Swords Masterplan - Fingal County Council

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