An Bord Pleanála has refused planning permission to one of the country’s best known publicans, Tom Cleary, for a new hotel in Dublin’s Temple Bar area.
Mr Cleary is the owner of one of Ireland’s best known pubs, The Temple Bar.
The appeals board refused planning permission to Mr Cleary's Chambers Properties Ltd for the 47-bedroom hotel facing onto Dame Street and Eustace Street as a planned roof extension of the scheme “would be an overly dominant and obtrusive form of development”.
The application 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 – to a six-storey hotel. The ground floor of the new scheme would provide a new bar/restaurant.
However, the appeals board ruled the planned roof extension would be too high and would harm the character and appearance of the heritage building, the surrounding conservation area and the streetscape on Dame Street.
In its rejection, the appeals board also ruled that the proposed removal of a Dame Street shopfront and subsequent design alterations would seriously injure the character and distinctiveness of the building.
The board concluded that the proposed development would be contrary to policies in Dublin's city development plan, which seek to protect the special interest and character of protected structures and would set an undesirable precedent for other similar developments.
The reasons for refusal provide Mr Cleary’s firm with the option to lodge revised plans where the issue of the roof extension and the Dame Street shopfront can be addressed by design alterations.
Dublin City Council originally refused planning permission due to fears that the planned hotel could lead to an over-concentration of hotels in the area.
However, the appeals board did not uphold that reason for refusal.
This followed the inspector in the case, Terence McLellan, finding that the council had “not demonstrated that there would be an over-concentration of hotels in this location”.
Mr McLellan said he concurred with the applicant that hotels are generally more numerous in city centres.
He acknowledged that there “must be a limit to hotel provision within an area before it starts to significantly alter that area’s character”.
However, Mr McLellan pointed out that hotel use had previously been permitted on this site.
Mr McLellan concluded that a single additional hotel on the appeal site, albeit slightly larger than the previous permission, would not tip the balance of the immediate area such that there would be a significant or detrimental change in character of use, vitality, or vibrancy.
Planning permission was previously granted for an application lodged in 2017 for the change of use to a hotel on the same site and the construction of an additional floor, but this application has expired.
A planning report by Thornton O’Connor Town Planning said the hotel site was “in the very centre of Dublin’s tourism offering in terms of attractions, entertainment, dining/drinking and culture”.
The Thornton O’Connor report said the planned restaurant/bar would add to the vibrancy of Dame Street.
Patricia Thornton said “the proposed change of use and additional storey are a positive proposition for Shamrock Chambers, bringing an under-utilised but historic and characterful property back into a more active and sustainable state and use”.
