[Sir_Loin]

Looks good, and they're probably exactly the kind of apartments you need right on the Dublin Road. Though it won't take longer than this winter for those sides to get noticeably grubby having pretty much total exposure to the elements.

 

[Sir_Loin]

Dublin Road always reminds me of Great Victoria Street - It's interesting in how disjointed it can seem, and you just have to give it over to the seemingly random approach to its planning and see where it goes. When the effect seems to be the evolution of a dense, albeit strange, mid-rise urban area, when it's self-contained I quite like it.

Progressing with the demolition of Fanum House and building Novotel (?) would help the whole area - I know it was a phase of what we've already seen with Etap but surely the rest of the plan has long expired?

 

[Sir_Loin]

A 5-7 storey apartment development with varying heights and finishes so it doesn't look like a big wall would benefit the area greatly.

That would surely be the right idea in the area, but it doesn't seem to be very in vogue at the moment! I don't think I can remember seeing an application like that here for a few years, but I don't know about other cities.

 

[Sir_Loin]

I walked past the Gallery the other day and was shocked to see what it's become, I didn't think the plans for the ground floor were so ambitious, it looks great from the outside anyway and from the pictures I love how they've done it and I think it'll become a favourite for many, but that's just me.

I get people's concerns about changing the tone/culture of the street and I never like to see good food units lost if that would be the result, but the general area has plenty of places and I always saw further south as more of a natural Chinatown. As for extending the city centre that way surely it can only be a good thing? To me Shaftesbury Square is a natural entry to the Queens Quarter so anything done as far as there can only help to join the two together.