DUBLIN LOOKS set to get its own chocolate museum in a landmark Dublin building on Merrion Square that made headlines when it sold for €485,000 in November. The selling agent was a little-known firm called Joseph Estates.
When news filtered through that the Georgian building at 95 Merrion Square West sold for €485,000, the industry was aghast that such a building would sell for an early-1990s price.
Known as the Apothecary’s Building, there is now a planning application by a company called Rycon Merrion Square Ltd to turn it into a chocolate museum and cafe in the basement, ground and first floors and a single residence on the second and third floors. The directors of Rycon Merrion Square Limited are listed as David Murphy and Michael Ryan.
There are chocolate museums all over the world, including one in Cologne in Germany which spans 3,000 years of chocolate history and features a chocolate fountain.
The Apothecary’s Building dates from the 1750s and was owned for many years by the Dublin Apothecaries who, under the 1858 Medical Act, operated an examining and licensing system for the medical profession. In 1971 the Apothecaries’ Hall lost the right to issue licences to practise medicine. Its records were transferred earlier this year to the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland.
