People’s Park, Dún Laoghaire

The People’s Park, Dún Laoghaire is a beautifully landscaped, historic park that opened in 1890. The park was developed near the end of the 19th century by the town commissioners in the formal Victorian style. The original historic layout included wrought iron railings, stone walls and large gates typical of the Victorian era. For a park of its small stature it boasts an extensive array of fine heritage structures, including a tearoom, gate lodge, a bandstand and fountains. The restrained Victorian park layout had been compromised over the years as a result of a proliferation of extra pathways and insensitive interventions. In 2014, Dún Laoghaire – Rathdown County Council completed an extensive refurbishment of the park to restore its original Victorian layout as well as introduce contemporary interventions to upgrade the park for the 21st century. This vision included a new circulation network with widened paths, restored existing seating and playground as well as additional grass lawns and horticultural bedding displays. In addition, an area of new public space has been reclaimed where the DART line once cut the park off from the seafront. This area has been conceived as a raised promenade with prominent views over the park and the coastline. The Raised Promenade forms a new public amenity space which contains generous bespoke seating, picnic table and coastal trees & planting providing a place for rest, relaxation, viewing and events. Its close proximity to the sea in an exposed location meant that all details of the design were thoroughly resolved and detailed to be robust yet elegant. Omos was chosen to provide some ‘catalogue products’ for the extensive restoration as well as adapting some standard products to fit the Park’s specific needs. The chosen products were s26 bollards, s49 cycle stands, s72 litter bins and custom s96w picnic sets. Omos also produced the integrated seating which frames the newly widened pathways. The bespoke seating in stone and iroko timber was tailored to suit each individual area and enhance the restored historic layout.