It's Friday night on Camden Street. People spill out of bars, pushing their way through the loitering crowds to the next pit-stop. Taxis whizz up and down the street, drivers exchanging expletives with pedestrians they swerve to avoid. Po-faced bouncers at Planet Murphy's grill fresh-faced clubbers for ID. Closing time hits with a bang. Thousands pour out of the 20 or so pubs in the area, and the night just keeps on going. Casinos and late restaurants do a roaring business while young lads in football jerseys zig-zag the pavements.
It's early Saturday morning and Wexford Street is clean and fresh, all incriminating evidence from the night before has been hosed away. The street traders have stalls set up, the fruit shops lay out their produce and cafes serve lattes to the stragglers of the night before.
Welcome to the Village Quarter. Stretching from St Stephen's Green, up Harcourt Street and Wexford Street, to Portobello at the canal, this network of streets is being promoted as Dublin's newest hip area. Down-at-heel for so long, the Camden Street area is shaking off its old image and going bohemian - to woo the ever-increasing numbers of young professionals living and working in the city. The name Village Quarter may conjure up images of Jack Kerouactype figures smoking rollie cigarettes in dark whisky dens in New York City, but the Dublin twist is more Notting Hill-ish by day and Club 18-30 by night.
The Village Quarter organisation is marketing the area to tourists and natives as "Dublin's most exciting location for living, working and entertainment", and talking big about plans to revitalise the area. But while Camden Street/ Portobello is becoming a new, dynamic hub of retail, culinary and after-hours activity, it's not quite the hip and happening spot in the city just yet. The juice-bar set still hangs around the cafe bars of the Grafton Street loop.
The Modern Green Bar is perhaps the trendiest bar in the area. Decked out with tropical fish in tanks and an eye-catching mural by photographer Paul McCarthy, this one-time sittingroom-style pub was revamped by the owners of the well-established Velure club. Harcourt Street bars The Odeon, The Pod and The Chocolate Bar all had their months of favour, and while they retain some popularity with twenty-somethings, they're just not chic enough to tempt the crowds from down south.
Despite the new name for the area, this axis hasn't undergone any extensive cosmetic work - bar a few new rubbish bins. The gaping holes in the South Richmond Street landscape remain, along with the huge potholes and hodgepodge footpaths. But subtle changes are taking place: this traditional "butcher, baker and candlestick maker" street is seeing younger faces nudging their way in.
New shops and cafes have set up here in recent years, and young professionals have slowly moved into the artisan dwellings. Wooden blinds are replacing net curtains on Pleasants Street and Synge Street; and chrome bars and fish tanks have taken over the old spit-and-sawdust drinking holes.
Trendy furniture stores have established a good cult following. Decor, located on Wexford Street, specialises in wood-crafted furniture, while Camden Street's Inreda is more of a funky interior design store. Its owner, Frank Goodwin, sees his shop as one of a new breed of businesses locating here. "I think what we have here is Notting Hill in the days before it became London's trendy spot. This area is perched on that pivotal spot ready to take off, and fingers crossed it won't become the next Temple Bar," says Goodwin.
Some local residents and traders are a little apprehensive about what the future holds. They are wary that the drive to establish the Village Quarter has been hijacked by publicans with sights set on creating another money-spinning destination like Temple Bar. Residents argue that Dublin doesn't need another drinking quarter for hordes of weekenders falling off cheap flights and where only IT professionals with vague job descriptions can afford to live.
Long-time resident Geraldine Walsh, chief executive of the Dublin Civic Trust, feels the plans disregard the classic function of the area and "will suck the life out of here". Goodwin would prefer to see an approach that embraces the retail concept that drives Notting Hill, with eclectic restaurants, shops and businesses, promoting a multi-ethnic environment. Just round the corner from Inreda, in the old Camden Market building on Grantham Street, is Bar Havana. This is a Spanish tapas and wine bar which has turned a few heads so far - possibly because it's one of the first of its kind.
Cafes have mushroomed. The Milk Bar on Montague Street leads the way in the vitamin drive that has recently taken grip of Dublin. Putting a new twist to liquid lunches, Milk Bar serves a variety of tasty soups for those on the run. West Coast Coffee Company, North American Grind and Insomnia Coffee Company are all representative of the new breed of cafe which take the coffee bean seriously.
The Village Quarter may not be cutting edge quite yet, but there's already a strong base in the area. Alongside the thousands of office workers and residents in the village catchment area, there are some 13,000 students from DIT Aungier Street, DIT Kevin Street, Portobello College and the Dublin Business School. Rathmines, with its young population, lies just beyond the Portobello bridge.
Camden Street is a special Dublin street with a history of ethnic diversity. There are three Muslim food shops and just off it, the Bretzel Jewish bakery, on Lennox Street, is a city institution. While Grafton Street is a model of a cosmopolitan city street, Camden Street is all-Irish - as well as having its own seedy undercurrent.
The trendy cafe bars are separated by butchers, fruit shops and hardware stores. Private members' clubs advertise their services in the side alleys, and compete with what look like houses of ill-repute for late-night custom. This is city-centre living and every pothole reminds you that you're not in London, Paris or New York - and maybe that's the appeal.
Paul Barnes, of Daintree Paper Shop, believes that the buzz of the Village Quarter comes from the influx of young people living and working here, as well as the women who work the street stalls. "There's a great atmosphere here," says Barnes, "especially for those who feel out of sorts with the cosmopolitan atmosphere of Grafton Street. It's a historic street with potential for growth, especially in the old lock-up garages down the back streets - but it can't just be all drinking venues."