The proposed hotel on the corner of Dame Street and Eustace Street
Dublin City Council has granted 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 The Temple Bar in Dublin city centre. The council has granted planning permission to Mr Cleary’s Chambers Properties Ltd for a 43-bedroom hotel facing on to 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 currently a five-storey over-basement building comprising a vacant restaurant, shop and vacant office. It is set to become a six-storey hotel.
The ground floor of the new scheme – numbers 59, 60 and 61 Dame Street and numbers 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. It had ruled the scheme’s roof extension was of excessive height, scale and massing and would have a negative effect on 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 bedrooms from the 2024 proposal, the council’s planner’s report stated: “The revised design of the new fifth floor level integrates more appropriately with both the building and the streetscape.”
The council received one third-party submission which objected to the scheme.
Edward Kenny, a resident on North Great George’s Street, said the proposed change of use to a hotel “will lead to an over-concentration of hotels and aparthotels in the local area and a lack of variety of uses in the vicinity”.
Urging the council to refuse planning permission, Mr Kenny said there is a strong demand for housing in the Dublin city area and the subject site is a prime city centre site. Given its location and layout, he said: “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.
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