Plans to demolish Smyth’s pub on Haddington Road and replace it with a pub and apartments is facing opposition.
In its plans, Courtney Lounge Bars Ltd is proposing the demolition of all existing buildings on site at 10 Haddington Rd and the construction of a four-storey and part five-storey mixed-use building comprising a pub at basement and ground floor and six residential units at the upper floors.
A planning report lodged with the application to Dublin City Council states that “the replacement building is considered to be a significant improvement from the building it replaces and will be a positive additional to the character of the area”.
However, in response the Pembroke Road Association has told the council 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”.
On behalf of the association, Susan McCarrick has told the council that the development “is clearly too high and we have a concern with its bulk and massing and general visual dominance”.
Former environment editor at The Irish Times Frank McDonald told the council that “protecting Dublin’s heritage is important, especially in a city that has lost so many of the elements that give it character and authenticity”.
He said: “Smyth’s pub may not have retained as much of its Victorian interior as Toner’s 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’”.
In response to the concerns expressed, the council sought further information requesting the applicant to revisit the design of the structure and to reduce the overall mass and bulk of the building.
In the further information response, an architect’s report contends that the height of the building when viewed from Haddington Road “is appropriate when viewed in the wider architectural context”.
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