Plans to demolish ‘D4 gem’ Smyth’s Pub facing opposition due to ‘super pub’ fears

Plans to demolish ‘D4 gem’, Smyth’s Pub on Haddington Rd, 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 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 Rd 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 has 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 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'”.

Mr McDonald states that the pub’s own website describes itself as a “D4 Gem” and he said that “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.”

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 Rd “is appropriate when viewed in the wider architectural context.”