The historic Conway’s Pub, opposite the Rotunda Maternity Hospital on Dublin’s Parnell Square, has been designated “endangered” by Dublin City Council after 17 years of vacancy and a slide towards dereliction.
The four-storey redbrick Victorian pub is on the city’s Record of Protected Structures.
It is owned by UK property group Hammerson, which plans a mixed retail, office and residential scheme on a 5.5-acre site stretching from O’Connell Street to Moore Street and Henry Street to Parnell Street.
The restoration of Conway’s, which Hammerson has owned since 2016, forms part of its 2021 Dublin Central master plan for the area. Although three redevelopment applications have been made under the master plan, none have yet related to the repair and reopening of the historic pub.
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The council is now assessing the building for inclusion on the Derelict Site Register, which would result in Hammerson having to pay annual levies of 7 per cent of the building’s market value.
However, the council has already added the pub to its historic Buildings-at-Risk Register and opened a “live endangerment file” as “this Protected Structure is considered to be endangered”, it said.
The ground floor of the pub has been shuttered since its closure in 2008. The previous owner, developer Joe O’Reilly’s Chartered Land, wrapped steel supports around the upper levels of the building approximately 12 years ago. In 2022 Hammerson boarded up the windows on the upper three storeys.
However, the ornate ground floor “shopfront” has deteriorated significantly in recent years.
Sinn Féin city councillor Mícheál Mac Donncha, who is secretary of the Moore Street Preservation Trust, said the landmark historic building has been “allowed to deteriorate to a disgraceful condition” under the ownership of Hammerson.
“This could and should be a thriving pub. But our inadequate planning laws allow property speculators to buy up chunks of the city and deliberately let them go derelict. This is what the Moore Street Preservation Trust is campaigning against.”
The trust has initiated High Court judicial review proceedings over An Bord Pleanála’s decision to permit Hammerson’s plans relating to protected structures in the Moore Street area.
The council said it was engaging with Hammerson regarding the endangerment file. It said the firm recently advised it was awaiting a decision on an application for grant funding for “shopfront repairs” under the Built Heritage Investment Scheme. This scheme is intended to support building owners to fund conservation works to historic buildings, which can be costly.
Hammerson has confirmed its application was rejected this week. A spokesman for the company said “a piece of timber blew off the building” during the recent storms, but it is already in discussions with the council to secure approval for works to restore the pub exterior without the requirement for planning permission.
If exemption from planning permission is granted “works will commence at the developer’s cost”, the spokesman said.
