The planned regeneration of two derelict Victorian houses, bought by Dublin City Council almost six years ago for €700,000, has had to be stalled after it emerged their facades were “crumbling”, the council said.
Since early 2023 the council has had planning permission for the reconstruction of adjoining houses at 19 and 21 Connaught Street in Phibsborough, which it acquired by compulsory purchase orders in 2019.
The work involved the demolition of both houses, apart from their front facades, which were to be repaired and restored. It was expected to take six months and was scheduled to start last December.
However, just as the council was about to engage builders, it noticed a further deterioration in the facades.
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“We had to arrange for another structural report, which found a movement in the foundation and crumbling of the front face of the buildings at first-floor level,” the council said.
This “setback changed the scope of works required”, it said, and it has had to draw up new tender documents. These documents are almost complete and the council hopes that builders will be on site by “Q3 in 2025”.
The redbrick houses, which back on to Dalymount Park football stadium, were added to the council’s Derelict Sites Register in 2009 after many years of vacancy.
However, after the then owner boarded up the windows and doors, the council agreed to remove them from the register in 2012.
In 2016, after complaints from the public and local councillors that the condition of the empty houses had deteriorated, the council again approached the owner asking he reinstate the front door and windows and remove vegetation from the building.
However, despite several site visits and letters to the owner over a two-year period, the work was not done, and in March 2018 the houses were re-entered on the register. In November that year the council served the owner with notice of intention to acquire the buildings compulsorily.
Within days the owner, Patrick Joseph Gallagher, with an address at a nearby house on Connaught Street, objected to the acquisition, stating that he needed the properties, was repairing them and would be in contact with the council shortly.
However, the following month, the council lodged an application with An Bord Pleanála to grant consent for the compulsory purchase order.
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Mr Gallagher did not make a submission to the board, but the board’s inspector, Colm McLoughlin, in March 2019 recommended against granting the order.
With the exception of the boarded-up windows and door, and “minor defects in the brickwork and slates” the houses appeared in “reasonable condition and not substantially dissimilar in appearance to the immediate housing along the street”, Mr McLoughlin said.
The board disagreed with its inspector and granted the order due to the “extensive length of time that the structure was in its current state of disrepair and the lack of any specific evidence or firm proposals from the owner” to deliver the homes from their “current neglected and unsightly condition”.
The compulsory purchase order came into force in April 2019 and the council bought the houses for €350,000 each, hoping to have them back in use the following year.
However, following structural surveys in 2020 and 2022 their full demolition and reconstruction, retaining only their front facades, was recommended.
In early 2023 planning permission for this work was confirmed, with the council proposing to appoint a design team and prepare a construction tender.
The design team was appointed by the middle of last year and the council had scheduled work to start in December, with a six-month construction programme.
However, due to the further deterioration of the buildings, it has gone back out to tender and hopes to start work later this year. No completion date has been set.
Mr Gallagher, the previous owner, could not be contacted at the address on Connaught Street given at the time of the compulsory purchase order proceedings. Neighbours said this property had also been vacant for some time.
