Swords Masterplan - Fingal County Council

3.2 Analysis of Historic Town Centre
From an examination of existing land uses, 3 main character areas can be
identified within Swords Town Centre [see map – Existing Character Areas and
Movement Strategy]:
1. Retail/Commercial Core: This area comprises Main Street and extends to
the Pavilions Shopping Centre site. The majority of the small scale
retail/services functions within the Town Centre are focused on Main Street
and its associated side streets, while the large scale retailers are facilitated
within the Pavilions Shopping Centre. Main Street is predominantly
vernacular in character with development being mostly 2 and 3 storeys.
There have been some modern interventions onto the Main Street which are
unsympathetic to the prevailing low rise character.
2. Commercial/Residential Core: North Street is characterised by a more
commercial focus, with offices, small scale retail outlets, small mix of
terraced housing, public houses, apartments and a hotel. The current trend
is for medium size offices to locate here. Dublin Street and Dublin Road also
accommodates a range of small scale commercial units, as well as
residential uses and a secondary school.
3. Civic/Community: The civic core is located at the junction of Main Street,
North Street, and Seatown Road. The character area lies east between
North Street and Main Street. School, community and civic buildings, in
addition to housing, are located along this route. The County Hall, Swords
Castle and Courthouse are focal buildings at the junction of Seatown
Road/Main Street/North Street. Seatown Road reinforces the east-west
linkages through the town and has the potential to become a strong and
attractive route into the Town Centre from the proposed Seatown Metro Stop.
Key to the success of Swords will be the consolidation and strengthening of the
above character areas and multi-functional role of Main Street/North Street area,
as well as future integration/connectivity with Town Centre expansion areas.
Improvements to the associated public realm will be important, as well as improved
accessibility for all modes of transport, including strong linkages to Metro North.
In terms of Swords retail/commercial core, the historic Town Centre is unsuitable
for large format retailers due to the tight urban grain and plot sizes. This
constraint within the historic fabric has resulted in the extension of the retail
area to the Pavilions site. The extension of the shopping core from Main Street
to the Pavilions has allowed the retail core of Swords to develop and extend in
close proximity to Main Street, whilst retaining the historic character and role of
the Town Centre. However, connectivity between Main Street and the Pavilions
site is currently poor, with a limited number of visitors to the Pavilions attracted
to Main Street. The Fingal County Council Offices and other offices/services on
Main Street currently sustain flow between the 2 areas. However a reverse
attraction to Main Street from the Pavilions Shopping Centre needs to be
established. This is critical in the event of the further expansion of the retail core
into the Pavilions and Barrysparks lands, adjoining the Metro North stop.
S W O R D S M A S T E R P L A N
The existing Cultural/Recreational attractions are the Castle and its Park, the
riverside walk to the west of Main Street, the Ward River Valley Park, and the round
tower. While these facilities are within the core, they are poorly developed and poorly
integrated with the Town Centre. Views of Swords Castle from Main Street are
obstructed by the buildings in front of it. There are few buildings overlooking the
riverside walk, which is of poor environmental quality, attracting few people. The
Ward River Valley Park has few facilities and is very poorly linked to the Town
Centre. For Swords Town Centre to develop, emphasis must be placed on the
diverse range of activities and attractions within the core area and its amenity value.
In terms of accessibility for all modes of transport, car parking facilities are
limited within the Town and public transport services are inadequate. Facilities
for cyclists are poor, with only a limited network in isolated sections of the Town.
These issues must be addressed as part of the Masterplan for Swords.
25 inch Historic Map: 1897 - 1913
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3.3 Development of Activity Nodes
3.3.1 3 ACTIVITY NODES
To ensure the vibrancy and activity of Swords Main Street is developed into the
future, it is proposed that there will be 3 key nodes of attraction in the Town
Centre which will build upon the existing nodes and character areas through the
strengthening and development of links between the Main Street, the Pavilions
and the Barrysparks development areas.
The proposed Town Centre Nodes are:
● Civic Quarter
● Cultural Quarter
● Metro Quarter
The design and character of these activity nodes is explored later within this
Masterplan.
There are 2 ancillary nodes identified, these being Balheary Park and the
proposed Leisure Node within the south-eastern extent of the Barrysparks land.
While these 2 nodes are considered important in the future expansion of the
town, they will not be fully defined or designed pending the preparation of a
Local Area Plan(s) for these areas. [see Existing Character Areas and Movement
Strategy map and Proposed Character Areas and Movement Strategy map].