After 13 years of neglect, Clontarf Baths look set for revival as a restaurant and bar complex - unless planning permission granted by Dublin City Council is overturned by An Bord Pleanála.
Dublin City Council approved a plan by Abbeybeg Ltd for a two-storey over basement complex with restaurants, tea rooms, a café bar, gourmet foods store, outdoor terraces and a sculpture exhibition centre - despite local objection.
Situated on the city side of the wooden bridge to Bull Island, what was once an open air bathing facility is now derelict. Three years ago, An Bord Pleanála refused Abbeybeg planning permission for a similar scheme on the grounds that the site is adjacent to Bull Island - a candidate Special Area of Conservation (SPA) - and would be visually intrusive along a prominent stretch of coastline promenade. Although the site is derelict, the promenade between it and the Clontarf Road is a popular recreation area because of its views over the bay and out to the Irish Sea.
A large number of objections were received to the proposal from parties including Clontarf Residents Association, Dublin Bay Watch Limited and local elected representatives. Among concerns was that the proposal would break up the uninterrupted walkway between Alfie Byrne Road and Sutton, would attract anti-social behaviour to the area at night and that car-parking on public land would create an eye sore.
However, Dublin City Council's planners report said the development would be sufficiently distant from nearby houses "not to give rise to serious disamenity". However, planner Hugh Mannion stated that neither the structure itself or the car-parking area can become "a physical block to movement along the promenade".
The Minister for the Environment, Martin Cullen, expressed concern that sufficient assessment of the impacts on the SPA had not been undertaken. But the planner said: "Given its location on a major walking route, the established use of the site as a public baths, the attendance of bathers, the proximity of traffic and residential uses, I do not consider that the proposal represents an intrusion on an otherwise undisturbed habitat."
Among the conditions of planning permission was that drawings of a continuous walkway around the three seaward sides of the building should be submitted for the written agreement of the planning authority and the venue would not be used for concerts or as a nightclub.
It also decreed that the car-parking spaces should be reduced from 109 to 45 s and the two apartments sought for the first floor be omitted.
Abbeybeg Ltd, headed by former Olympic swimmer Stephen Cullen (brother of hotelier and publican David Cullen), bought the 5.5-acre coastal site in 1997 with the intention of retaining the baths as part of an indoor leisure amenity. His plans were scuppered when Westwood leisure centre, incorporating a 50-metre pool opened in nearby Fairview. In 1998 the baths were withdrawn from the market when they went to tender but failed to make the guide price of £300,000-£600,000.
Thirteen years ago the previous owner, MB investment, failed to win planning approval for a two-storey restaurant and parking facilities on the site of the baths. It was refused on the grounds the height of the proposed building would obstruct the sea views.
Built in 1864, the baths were bought in 1886 by WL Freeman and revamped to suit the needs of Clontarf swimming Club. It did not change hands again until 1945 for £300 when sold to Clontarf Baths Ltd on condition they maintained it as a swimming pool.
