RESIDENTS OF CAMDEN Street and nearby areas in Dublin have objected to a €4 million development of a Wetherspoons bar and hotel.
JD Wetherspoon lodged an application with Dublin City Council on 14 January for a development of buildings on Camden Street into a bar/restaurant and 98-room hotel.
Wetherspoon, a popular chain of English pubs which began an expansion in Ireland in 2014, bought the building on Camden Street, which used to house the Camden Hall Hostel for homeless people, in December 2014.
A number of residents and businesses on Camden Street have written to the council objecting to the development of what one person called the “super pub”.
One complainant who owns buildings and lives on the street, said that the proposed development was excessive:
“The location of a super pub within a compact urban residential community is not acceptable,” said Colm Doyle, a conservation architect speaking on behalf of resident Peter O’Reilly.
The noise, nuisance, refuse and rubbish associated with a Super Pub of this size are not suited to the site.
Doyle also stated that Camden Street was a designated Market street, and so a mixture of retail, café and bar should be considered for the area.
This development will injure the existing vitality and character of the area.
‘Another Temple Bar’
Another complainant and resident in the area, Barry Chambers, said that the pub would be ‘seriously detrimental’ to the residential amenities in the area.
He also said that there were already enough licensed bars in the area and the Wetherspoon development would bring extra people to the already overcrowded street at night.
Enough is enough, the area is at tipping point and already fast becoming another Temple Bar – great for revellers and operators but not so good for everyone else.
Chambers also detailed a host of other objections to the building: including parking, drainage and waste management.
Chambers and a number of other complainants were based in Grantham Place, a small street that runs parallel to Camden Street – with objections relating to noise, the busyness of the area, anti-social behaviour and space.
One woman, Enid O’Dowd, who owns buildings in the area, said that the buildings needed to be restored, but that another bar wasn’t needed on Camden Street.
“Instead of developing the buildings as proposed, a better use would be for the residential accommodation for people working in the city area which is in very short supply,” she said.
Response
In its application, Wetherspoon has said that it will not play any music in the bar.
As well as this, a telephone number would be circulated to nearby residents so that they could complain about noise directly and quickly if it was needed.
Consultants, operating on behalf of Wetherspoons, said that the company would not be seeking a late-license, and that the bar will close at 12.30am on Friday and Saturday night.
They also said that the new venue would create up to 100 jobs and would revitalise the area, and would ‘further enhance the character’ of the street.
A decision on whether to grant the application should be due next month.
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