Groves of Knowledge - Cork Parkscapes Part 2: UCC Grounds

I was originally reluctant to add the subject of this article to the Cork Parkscapes series. However, given the sizeable green space occupied by University College Cork, it is only logical to include it, especially given the unquestionably attractive landscaping of the area. So, given that a visit to UCC is probably going to be the closest I’ll ever get to attending university, I’ve decided to write up my thoughts about the UCC grounds, including the Lewis Glucksman Gallery. Once again, the images will be a mix of current images an “archive” images, just to let you know.

“Where Finbarr Taught, Let Munster Learn.” The motto of UCC harkens back to the original founding of Cork, and to the monastic traditions of learning that have been a part of Cork all the way back in 606 AD, when the legendary Saint Fin Barre founded his church and monastery on the site of present day St. Fin Barres Cathedral. University College Cork however is substantially younger, being founded in 1845 following an order of Queen Victoria, as Ireland was of course part of the British Empire at that time. Originally founded as Queen’s College Cork, it was opened in 1849, with just 23 professors and 181 students, a far cry from the more than 18000 students enrolled at UCC today.

Getting there

Line 205 provides a direct connection between the city centre and UCC.

Once again, I’d advise against driving to UCC by car. There are parking spaces around the university, however most of them will be needed by UCC staff and students, so actually getting a parking space will be difficult. The best way of getting there is actually by bus. Route 205 by Bus Éireann stops right next door to UCC and connects it to Kent Station and the downtown area. Bus lines 208 and 220 also stop in the vicinity. As far as Coca Cola Zero Bikes is concerned, there are two stations in close proximity to UCC, Gaol Walk near the old entrance and Bandfield. While the latter may be one of the largest stations in the system, with in excess of 30 stands, please be aware that this station might be completely emptied of bikes when classes end for the day. Should that happen, Fitzgerald Park is only a few minutes away. Just check online or on the app before deciding which station to use.

This Coke Zero Bikes station, Bandfield, is right outside the main gates of UCC.

Gaol Walk is right next to the old Cork County Gaol, and serves the central and western parts of the campus.

Lower Grounds

While the original building, nowadays known as the “Main Quadrangle” and a large part of the landscaped green areas date back to the original founding, the college had one major problem: The main entrance to the property was next to Cork County Gaol, hardly a good impression for students trying to enter into an academic career. And while,  given the behaviour of some students, I wonder if the difference between them and inmates really was that great, it probably wasn’t the best feeling in the world walking past the gaol while a scheduled execution was taking place, especially when the students themselves were heading towards their exams. Anyway, the University petitioned for, and in 1928 eventually got a new entrance, and it is a beautiful one indeed. Directly following the wide iron gates, a bridge spans the south channel of the River Lee. This area, the lower grounds is mostly an open grass area, with only a few buildings. Most of the more modern buildings are obscured from view by lush trees, and you get the feeling you’re in a Victorian era landscaped garden, which is in effect exactly were you are. Wide paths snake up the hill to the historic core of the university grounds, while smaller walkways meander along the Lee towards the old entrance.

This is the "new" entrance to UCC, built in 1928 to spare the students from walking past an active jail. 

With a view like this, it's hard to believe that you're just a few minutes away from the centre of Irelands second city.

The river Lee forms the northern border of the UCC premises.

Now that's much better than walking past a gallows, isn't it?

The lower grounds exude a real air of tranquility...

...and truly feel more like a park than a university campus.

Lewis Glucksman Gallery

There is one building however that stands out. It is hard to see from the entrance, only bits and pieces are visible from the entrance, almost tantalising glimpses. That building is the Lewis Glucksman Gallery, and from the moment you see it, it is pretty clear that this gallery specialises in contemporary art. Indeed, the building itself seems like a modern sculpture, and doesn’t even try to fit in with its surroundings. Instead, it leaves the impression that the architect was either high when he designed it, or used six dimensional aesthetic principles, although the consequences are often the same, and lead to the inevitable question “What has that guy been smoking???” It’s not a bad looking building, mind you, but it is definitely not in any way conventional. With that in mind, it is not really surprising that the gallery, opened by Mary McAleese, the President of Ireland, in 2004, has garnered several awards for its design.

West-facing façade of the Lewis Glucksman Gallery.

Really a striking building.

This will be the view that most visitors see when going to the Lewis Glucksman Gallery.

The interior is as unconventional as the outside. While the main entrance staircase is almost entirely enclosed by glass, the upper three floors have much less glass involved, which makes sense, when you consider the main purpose is to display contemporary art, and to ensure that visitors concentrate on it. Some people may not be overly fond of hunting for the next staircase, though. The entire structure is wheelchair accessible though, so, there’s always a way out if you’ve had your fill of intellectualism for one day.

The main entrance is one of the few areas that are designed to let in natural light.

View down to the main entrance. The contrast between the glass façade  and the concrete is really striking in my eyes. You can just make out the gallery shop near the top of the image. 

The ramp leads down to the walkway near the River Lee.

The glass space next to the main stairway is put to use as another temporary exhibition space.

Of course, any gallery will always be at the mercy of its exhibitions, especially ones like the Lewis Glucksman Gallery, that have no permanent exhibition. With such a focus on contemporary art, you’re almost certain to confuse, confound, tick off, or outright anger someone. I still remember that one video installation at the Tate Modern in London in 2002 that basically featured the artist rolling around in glass shards, whatever she may have intended with that. Thankfully, I haven’t had any similar experiences at this gallery. However, with the theme of the current exhibition “Everything Must Go”, which explores the complicated and convoluted relationship between art and commerce, I can see how some aspects of topics like these can be confusing, some of the works really leave you scratching your head. But then again, isn’t that what art is supposed to do? Get you thinking?

A minimalist design that keeps you concentrated on the artwork. That's how it should be.

Not really a stairway to heaven, but rather one to the third floor of the gallery

Work of art, or charity sale? It's works like this that can make an exhibition like "Everything Must Go" a bit hard to understand if you're not in the right frame of mind for it. 

View from the main entrance over the lower grounds.

The good thing is that admission is free. There is a gallery shop on the first floor, and donations are welcome, with a 5€ donation being suggested. The shop itself is of course pretty artsy, which really isn’t surprising given the location. It also fits in nicely with the current exhibition, which will however only be on until March 6th. I don’t know what the next exhibition is, but I’m certainly curious. Additionally, the gallery also sports the Fresco Eaterie & Bistro on the lower ground floor, overlooking the lower grounds. I can’t say anything about that place, as I haven’t visited that yet, it is still on my list, though.

Upper Grounds

University College Cork works on many levels... literally. 

The Main Quadrangle is really the heart of UCC.

This really illustrates the geography of the site. Standing behind the main quadrangle, you're at the same height as the third floor of the Lewis Glucksman Gallery.

What looks like a second rate Hogwarts copy is actually part of UCC as well. St. Vincent's church and  residence was built in 1851, although divine intervention in the form of a storm that blew the roof of in 1853 caused the actual dedication of the complex to be pushed back until 1856. While the church is still in use, the residence part of the building was acquired by UCC and opened as the UCC School of Music and Theatre Studies in 2000.

Following the main path uphill, a series of steps lead you to the main grounds of UCC, an area that, while still landscaped, is much more densely built up, with buildings from all parts of the history of the university. The main star of course is the Main Quadrangle, part of the original complex dating back to 1849. While it originally housed a large part of the original Queens College, it is these days mainly used for ceremonial purposes, as well as for administrative purposes. In addition, it acts as a visitor centre for the university. Apparently, originally, plans had called for the quadrangle to be completely enclosed, and it was only later in the planning process that it was decided to leave it open to the south. Given the winter we’re experiencing, the wisdom behind that decision escapes me. Maybe, you need a degree to understand it.

It's hard to imagine that you just need to turn around to go from seeing this...

...to seeing this. The Boole Library, like the Lewis Gluckman Gallery, is one of the few examples of great contemporary architecture in Cork.

That goes for the new extension seen in the previous image as well as for the original brutalist building. 

Brutalism has been described as an architectural style that "doesn't say sorry" for existing, and this is a prime example. 

That being said, the Boole Library still has a number of aspects that keep it interesting, the different façades being just one aspect of it. 

Multi level layouts like this actually add to the appeal in my eyes. And the 2007 extension seen in the background actually complements it very nicely indeed.

The contrast to the building south of the quadrangle couldn’t be greater. An unashamedly brutalist building, the Boole Library was constructed on the site of a football pitch and old quarry, incidentally the same quarry that had provided the limestone for the main quadrangle, in 1983. Like other brutalist buildings, the library does not even try to fit in, however, given the well kept grounds on which it stands, it is still a very interesting and striking building. An extension was added in 2007 that managed to quote and complement the original brutalist roots of the Boole Library while adding a nice contemporary touch. The name by the way refers to George Boole, the first professor of mathematics at the then Queens College, Cork, and father of Boolean algebra, the basis for modern day computing, including the devices on which you read this post. In fact, the book in which he laid out his version of mathematics, The Laws of Thought, was published in 1854, during his time at Queens College. Sadly, he also died here in Cork in 1864, after contracting pneumonia while walking to his lecture at the college through a rainstorm, an occurrence that is still all too common here. The rainstorms, that is.

What looks like a domed chapel is actually the Crawford Observatory. 

The dome covers the equatorial telescope of the observatory. Even though it is still operational, I have a hard time imagining what kind of astronomical work it can actually be used for, given the light pollution.

Tucked away behind Boole Library is another little gem. The Crawford Observatory was built in 1878, and sported a collection of three technologically advanced telescopes for their time. While the equatorial telescope seems conventional enough by today’s standards, it was a cutting edge instrument at the time, especially as the equatorial mounting enabled the telescope to be trained on an object and keep it in its crosshairs for a long time, a great advantage when trying to capture distant, dim objects with long photographic exposures. This telescope was in fact used as part of the Carte du Ciel project, an international astronomy project set up in 1887 with the aim of creating a photographic map of the sky. One much more impressive instrument, even by todays standards, is the siderostatic telescope. This design, with the help of a clever arrangement of mirrors and lenses, counteracts the rotation of the Earth, while at the same time enabling observation through a fixed eyepiece. The observatory, named after the Crawford family, the other big brewing dynasty in Cork, who sponsored the construction, was refurbished in 2006, and is still in use, although it is hard for me to imagine what use it could possibly have, given the massive light pollution of the city of Cork. 

The park nature can still be felt as seen in this look towards the Boole Library and the Quadrangle. 

Modern buildings like the Student Center...

...stand right next door to early 20th century buildings like the Honan Chapel. 2016 will actually mark the 100th anniversary of the chapel, as it was opened in November 1916.

Some of the buildings are hit-and-miss, though. The O'Rahilly Building for example, reminds me of the desperate attempts of government bureaucracies desperately trying to be creative or cutting edge.

The rest of the upper grounds is a motley mix of old and new buildings, from the old Honan chapel, to the modern student services building with its curved glass facade. This eastern part of the university really is a well laid out area, and, especially with the quadrangle and the Lewis Glucksman Gallery, a nice place to while away a few hours. Keep in mind though that this is a working university, and therefore there may be a lot of people around on a typical day. Also, the Quadrangle and the Crawford Observatory mark the westernmost part of the landscaped, accessible part of UCC. Beyond that, it is a much more utilitarian affair, with buildings housing the differing disciplines of UCC.