URBANISM

CITY WALL

Waterford is all about Reginald’s Tower and the City Walls. At present this famous wall is all but lost inside and between buildings in the City Hall area of town. With the neighbouring Waterford Crystal Centre now attracting thousands of tourists and visitors per month it is prudent to reveal our heritage where possible.

The most readily assessable portion of the city wall within Waterford City is that section fronting the Mall and stretching from Colbeck Street to the Theatre Royal. Behind which the Bishops Palace looks down from its elevated position. Excavation at the end of the twentieth century revealed that the height and mass of the wall had been concealed by the raised area between the wall and road. This bank is currently (2010) finished with nondescript flower beds grassing and shrubs and this continues from the Theatre to Colbeck Street, sadly culminating in a narrow public footpath rising to Cathedral Square.

Our proposal ( also part of the Viking Triangle Proposal 2008) envisages reverently revealing the full height of the wall, removing the unsightly steps up to the Bishops Palace and the masking shrubs and showing the full extent of our historic wall. The creation of a multipurpose amphitheatre with a sunny south west orientation, with steps and ramps to City Square from the main thoroughfare will ease the chicane of this high footfall corner to . The provision of many new semi mature trees and planters in a formal pattern will soften the whole effect and provide a classical civic space of very low maintenance for large numbers of people to enjoy.

The resulting exposed and restored City Wall area would be a memorable, appropriate, functional and attractive piece of civic landscaping, a distinctive meeting point and performance space.