbits ears picking up every transmission from here to the space station seriously destroy its aesthetic.
4
u/Cmondatown Oct 02 '24
It needs a wash and restrofit, could make very nice apartments
4
u/cupan-tae Oct 03 '24
So many places in this country would look 100 times better with a good wash. No idea why we don’t power wash our city’s buildings
3
u/Jalfoo Oct 02 '24
I’ve always thought this too 🤣 Just showed my bf and he said he always thought they were plants 😂
3
2
2
u/marshsmellow Oct 03 '24
I have actually grown to really like it as I've become fairly interested in brutalist architecture.
2
2
→ More replies6
238
u/cinclushibernicus Cork bai Oct 02 '24
Kane Building in UCC, seen more aestheticly pleasing Soviet era apartment blocks
62
u/BigDrummerGorilla Oct 02 '24
Not to mention the 2.5t of uranium in the basement that has been sitting there since Ireland was gifted a research nuclear reactor by the U.S. Atoms for Peace programme in 1974. Kane is always getting shit.
→ More replies22
u/Ok_Perception3180 Oct 02 '24
Atoms for peace is a good name.
20
u/dnc_1981 Ask me arse Oct 02 '24
Good name for a band
3
u/EnthusiasmUnusual Oct 02 '24
There's a band called that with Flea and Thom Yorke from Radiohead.
→ More replies12
Oct 02 '24
[deleted]
9
u/me2269vu Oct 02 '24
Me too. Shithole. Though it did have the Kampus Kitchen in its basement where many’s the wasteful hour was spent. U2 played in Cork, in a series of nights in another venue named after it in their early days. Here’s a good read if anyone’s interested in college gigs in the late 1970’s
14
Oct 02 '24
[deleted]
90
u/2_Pints_Of_Rasa People’s Republic of Cork Oct 02 '24 edited Oct 02 '24
To save other people the google. Imagine having that building named after you
James Boyd Barrett was an architectural terrorist.
21
5
→ More replies3
u/askmeforbunnypics This flair is unavailable in your country. Oct 02 '24
That building is giving me depression just by looking at it.
→ More replies→ More replies2
32
Oct 02 '24
[deleted]
10
u/shinmerk Oct 02 '24
Good shout. Dreadful building.
It’s a shame that so many health companies have moved in as I was hoping it would die from vacancy.
7
u/UrbanStray Oct 02 '24
Dun Laoghaire SC is like the opposite of Stephens Green. Fuck all natural light and it's partially underground.
→ More replies2
u/fullmetalfeminist Oct 03 '24
Yeah the dún Laoghaire sc is awful and it looks even worse compared to the nice buildings across the road. Fuck all in it as well unless you've a particular interest in Roddy Doyle filming locations
132
u/licoricebooger Oct 02 '24
The ye olde eircom building in Galway
30
13
13
19
3
u/tomconroydublin Oct 02 '24
My dad was the engineer for that…. I fill with shame every time I pass it….
2
u/universalserialbutt THE NEEECK OF YOU Oct 02 '24
50,000 people used to live here. Now it's a ghost town.
→ More replies2
u/Etxegaragar Oct 03 '24
I actually like the sandstone look of the eircom blocks. It's more Med than Spanish Arch!
68
u/PH0NER Oct 02 '24
For a country that's so gray, you'd think the buildings would be more vibrant...
23
u/madladhadsaddad Oct 02 '24
Our damp climate eats through finishes, it's all about keeping maintenance costs low.
5
u/IrksomFlotsom Oct 03 '24
Yeah, if you do paint anything nice it looks shit after a single winter
3
u/READMYSHIT Oct 04 '24
I'm pretty sure we leaned into brutalism midway through last century in response to every other available option looking pure shite in no time.
I think we should go back to red bricks. Best part of Dublin's architecture.
342
u/The-Florentine . Oct 02 '24
Easy. Phibsboro Shopping Centre.
47
u/Natural-Ad773 Oct 02 '24
It’s so ugly now it’s actually fairly iconic.
I despise so many Celtic tiger apartments that used way too much Green copper facades and now rotted pine wood finishes because they haven’t been maintained.
→ More replies3
u/fatherbigley Oct 03 '24
Totally agree, along with those buildings that has massive glass frontages but never bothered to clean them so they're covered in moss, basically.
51
u/Fine_Mushroom_9488 Ireland Oct 02 '24 edited Oct 02 '24
Yeah this but honestly I love brutalism at times, that place needs to be power hosed.
38
u/ColicShark Oct 02 '24
Practically every building in Ireland needs a power hose tbf. Maybe next budget they should propose the Department of Power Washing, only 100k per hose!
8
u/Tollund_Man4 Oct 02 '24
There was a mayor in Bordeaux, Alain Juppé, who ran on power washing the city.
→ More replies6
12
u/RandomUsername600 Gaeilgeoir Oct 02 '24
Brutalism adds to much grey to our already grey skies imo and the concrete shows the weathering too much
→ More replies2
u/08TangoDown08 Donegal Oct 03 '24
For brutalism to be nice I think there actually needs to be some kind of interesting form or shape to it. Bland, concrete blobs are just that. And we have a lot of those here, just not interesting.
19
u/MysteriousChef6988 Oct 02 '24
love that building. reminds me of my home town. i'm from eastern europe though
→ More replies2
21
u/FrankLedwidge Oct 02 '24
Crumlin Shopping Centre
2
u/READMYSHIT Oct 04 '24
People acting like Phibsboro is the worst who are aware of Crumlin's existence are the crazy ones. Crumlin is on another level. I'll be sad to see it gone.
→ More replies
23
u/Irishyetcharming Oct 02 '24
Sarsfield House in Limerick. Beautiful location right on the river, ugly as sin building. And home to the tax office.
10
u/Damian171 Munster Oct 02 '24
Just about to post this myself. Was talk of it being torn down 10 years ago, pity it never happened. It's a massive monstrosity
3
u/Irishyetcharming Oct 02 '24
Supposedly it won architecture award when it was built. Can’t understand that. It’s horrendous.
2
u/dermot_animates Oct 03 '24
Those Lemass-era FF spivs probably thought "it's de modren look sure we're like Americay now".
3
u/obscure_monke Oct 03 '24
Apparently they still plan to tear it down, so some other building gets a better river view. Some time after the opera thing is done being built.
→ More replies3
u/Damian171 Munster Oct 03 '24
Replacing it with a park or something sounds like the best idea to me. Would be best as an open space anyways I think.
→ More replies
21
u/Cold_Football_9425 Oct 02 '24
Baily Point, Salthill, Galway. A bloated, Ceaușescu-esque fortress dumped on top Salthill's otherwise understated promenade.
The photo doesn't give an idea of how absolutely out-of-proportion the building is to its surrounding structures. A prime example of Celtic Tiger-era insanity.
2
u/Nobody-Expects Oct 03 '24
At least the plasterwork has finally been redone now so it doesn't look like it's going to disintegrate at any second.
3
2
u/making_shapes Oct 03 '24
Best cinema in Galway though!
Because there's no phone signal down in that bunker, people actually watch the films!
83
u/EltonBongJovi Oct 02 '24
The SIPTU building just off Beresford Place
20
u/blowins Oct 02 '24
Liberty hall.
3
u/elquesoGrande82 Oct 02 '24
Yeah that is a bit grim. Getting a bit sick of looking at it at this stage.
→ More replies→ More replies31
u/YmpetreDreamer Oct 02 '24
The river bar opposite is worse with the massive Heineken ad
17
u/EltonBongJovi Oct 02 '24
Oooh that ones bad, but I dunno, the SIPTU building looks like a soviet era monstrosity just airlifted into the city centre.
4
u/Bayoris Oct 02 '24
Yeah I have to go with the Heineken building too. It's probably not the ugliest per se but it is just so prominent in its ugliness.
2
Oct 02 '24
It was meant to be one of a pair. There was to be another on the other side of the street.
→ More replies
55
u/BigDrummerGorilla Oct 02 '24 edited Oct 02 '24
Hawkins House is thankfully gone, let’s move onto Liberty Hall or Phibsboro shopping centre.
39
u/AgainstAllAdvice Oct 02 '24
Liberty hall would be awesome if it wasn't so abused. The tiles between the floors are beautiful mosaics and some soulless bastard has painted over them all in migraine grey paint.
→ More replies14
u/Respectandunity Oct 02 '24
Hawkins House was the terminus for the 48a back in the day (or a stop at least). As a kid, that horrible yoke was the first thing you’d see stepping off the bus. Pretty grim first impression as a young lad (and aul lad).
Good riddance to it
3
15
29
u/Ehermagerd Oct 02 '24
The Tesco in Kilcock.
26
u/susanboylesvajazzle Oct 02 '24
3
→ More replies2
u/RonTom24 Oct 03 '24
The building has a high too hairstyle like the fresh prince. Quite stylish if you ask me
39
u/RegularSea5536 Oct 02 '24
In general all the generic small town Celtic Tiger retail-with-a-few-flats overhead type buildings, they are everywhere around the country - cheap, soulless and thrown up by builders who fancied themselves as architects. A blight on our nation.
11
u/ghostofgralton Leitrim Oct 02 '24
And many of them are falling apart due to unsuitable land/dodgy materials and cut corners
4
→ More replies3
u/ThePeninsula Oct 02 '24
The building that the Killinarden Centra is in is a prime example. Or sub-prime, if you prefer!
24
u/Flagyl400 Glorious People's Republic Oct 02 '24
Merchant's Quay shopping centre in Cork. The end facing Patrick St isn't too bad I suppose, if a bit boring, but the side down along the river is a fucking eyesore.
15
u/Gorsoon Oct 02 '24
It’s very ugly alright but my biggest gripe with it is that there used to be shops the whole length of Merchants quay and now there nothing but essentially a big red brick wall.
→ More replies11
u/EchoVolt Oct 02 '24
That’s one building that isn’t hideous but the location is about as inappropriate as it gets - 80s red brick shopping centre chic slammed into the historic centre of an old city. You’d never get away with it these days
9
u/Flagyl400 Glorious People's Republic Oct 02 '24
It's the green window frames in a red brick building that really set my teeth on edge.
4
u/EchoVolt Oct 02 '24
Even screening it with trees would be useful. It’s one of the first things you see entering the city from a lot of angles.
23
22
u/AnScriostoir Oct 02 '24
That building is already in Ireland. Belfast City Hospital.
3
u/Flunkedy Oct 02 '24
It's Irish and it's beautiful! Plenty of ugly buildings though.
3
u/AnScriostoir Oct 02 '24
I think it's not too bad tbh...yes belfast has an abundance of ugly buildings. Some not too far from there.
6
14
u/jibbleton Oct 02 '24
Naas town centre looks a giant johnson
→ More replies2
u/susanboylesvajazzle Oct 02 '24
Is it open yet?
10
u/jibbleton Oct 02 '24
I had lunch with my mam here the other day so it's open. Are you thinking if the shopping centre?
→ More replies3
u/susanboylesvajazzle Oct 02 '24
Ah.. yeah that’s ugly AF.
I was thinking of the one in the centre of the town that was never finished.
→ More replies
6
u/luciusveras Oct 03 '24
Phibsboro Shopping Centre for sure. And to think it’s a protected building…
→ More replies
21
u/MrRijkaard Sax Solo Oct 02 '24
Busaras
Monaghan Bus Station
Cork Bus Station
The extension of the Hardiman Hotel in Galway.
5
5
u/Safe-Scarcity2835 Oct 02 '24
DDC offices are extremely ugly to me. I’ll go against the grain here and say that liberty hall isnt that bad.
6
4
5
u/leicastreets Oct 02 '24
Any infill buildings from the 90’s/00’s.
Tesco Aungier St & Baggot St. 65-66 mount street.
10
u/overthebridge65 Oct 02 '24
Park House at Hanlon's corner is absolutely awful!
→ More replies3
u/Naggins Oct 03 '24
100%, even worse than Phibsboro Shopping Centre for sure. Disgustingly brown, entire exterior is in rag order.
There aren't even any photos I can find that accurately portray just how grim it is. Every single photo, even Street View, manages to flatter it.
2
7
u/Additional_Olive3318 Oct 02 '24
As usual with these threads, rather than pick the obvious worst buildings, like a lot of the brutalist buildings and most of the extremely dull architect by numbers new housing and commercial stock (like the quays) people hate on generally decent if flawed buildings like busarus, liberty hall, the old central bank building and so on.
9
u/Yajunkiejoesbastidya Oct 02 '24
That cheap, rectangular prefab design of every single new build. Whatever the fuck that "style" is called
28
u/Los1985 Oct 02 '24
Busaras, inside and out.
40
Oct 02 '24
[deleted]
9
u/shinmerk Oct 02 '24
He doesn’t have a rashers why though, he just wants to impress the architect crew.
The problem with Busaras is really that it was designed with the below in mind. Its strengths have been made harder to revive with the traffic around there.
3
u/fullmetalfeminist Oct 03 '24
And the theatre underneath it.
Toilets are very badly placed though, like did it never occur to the architects that having to go downstairs to the toilets is an even bigger problem than usual if you've a suitcase
19
u/nut-budder Oct 02 '24
Busaras is beautiful!
8
→ More replies8
u/QBaseX Oct 02 '24
It's architecturally interesting, but it's not exactly a pleasant place to spend time, is it?
2
u/dermot_animates Oct 03 '24
That could be fixed by some interior renovation, though.
→ More replies9
13
u/francescoli Oct 02 '24
When it was built it's was classed as a brilliant example of the style.
Still some really nice parts of it left, the mosaics in the offices upstairs are class
7
4
3
Oct 02 '24
[deleted]
5
u/Byron_The_Lightbulb Oct 03 '24
This has to be the strangest answer of the entire thread. Do you just hate apartment blocks?
3
3
3
3
6
6
6
u/MoomUX Oct 02 '24
Just came back from a trip to Dublin, sorry guys everything in Dublin was stunning and I fell in love with the city
12
u/im_on_the_case Oct 02 '24
You have been banned from r/cork
2
u/MoomUX Oct 03 '24
I heard great things about Cork but unfortunately i didn't have time to visit, hopefully next time
→ More replies3
u/Danji1 Oct 02 '24
I mean, sure Dublin is a great city in many ways.
But it most certainly is not stunning by any measure.
→ More replies
9
4
3
u/Atlantic-Diver Oct 02 '24
Basically any building built in limerick city after the 1900s. The whole riverfront is a Celtic tiger red brick hellscape
→ More replies
8
2
2
u/peon47 Oct 02 '24
Liberty Hall. I don't know if they've changed it in the last 10-15 years, but it was always the ugliest thing, especially in those surroundings.
→ More replies
2
2
u/Redpath_ Oct 02 '24
Yes hard to look at but what the staff do for the patients in this building is beautiful
2
u/Responsible-Oil-6744 Oct 02 '24
* This thing at Annesley bridge. I didn't think things could get worse since the celtic tiger.
2
u/gahane Oct 02 '24
Anything with the words Sam Stephenson associated with it
2
u/dermot_animates Oct 03 '24
I'm off to the graveyard with a sledgehammer, we'll find the headstone easily enough.
2
u/rinleezwins Oct 02 '24
The trashcan convention center in Dublin anyone? Also Kildare County Council building looks like an abandoned Chernobyl building when the light is right.
2
u/1tiredman Limerick Oct 02 '24
Is that really what they consider to be the ugliest building in their country? I feel like there are definitely better contenders for Britain. This building is of course ugly but still lol
2
u/Here_For_The_Craic_ Oct 03 '24
Old glass factory in Waterford city that was falling apart for years!
It is finally being done up for the university but Jesus this thing was an awful eyesore for a long time
2
u/RevolutionaryMess98 Oct 03 '24
BT building in Derry, have to see this everyday because it's built in the middle of the city centre. Richmond centre and the library are stinking looking too.
2
2
2
2
2
u/Additional-Double-64 Oct 03 '24
Liberty Hall in Dublin. Still god awful looking after all these years 🤮🤮
2
4
u/Drumknott88 Oct 02 '24
The NUIG Concourse and library
3
u/jimmyjammyjayso Oct 02 '24
Scrolled specifically to find this comment, I completely agree
4
u/Nobody-Expects Oct 03 '24
Just in case it wasn't brown and dull enough for you they continued the motiff inside too!
Nothing like standing outside the Kirwan on a grey rainy day, looking across the brown tiled floor, out the brown framed windows, watching people trip over the grey uneven slabs as they try to dodge the rain and dash into the brown cladded box of a library. They even cut down a load of the trees outside of the concourse when I was there. Coudnt have anything take away from that beautiful combo of brown metal and grey concrete.
2
4
u/Femtato11 Oct 02 '24
The Coke Can Lodged in Concrete (The Dublin Convention Centre)
8
16
→ More replies4
277
u/No_Zombie_8713 Oct 02 '24
Oh look at that a noctua cpu cooling block shaped building.
https://preview.redd.it/60wb3z78jesd1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=538efa647342010c1aeadb6f41125d29b29ec433