Bewley's cafés have been an integral part of Dublin life for more than a century and a half, but it stops now, writes Hugh Oram
Bewley's cafés are imbued with rich layers of nostalgia and the scents of coffee and sticky buns. For the past 164 years, they have been an integral part of Dublin life, but no longer.
At one time or another, many literary and artistic figures frequented Bewley's, from James Joyce to Patrick Kavanagh to Mary Lavin.
Many theatrical people such as Cyril Cusack and Noel Purcell were taken with the extravagant old-fashioned decor of Bewley's. Purcell was renowned for singing the Dublin Saunter, composed by Leo Maguire, which encapsulated the spirit of both old Dublin and Bewley's.
Many historical events in Dublin over the past century and a half have had a connection with Bewley's. Just over 30 years ago, the Irishwomen's Liberation Movement was born in Bewley's of Westmoreland Street; one of its founders was Mary Maher, then an Irish Times journalist.
The Bewley family were prominent Quakers who came to Ireland in 1700. Its many branches have long been prominent in the Religious Society of Friends, meticulously applying Quaker principles of fairness to the way in which they ran the business.
The first Bewley's was set up in Sycamore Alley just off Dame Street by Joshua Bewley in 1840. It started off as a shop selling coffee, but it wasn't a café. Eventually it did evolve into the café and shop premises at nearby South Great George's Street which closed in recent years.
In the 19th century, Dublin had a plethora of Bewley companies including a shipbuilders in Dublin port - but all have long since gone.
One of Joshua's sons, Ernest, was a much more go-ahead businessman than his father and it was he who developed the Westmoreland Street café which opened in 1900. Ernest had intended to open a bicycle shop there but his business partner proved unreliable so he opted for a café instead. He opened in Grafton Street in 1927.
Ernest had also built a fine house, Danum, at Zion Road in Rathgar which the family sold to the High School in 1956.
The cost of developing the Grafton Street premises, complete with the stained glass windows commissioned from Harry Clarke, was such that the firm was nearly bankrupted.
Not until the end of the 1930s did Bewley's start to overcome the debt mountain created by its Grafton Street café.
Bewley's was renowned for its baking of bread and cakes, and for many years had a bakery in Long Lane, near the old Meath Hospital, while it used to make chocolates in Grafton Street.
One of Ernest's sons, Victor, was just 20 when he had to take over the running of the business in 1932 after the sudden death of his father at the age of 72.With the help of other members of the family, including his brother Alfred, he kept Bewley's going. During the second World War/Emergency, Bewley's was renowned for feeding poor children living close to the city centre.
Later Victor, who was also an early champion of the rights of the Travelling community, handed the firm over to his employees, complete with a profit-sharing scheme. In the old style, many of the staff spent their entire working lives with the cafés.
For its time it was a radical move, but the profits vanished to the point where in 1986 the firm was only saved when it was taken over by Patrick Campbell's catering firm. Campbell saved Bewley's Cafés from oblivion - until now. The firm had managed to survive earlier troubles like the devastating fire in the Westmoreland Street café in 1977.
Over the years, parts of the Bewley empire were disposed of before the Campbell takeover, most notably farms near Dublin airport and in Clondalkin. The Bewleys transferred their farm interests to Moyvalley between Enfield and Kinnegad.
In the 1960s, the firm expanded by opening cafés in suburban locations such as the Stillorgan shopping centre.
The three city centre cafés, on Grafton Street, Westmoreland Street and South Great George's Street, remained largely unchanged for many years, complete with coal fires, smoking rooms for Dublin businessmen and the traditionally black-dressed waitresses.
Bewley's Cafés have now run out of time as the traditional cups of coffee and the Bewley's style simply are not profitable any more. One more old Dublin institution has succumbed to progress.
Hugh Oram is author of Bewley's, published by Albertine Kennedy Publishing, Dublin, in 1980