Phoenix: A thing of beauty…

That’s what English romantic poet John Keats wrote in his poem Endymion, "A thing of beauty is a joy forever, its loveliness increases.” 

You can see that on The Mall, where the scaffolding has been removed from around the beautiful Bishop’s Palace after some long-needed maintenance and conservation work. You might pass it every day and occasionally wonder why it seems so familiar. That’s probably because its architect was Richard Castle, who designed it in 1736. He also designed Leinster House and when you see photos of both buildings together, the family resemblance is uncanny. The palace will soon be 300 years old and has aged gracefully. It’s an ornament to Waterford city.

The scaffolding is still up on City Hall, which is also getting long overdue external and roof conservation. People pass City Hall without even a sidelong glance and forget that it was designed in 1783 by architect John Roberts and built by local merchants as Assembly Rooms containing theatre, ballroom and dining facilities for the local gentry on the model of those in Dublin and York. 

It passed into the hands of Waterford Corporation in the early 19th century. 

It will be interesting to see how it looks when the scaffolding comes down. It was originally brick-faced with limestone door and window surrounds but the bricks were rendered. It should be painted dark brick red, but we’ll have to wait and see.

It is fashionable nowadays to decry tourism, especially in those places overrun by visitors, but a certain volume of tourism allows an urban area to sustain retail, restaurant and hotel sectors to a level not otherwise possible. We can see that in smaller towns like Wexford and Kilkenny, and indeed even in Dungarvan. Visitors seek out attractive places and footfall follows. It’s long been said that “retail follows, it does not lead”. 

We are latterly discovering that truth in Waterford and the message is slowly percolating into the property and business class. However, much done and much more to do. 

There is a collection of scaffolding poles and battered plywood atop the Factory Night Club for years. Is a proper roof railing beyond the owners? The upper floors of Odeon Cinema and TK Maxx in Railway Square are incredibly dirty. A simple power wash would work wonders. Do the owners see themselves as having any responsibility to the city and its people at all? 

A cement block wall has been built to enclose an entrance in the same building. It remains in its raw and un-plastered state. Is this acceptable to anyone? 

Do any visitors come to Waterford city to see the remains of a petrol station canopy on Merchant’s Quay, or the wreckage of Power’s Seeds on the Dunmore Road, or the tragedy of Shefflin’s Pub in The Manor whose dereliction ruins the entire street? 

The UK NGO research shows that the cosmetic appearance of a city centre has little impact on trading, instead, it’s the surrounding area disposable income that matters. The overall local economy in Waterford seems reasonable, especially given the number of new houses and cars around the place, but national data assembled by the South East Economic Monitor (SEEM) shows that disposable income for Waterford and the South East is below the national average. 

This would suggest that a strong push for optimum presentation in the city to assist tourism development, as is currently being done, is essential to growing footfall and retail in the local economy. 

Of course, there must also be a simultaneous push for more state investment and FDI jobs.

If there was a prize for really immaculate presentation, it would go to Sunrise Crescent in Larchville. The rear boundary wall of SETU, which forms one side of the Crescent, has been beautifully planted with trees and shrubbery of all kinds along its full length, several hundred yards of greenery in a marvelous linear botanic gardens. Kudos to whoever planted and maintains it! 

There are also very positive signs elsewhere. Lombard Street in particular deserves mention. A whole terrace of houses from The Mall to Rose Lane has been renovated and turned into hotel apartments and the highly visible gable end of the former Leech’s shop has been cleaned up. The extension to the Tower Hotel in Rose Lane is, shall we say, plain, but has tidied up a real visual mish-mash.

It may be damning with faint praise to say that the work done on the apartments would have been magnificent (and undoubtedly more appealing) if original form sliding sash windows had been used instead of top-opening PVC windows. The latter have little to recommend them in sensitive areas. The council decision to remove the houses from the list of protected structures put paid to demands for appropriate windows. 

Meanwhile, work is proceeding on the old Royal Bar and adjacent derelict terrace of buildings between Rose Lane and William Street bridge. When combined with the terrace of houses in Lombard Street, mentioned above, these are all that remain of a major assembly of Georgian buildings, including the Imperial Hotel, Steamship Buildings, Adelphi Hotel and Adelphi Terrace in that area. Much of this terrible loss of urban fabric happened in that dread decade from 1965 to 1975. The Royal Bar deserves proper sash windows during the refurbishment.

During the Harvest Festival I was in O’Connell Street sampling the delights on offer. The Waterford Gallery of Art in the old TSB building is a stand-out beauty. It would grace Florence. It’s a lovely gallery with super exhibitions. Directly opposite, next to Garter Lane Theatre, is a Georgian building used as a co-working space. The whole front elevation has been painted a very dark black. It looks spectacular. It was also nice to see the lovely Amdega Wine Bar in Cathedral Square open during the festival. It’s housed in John Roberts' home and is a smasher.

The point to be made is that the Council, Chamber of Commerce or local media can’t just “declare” success, we are all, business community and people of Waterford, in this together. We have a lovely city. It deserves every bit of TLC and spit and polish we can give it.