Dublin City Council has given the go-ahead for plans to demolish a “D4 gem” – Smyth’s pub on Haddington Road – and replace it with a larger pub and apartments despite locals’ fears about a superpub.
Courtney Lounge Bars Ltd has secured permission to demolish all existing buildings on site at 10 Haddington Road and build a mixed-use building over four and five floors, comprising a pub at basement and ground floor levels and six apartments on the upper floors.
The council decided the scheme “would not seriously injure the amenities of the area or property in the vicinity”.
The permission, with 14 conditions attached, came after Courtney Lounge Bars Ltd made design changes to its original scheme. The council planner’s report said those alterations “are greatly appreciated”.
Planners said the changes have delivered a plan for development that balances visual interest and attention to detail that “creates an architectural presence in a volume which does not jar with the adjoining structures”.
Pembroke Road Association had expressed concerns over the initial proposals, saying that “a local pub can be a wonderful social amenity in a mixed residential area, as Smyth’s has been over the years, but a ‘super’ pub in the same type of area is a problem”.
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Susan McCarrick, for the residents’ association, told the council the development “is clearly too high and we have a concern with its bulk and massing and general visual dominance”.
Former journalist Frank McDonald in a submission had said that “protecting Dublin’s heritage is important”.
“Smyth’s pub may not have retained as much of its Victorian interior as Toners and Doheny & Nesbitt’s on Baggot Street or Keogh’s on South Anne Street, but it is of real value as a remnant of ‘old Dublin’,” he said.
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Mr McDonald noted that the pub’s website described itself as a “D4 gem”. “Now this ‘D4 Gem’, sandwiched as it is between brasher elements of ‘New Dublin’, is destined for the chopping block, to be replaced by a significantly larger bar extending over the entire ground-floor area from Haddington Road to Percy Place.”
Local resident Elizabeth O’Sullivan said Smyths already attracted large crowds, which tend to spill out on to the pavement at busy times.
“This naturally causes an increase in noise level which can make it difficult to get to sleep. The proposed development involves an increase in the size of the pub and therefore will exacerbate this problem,” said Ms O’Sullivan.
