Design team appointed for Mitchelstown's Georgian Quarter development
Cork County Council has identified the team that will be undertaking the Georgian Quarter Improvement Scheme in Mitchelstown, and will shortly be announcing the status of the project. The Design Teams are multi-disciplinary, and are led by an urban designer and/or a landscape architect. Other key members of the teams include civil engineers, heritage and conservation consultants, and a tourism consultant.
The €4.5 million project is to redevelop and enhance the Georgian Quarter of the town - the length of George’s Street to King’s Square, and King’s Street, including New Market Square. The plans allow for lighting, for accessibility, and aim to draw tourists to the town. The work will, when finished, aim to complement the significant restoration work done at St George’s Arts & Heritage Centre in recent years.
A walkability study of the area took place in early November, led by the council. Its purpose was to do a tour of the relevant areas fo the town by a diverse range of residents, and to take on board their feedback on what they felt worked, didn’t work, and other observations. Teenagers, the elderly, business owners, carers and wheelchair users took part in the walking study.
Once the design is created, a public consultation will take place on the proposals.
Separately, submissions to the development plan for the county ask for the inclusion of both the former fever hospital at Brigown, and the former bridewell on King’s Street to the list of heritage and amenity sites in the county. The inclusion of the former bridewell building is ‘in recognition of its special interest’.
Bridewells were small prisons established in the 1600s to punish ‘vagabonds, pedlars, fortune-tellers, gypsies and players of unlawful games’, according to the information board outside. This bridewell was closed in 1892, and reportedly still has original prison features, including a safe and iron window bars at the back. The intricately carved pillars on the front porch came from the boathouse of Mitchelstown Demesne, and can be still seen clearly today.