Marlborough Street is where church and state meet with the Department of Education and the Pro-Cathedral facing each other. At opposite ends of the street are two other important institutions in the life of the State – the Abbey Theatre and An Bord Pleanála.
It should be a thriving, attractive street in the capital city of what is, on paper and if GDP figures are to be believed, one of the richest countries in the world.
Instead, it is a mess of dereliction, vacancy and under-utilised buildings in keeping with so many other streets in Dublin’s north inner city. Marlborough Street is bookended by vacancy at one end and dereliction at the other.
At the corner with Eden Quay facing the river Liffey is Lefroy House, a 100-year-old redbrick building which used to house the Seamen’s Institute. It has been vacant since 2021 when State funding was withdrawn for its use as an emergency hostel for teenagers. In 2022, it was occupied by homeless campaigners.
Across the road is the side entrance to 15-16 Eden Quay, the old City of Dublin Steam Packet Company. The building was purchased by the Abbey Theatre in 2012 as part of its redevelopment plans. It will form part of the Abbey’s transformation which will see a large part of this street and Lower Abbey Street demolished to make way for a new cultural quarter.
At the other end of Marlborough Street at the corner of Parnell Street is one of the most egregious examples of dereliction in the whole of Dublin. The Welcome Inn was closed as a pub in 2011.
In the last 14 years, it has been left abandoned and rotting. Slates are falling off the roof, the windows are long since smashed in. Bushes have sprouted from the abandoned pub car park and have now overgrown the graffiti-strewn hoardings. Worst still this exemplar of urban decay is next door to the offices of An Bord Pleanála.
Despite its status as a perennial eyesore, Dublin City Council only saw fit to put it on the Derelict Sites Register in April last year. A valuation of €400,000 was put on the site which means the owner will incur from the start of this year a 7 per cent levy (€28,000 annually) for every year it remains derelict.
In its handwritten ledger of derelict properties, Dublin City Council lists the owner as John Fitzpatrick address unknown and care of Rowley Law Solicitors in Rathfarnham. When contacted by The Irish Times, the firm stated: “We haven’t had any communication from Mr Fitzpatrick in a considerable period of time. We are not sure that we do act for him any more.”
[ Derelict Dublin: Why are there so many rotting buildings in the capital?Opens in new window ]
Despite being clearly abandoned, Dublin City Council does not propose to use its powers to compulsorily purchase the building stating: “Any site/property considered for acquisition is assessed with regard to the level of dereliction, cost and extent of remedial works required in repairing the property as well as the cost and funding restraints, and complications associated with upgrading the building in achieving compliance with building regulations (specifically for fire safety, accessibility, thermal performance) in the provision of residential accommodation or to other determine future uses of properties.”
Green Party inner-city councillor Janet Horner raised the issue of CPO with the council last year but got nowhere.
There is a “sense of distain and disrespect” on the part of the powers that be she says for this part of Dublin which would not be tolerated elsewhere in the city. “It’s the constant curse of Dublin. There are multiple state agencies and nobody is taking responsibility. People assume it is somebody else’s problem to deal with.”
There is “huge frustration” she adds at the pace at which the city council is tackling dereliction. Instead, of taking a proactive approach, it is depending on the public to inform it of dereliction.
A case in point is No 77 Marlborough Street which is clearly derelict, but is not on the Derelict Sites Register. It used to be home to Donal Stanley Clerical Outfitters Limited, but it closed in 2007 and the site has been vacant. Next door No 78 went on the market last year at €880,000. It sold for just €210,000, a clear indication that the private sector shows little interest in buildings like this despite Dublin’s well-documented housing crisis.
Well-known architect Hugh Wallace, the presenter of the popular RTÉ TV series The Great House Revival, points to other problems on the street. He says Irish Life has turned its back on the street and all its working offices facing on to it have blinds, so too has Cathal Brugha FET College which has only one entrance on to the street. Sports Direct uses Marlborough Street as a back door. “What energy does this street give me? None, I feel like it is being pulled out of me.”
He says if he had his way he would compulsorily purchase some buildings, knock them and put together sufficient sites that would attract private developers to build housing in the area. Much of the redevelopment of abandoned properties is too expensive for the private sector at present, he states, so the private sector can only build at scale.
With regard to the empty shopfronts on the street, demand for retail units in general is clearly in decline, he says, and local authorities should be looking to transform many of them into homes.
There was a time when 400,000 people lived in Dublin between the two canals. If people are going to be attracted to live in Dublin city centre, radical action will have to be taken, he believes. Irish people need to stop thinking of living in apartments as an undesirable outcome. “We need to get over that,” he says. “We need to turn the negative issues into the positive issues.”
Despite its sorry state there are good things happening on Marlborough Street which give hope for the future. The old Plough Pub, an eyesore directly across from the Abbey Theatre, was sold off by the council and has been developed with a pharmacy on the ground floor and apartments above.
The old Telephone Work Building is being turned into a 210 bedroom Aparthotel for Hilton. The Seaman’s Institute, which went on the market in October, is sale agreed.
Abbey Theatre executive director Mark O’Brien says the transformation of the area will cost €200 million. The preliminary plans have been signed off by the Department of Arts and Culture and are now going to the major project advisory group in the Department of Public Expenditure.
“We are hoping it will go to Cabinet for sign-off this summer,” he said. The bad news it that the redevelopment will take eight to 10 years even with a fair wind. “There is a real hunger for this to happen. It can’t come quick enough for any of us.”
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