First look: €46m redesign of Bishop Lucey Park and Grand Parade
Trees, cycles lanes and people at the heart of the massive construction project which is set to begin in early 2022
The biggest transformation of Cork city centre in decades will get underway early next year with an overhaul of Bishop Lucey Park and the Grand Parade.
Cork City Council released images and a press release today for the “Grand Parade Quarter” which once completed will tie in with the Cork Event Centre, a project that the City Council is invested in and which has been embroiled in appeals.
Bishop Lucey Park - one of the few green spaces in the city centre - is at the heart of the redesign.
Belfast firm Hall McKnight Architects won an open tender for the redesign of the park which has for a long time been in need of some reimagining.
According to the press release, trees and cycle lanes are central to the transformation of the streets around Bishop Lucey Park. Lord Mayor Cllr. Colm Kelleher called the project “game changing”.
The full list of streets included in the €46.05 million project are: South Main Street, Tobin Street, Tuckey Street, South Gate Bridge, Keyser’s Hill, Proby’s Quay, Frenchs Quay Crosses Green, Clarke’s Bridge and Wandesford Quay.
Funding will come from the City Council and through the Government’s Urban Regeneration and Development Fund (URDF) established under the Government’s Ireland 2040 programme.
The last major transformation of the city centre was the €13 million Beth Gali redesign of St Patrick's Street, completed in 2004.
“Looking forward, the 6,000-seat Event Centre to be developed on the Beamish and Crawford site will be greatly enhanced by the significant renewal all around the area”, Ann Doherty, the city council chief executive said.
However, earlier this year Doherty said it could be another two years before work on the €80 million centre commences. The former taoiseach Enda Kenny turned the first sod at the site in 2016.
In 2020, Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin criticised the Fine Gael leader for digging an “imaginary sod”, but the current taoiseach has said the government are committed to seeing the project through to completion.
The “Grand Parade Quarter” proposals are the subject of two separate Part 8 Planning applications to be published on July 15 and which will then go to public consultation. The city library is also in line for a major overhaul, and details of that will be released later in the year.
The press release made no mention of the provision of public toilets, but the publication of the planning applications will shed more light on this.
Edit: An earlier version of this story referred to Bishop Lucey Park as “The Peace Park”. That park is actually just south of Bishop Lucey Park on Grand Parade. However, many in Cork still refer to Bishop Lucey Park as “The Peace Park.” Confused? Welcome to Cork.