Dublin City Council has granted planning permission to one of the State’s best known publicans, Tom Cleary, for a new hotel for Dublin’s Temple Bar area.
The council has granted planning permission to Mr Cleary’s Chambers Properties Ltd for the 43-bedroom hotel facing on to Dame Street and Eustace Street. Mr Cleary is the owner of the Temple Bar pub in Temple Bar.
The Chambers Properties scheme involves change of use of a building known as the Shamrock Chambers, which is a five-storey over basement building comprising a vacant restaurant, a shop and vacant offices, to a six-storey hotel.
The ground floor of the new scheme at Nos 59, 60 and 61 Dame Street and Nos 1 and 2 Eustace Street will provide space for retail and/or a cafe.
The decision reverses a refusal by An Coimisiún Pleanála in October 2024 when 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 it said was of heritage value, as well as the visual amenity of the surrounding conservation area and the streetscape on Dame street.
The revised scheme for the hotel omits four rooms from the 2024 47-bedroom proposal and the council planner’s report 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 objecting to the scheme.
North Great Georges Street resident, Edward Kenny said the proposed change of use of the building to a hotel “will lead to an overconcentration 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 was a strong demand for housing in the Dublin city area and the building was a prime city centre site which, given its location and layout, “could be used for residential development which is badly needed in this area”.
Daniel Moody, of Thornton O’Connor Town Planning, on behalf of Chambers Properties told the council that the design of the additional storey had been reconsidered by the design team and was now a “softer” intervention that respects the scale and character of the existing development, as well as its position within a designated conservation area.