Plan for National Children’s Science Centre put on hold

Plans for the proposed National Children’s Science Centre for Dublin and refurbishment of parts of the National Concert Hall (NCH) have been put on hold.

This follows Pom Boyd lodging a third-party appeal with An Bord Pleanála against Dublin City Council’s green light to the Office for Public Works (OPW) for the project last month.

Ms Boyd’s concerns over the scheme centre around its impact on the adjacent Iveagh Gardens.

The OPW recently said that the project would cost in excess of €47 million because of construction inflation. The National Children’s Science Centre is to be located on a site beside the NCH on Earlsfort Terrace off St Stephen’s Green.

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The scheme involves the change of use of the former University College Dublin school of civil engineering to the National Children’s Science Centre and the refurbishment of parts of the NCH and the Real Tennis Court building together with the construction of a new, four-storey building with a planetarium dome at the boundary of Iveagh Gardens.

Last month, the council granted planning after concluding that the proposal “would constitute a positive and sustainable adaptation and reuse of historic buildings that will likely extend their long established cultural and educational usage into the future”.

In her initial submission to the council on behalf of herself and the Save the Iveagh Gardens Campaign, Ms Boyd said the gardens were “a unique asset and make a significant contribution to the city’s heritage”.

She said that “in its attempt to reimagine the past back to 1865 by reuniting Iveagh Gardens with the NCH, the proposal will in actuality erase a piece of extant heritage, making the premise of the proposal questionable”.

She also argued that the OPW plan would change the use of Iveagh Gardens from an enclosed public park to that of a busy urban realm.

In a separate submission to the council, Caroline Butler and Melissa Murray echoed Ms Boyd’s concerns. They said that Iveagh Gardens was “an oasis within the city – hidden, quiet and quietly mysterious” and point out it was celebrated in Maeve Binchy’s novel, Circle of Friends.

The OPW initially secured planning permission for the project in 2016. However funding issues helped prevent the scheme advancing during the lifetime of the planning permission and changes in planning law necessitated the lodging of the new plans.