Swords Masterplan - Fingal County Council
Swords Masterplan - Fingal County Council
Swords Masterplan - Fingal County Council
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This appendix identifies the existing key characteristics of the historic Town<br />
Centre area in terms of its structure, function, built form and landscape qualities.<br />
This urban design appraisal was undertaken to help identify those assets and<br />
features of <strong>Swords</strong> Town Centre that should be retained and enhanced, as set out<br />
in Section 2 Urban Design Guidelines.<br />
The appraisal of the town is presented under the following headings:<br />
● Land Uses<br />
● Topography<br />
● Views<br />
● Public Open Space/Public Realm<br />
● Legibility<br />
● Connections<br />
● Parking<br />
● Safety and Security<br />
● Protected Structures<br />
● Record of Monuments and Places<br />
● Development Block Size<br />
● Building Orientation<br />
● Quality of Building Frontages<br />
● Urban Grain<br />
● Building Heights and Massing<br />
● Architectural Features<br />
S W O R D S M A S T E R P L A N<br />
Appendix 1 Urban Design Analysis<br />
Western side of Main Street<br />
Western side of North Street<br />
1 1 1<br />
Land Uses<br />
THE RETAIL/COMMERCIAL CORE<br />
<strong>Swords</strong>’ retail and commercial core has a typically wide mix of uses for a town of<br />
its size. It is possible to identify clusters of activity which contribute significantly<br />
to the character of the town.<br />
Retail at ground floor levels is mainly concentrated within the Main Street area<br />
and at the junction of the Malahide Road and Dublin Street. The Main Street is<br />
dominated by small scale comparison goods retailers and small scale<br />
convenience stores such as Centra and Londis. Large convenience goods<br />
retailing are limited to the key anchor of Superquinn and Dunnes Stores at the<br />
“Pavilions Shopping Centre” to the southeast of the town. Small offices are<br />
distributed around the Town Centre at Main Street predominantly at first floor<br />
levels. These uses are predominantly daytime uses.<br />
In terms of evening uses the retail and commercial core is the best used area.<br />
However the number of these evening uses are few with approximately three<br />
public houses and a few take-aways located along the Main Street. The desire for<br />
<strong>Swords</strong> town centre is to ensure that the vitality of the evening economy is<br />
promoted further and sustained in a managed way, taking into consideration the<br />
impacts on neighbouring land uses.<br />
Land uses in the retail and commercial core zone are inextricably linked to the<br />
convenience and comparison retail offered by the Pavillions shopping centre<br />
located to the southern edge of the town centre. This centre draws a large<br />
number of visitors to <strong>Swords</strong> however, these do not necessarily generate many<br />
linked visits to the Main Street area.<br />
Key urban design interventions such as improved connectivity and a number of public<br />
realm enhancements from the Pavilions to the Main Street could address this.<br />
<strong>Swords</strong> retail and commercial core is unlikely to be attractive to large format retailers<br />
due to its tight urban grain and plot, but could accommodate small scale specialist<br />
retailers. A pavement culture with spill out areas from restaurants and cafés could<br />
be fostered along the Main Street aided by the town’s unique scale and quality of<br />
architecture which will also aim to diversify the current evening economy offer.