Temple Bar publican gets green light for hotel facing on to Dame Street
Gordon Deegan
Dublin City Council has granted planning permission to one of the country’s best-known publicans, Tom Cleary for a new hotel for Dublin’s Temple Bar area.
Cleary is the owner of one of Ireland’s best-known pubs, The Temple Bar in Temple Bar and the Council has granted planning permission to Cleary's Chambers Properties Ltd for the 43-bedroom hotel facing onto Dame Street and Eustace Street.
Chambers Properties Ltd’s scheme involves the change of use of a building known as the Shamrock Chambers, which is a five-storey over-basement building comprising a vacant restaurant, shop and vacant office uses to a six storey hotel.
The ground floor of the new scheme Nos 59, 60 and 61 Dame Street and Nos 1 and 2 Eustace Street, is to provide a retail/cafe floor space.
The decision reverses a refusal issued by An Coimisiún Pleanála in October 2024 after it ruled that the scheme's roof extension was of excessive height, scale, and massing and would be injurious to the character and appearance of the host building, which is of heritage value, the visual amenity of the surrounding conservation area, and the streetscape on Dame street.
However, in response to the revised scheme for the hotel which omits four rooms from the 2024 47-bedroom proposal, the Council’s planner’s report has found that “the revised design of the new fifth floor level integrates more appropriately with both the building and the streetscape”.
The Council received only one third-party submission, which objected to the scheme.
Resident on North Great Georges Street, Edward Kenny said that the proposed change of use to hotel “will lead to an overconcentration of hotels and apart hotels in the local area and a lack of variety of uses in the vicinity”.
Urging the Council to refuse planning permission, Mr Kenny said that there is a strong demand for housing in the Dublin City area and the subject site is a prime city centre site, and given its location and layout “it could be used for residential development which is badly needed in this area”.
Associate at Thornton O’Connor Town Planning, Daniel Moody, told the council on behalf of the applicant that the design of the additional storey has been reconsidered by the design team and is a 'softer' intervention that respects the scale and character of the existing development, as well as its position within a designated Conservation Area.
