Despite the overabundance of pubs in Dublin, the news that Lincoln's Inn closed its doors at the end of last month is sorrowful. To begin with, Lincoln's Inn is one of the capital's oldest bars, dating back to 1926, before which it was part of Finn's Hotel, where James Joyce's wife, Nora Barnacle, worked as a chambermaid, writes Robert O'Byrne
Closure meant the snapping of this historical chain as well as the loss of a local hostelry for generations of students attending Trinity College.
But those students, past and present, should be aware of which organisation was responsible for the shutters coming down on this old pub. The college authorities closed Lincoln's Inn because they had bought back its leasehold in order "to facilitate some reorganising". Quite what this phrase might mean was not explained by Tim Cooper, TCD's director of buildings, but if the pub's fate is similar to that of adjacent properties, then its admirers ought to resign themselves to indefinite closure.
Other premises
Until a few years ago, Lincoln's Inn stood alongside a number of other premises: a friendly little newsagent's; a second-hand bookshop in which bargains could always be discovered; an Italian restaurant that seemed to have been in business for as long as Lincoln's Inn. One after another, they were shut down, presumably because TCD wished to facilitate some more "reorganising".
None of them has since reopened and now this particular stretch of South Leinster Street and Lincoln Place offers a blank face to the public - ironically, just at the moment when, directly opposite on Clare Street, the National Gallery has opened its crowd-pulling new extension.
Thanks to TCD's reorganising, part of a once-healthy commercial environment has been lost, and this will inevitably have consequences. All business is mutually dependent; the more shops and other businesses there are in any one area, the greater the volume of consumers who are drawn there. If a large number of premises are closed to the public, those which remain are liable to find their turnover down.
Proof of this unhappy rule of commerce can be found on Pearse Street. Here, as in Clare Street/Lincoln Place, TCD chose to acquire an extensive property portfolio and then engage in some reorganising. For approximately one kilometre from College Green out towards the Grand Canal, TCD now owns the south side of Pearse Street, with no evident advantages for the surrounding area. All retail premises here have been closed and other traders in the vicinity will testify to the damage this has done their own businesses.
The college's apparent neglect of its civic responsibilities has so incensed some local residents that they have formed an organisation to fight further expansion by Trinity, now the biggest landowner in south central Dublin. To date however, despite taking its case to the local authority, this new body has not managed to reopen any of the old premises which once brought so much life - and so many people - to Pearse Street. Their doors remain shut to the public, as all too probably will those along Clare Street/Lincoln Place. For TCD, reorganising seems to lead to permanent closure.
Expansionist intentions
At the moment, it is particularly difficult to understand the reasoning behind college's expansionist intentions which have also seen the east end of the campus turned into a building site for the past decade. Back in 2000, an ESRI report warned that changing demographics in this country meant all third-level colleges here would "face a major shortage of students over the next 15 years".
Three months ago, this newspaper warned that student numbers had already started to "plummet" and in March we carried the news that fewer and fewer Irish school children were sitting the Leaving Certificate and that all colleges would therefore have to expect applications from "a shrinking pool of potential third-level students".
None of this information seems to have reached the relevant authorities in TCD because at the end of March it was announced that the college had bought two more buildings in central Dublin: the former Bord Gais headquarters on D'Olier Street; and the old AIB bank outlet on Foster Place. Again, anyone interested in the capital's stock of historic properties should be worried about the future of these two sites, given TCD's track record. Until vacated by Bord Gais a year ago, the D'Olier Street building had been continually occupied by gas companies since 1825. Its present appearance dates from the late 1920s when it was redesigned internally and externally in the art deco style which scarcely otherwise exists, at least on this scale, in Ireland. The double-height main hall is especially impressive since most of its old fittings still remain in place.
Foster Place
The Foster Place block is just as architecturally important, the grandiose 12-bay limestone facade dominated by an enormous mid-19th century portico. Prior to AIB's recent departure, this had been a bank for more than 200 years, but the present interior was created in 1859 by Charles Geoghegan, who opened up the space to produce a double-height, top-lit hall with coffered and glazed ceiling supported by lines of slender cast-iron Corinthian columns; other original features include an enormous horseshoe mahogany counter and lavish Connemara marble fireplaces.
It may be that TCD shows itself an intelligent new owner of these two properties, sensitive to their historic significance, aware of their importance in promoting business in the city centre. But on the evidence of how the college has behaved towards other recently acquired buildings, the signs are not encouraging. Be prepared: the Lincoln Inn will remain closed and "reorganising" can be expected in Foster Place and D'Olier Street.
Even while student numbers are in decline, Trinity College just keeps getting bigger.