PICTURE GALLERY: Kilkenny’s historic shopfronts ‘through the ages’
An amazing photographic archive of Kilkenny over the last 50 years showing how it’s changed through the decades will be used by planners to create the Kilkenny of the future.
The archive ‘Kilkenny Shopfronts Through the Ages’ has a catalogue of no fewer than 4,400 photos which shows the shopfronts in each street in central Kilkenny city between the late 20th Century and the present.
Kilkenny Shopfronts Through the Ages used three main sources to create the catalogue – the planning photographic surveys conducted in 1987, 1994, 1996, 1997, 2011, 2013, 2014 and 2018 (4,200 photos in total); a photographic audit carried out this year by Trevor Finnegan (52 photos); and a survey carried out by the students of Bolton Street D.I.T. circa. 1970, entitled “Streetscapes of Kilkenny City” (178 photos).
“Kilkenny Shopfronts Through The Ages” forms part of the Council’s strategy for shopfronts and signage, which includes raising awareness and promotion, policy and guidance, and enforcement, which will help to focus planners attention on the heritage aspects and changing nature of Kilkenny’s shopfronts.
The archive is available to view on the Kilkenny Library’s Digital Archive: https://digital-archive.kilkenny.ie/.
