My motorcycle broke down on the 12 June 2009 so I decided to walk from Silversprings Hotel, Lower Mayfield along the eastern approach road along the Lower Glanmire Road to the city centre. In my knapsack was a camera-I snapped the following on route - the city is certainly one with multiple views and narratives about landscape, place and memory.
Ideas of place…
Creativity…
Colour…
Shapes…
Architecture…
Belief systems…
generations…
traditions…
the port and its working
Identity…
Memories…
” Here is sense of place and direction,
A road carved out of a river bank,
an ancient approach road developed in the nineteenth century with the railway line,
the river route revered by its rowers conjures a sense of beauty and pace, a space harnessed by rowers and big ships, the wash is imminent,
the sense of expectation approaching the city - the higgely pigglely settlement” (Kmc).
The river as a routeway and port in a natual setting…
A natural heritage, for the most part forgotten - a whole heritage waiting to be harnessed…
Tivoli, built in the late 1920s, an iconic loading and unloading, blackrock village in the background, a place with a rich fishing village heritage…
Again the natural setting here is alluring and brilliant - Port of Cork and the spire of St. Michael’s Church, Blackrock…
A sense of direction is always good even if one is snapping…
From Silverpsprings Bridge - a pilgrimage in action…
Graffiti - alot of attention paid to create this - the artist’s initials are bold as his statement on this part of the urban landscape…
Entering the Port of Cork garden, opened in 2000, this pier struck me a remnant of a golden age…
Rowing on the Lee, three rowing clubs on the River Lee - a fantastic amenity space, rich in potential…
Fallen memories…
Upholding the present - reflections of a time gone by…
A fine summer’s day and a fine stretch of water…
HM Smith, Bollard, coming and going…
Sculpture in Port of Cork Garden called Eden - where it all begins…
Close-up of Eden statues…
Cork Coat of Arms resting…
Walking on…walls and roads
Through the trees…
Cloud and colourful reflections…
Ornate railway bridge - marvellous floral and ironwork design
Do not touch, “higgley piggley” architecture - brickwork
Docklands narratives - so many shapes set within a rich natural setting…
Looking back, the Marine and modern intervention - our need for communication and energy in the modern age…
Summer bloom…
Framing the rower - great timberwork - great to see the tradition of fishing still active on the Lee…
Sandstone rock - the bedrock of the northern part of the city, giving a geological identity…
FC Fire call - Mid nineteenth century sign telling the viewer is a building was insured…
Lower Road - Up and down…
Cobbled spaces- space by space…
North Docklands space - area proposed to be revamped…
Ornate bollard looking towards ESB Marina Station…
The natural setting, a powerful scenic tool…
The grain silo towers, a immense space with a huge attitude, one due to be transformed but care will have to be applied…
The Elysian tower, Cork’s empty symbol of economic recession with docklands machinery…
North docklands Area, walking along - great random rubble masonry space…
Port of Cork sign and the Elysian - so much trade went on here in the past - these are ghostly spaces to all those that worked the former ships here…
Early twentieth century ESB box, ornate and from a different age of city demands…
Montenotte from Railway street - such a fantastic layered landscape…
Former Cork- Dublin Terminus - everything changes, nothing remains the same…
Former Cork Steam Packet Office, penrose Quay - where the tickets for the steamships were sold to passengers, quay named after the Penroses, a merchantile merchant family…
James Beale memorial - father of Cork’s steamship industry…
King George slaying the dragon - one of Cork’s most elegant sculptures adorning the top of the Steampacket building…
Listening to the stories of emigrants, the Listening Posts, Penrose Quay…
My favourite view - a city built into its natural setting from the marshland to the top of the hill to Gurranabraher…
The Cork Bonded warehouse - the closed doors of heritage…
Reflections - gorgeous architecture…great buildings…great spaces and places…
