Among Dubliners who socialise in their city centre there is often irritation about anything further disrupting the cultural fabric of the city. Perceived hostility to hanging out is a trigger point. The closure of the Complex arts centre, the threatened injunction against the club Izakaya by the Hoxton hotel, and the proposed redevelopment of St Stephen’s Green shopping centre weren’t just met with grumbles, but protest.
In recent years pedestrianisation has expanded to include Parliament Street and Capel Street, both much more pleasant now than when they were car-clogged, with plenty of public seating.
The most obvious example of pedestrianisation contributing to vibrancy is Drury Street, at the fringe of the George’s Street Arcade. Drury Street draws large numbers of people to shop, eat outside its restaurants, drink outside its pubs and popular wine bar, and hang out on its kerbs. It has become such a focal point some Dubliners now refer to hanging out there as “Drury Duty”.
Last week news emerged that Dublin City Council revoked the outdoor licence of a pub on the street, Ciss Maddens, meaning their Drury Street terrace is no more – at least for the moment. This provoked the usual reactions, irritation flowing in that familiar slipstream: why are they taking away things that we like? Why are they killing the vibe?
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On Thursday evening before 7pm the sun was shining and the street was busy. Tourists paused to take photographs, capturing the vibrant scene. As the evening wore on those hanging out on the kerbs tended to be younger, with those in surrounding pubs older.
Shortly before 10pm, there were pockets of younger people sitting on the kerb. One group of 20- and 21-year-olds were celebrating finishing an exam. Why do they hang out on the street? “There’s no third spaces,” one person, Debbie, said. One young man who didn’t want to give his name said, “Drury Street itself represents culture. There’s community here. Community is a big word in all of this.”
The atmosphere on the street at night was lively but not messy or hectic. However, the vibe on the upper part of the street had changed. With Ciss Maddens’ terrace gone, there was a new feeling of emptiness, even scrappiness, to that part of the street.
I spoke to the owner of Ciss Maddens, Paul Keaveny. “We’re saddened and disappointed to have our licence revoked,” he said. “But I’ve no comment to make on our situation out of courtesy to Dublin City Council, with whom we are attempting to engage to find a resolution that satisfies all stakeholders.”
Neither he nor the council would comment on why the licence was revoked, but Keaveny did want to talk about the street itself, speaking of its heritage going back to the 1880s.
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“It was basically a market area, and it’s going back to that now in a sense: 50 per cent is occupied by hospitality and 50 per cent is retail so it’s a very mixed street,” he said. “The beauty of it is it’s full of independent businesses, Irish-owned, Irish-operated, imaginative businesses. We need to be careful that all the stakeholders can work together and maintain the sociability on the street.”
When it comes to a sense of busyness in Dublin city centre, Drury Street is a rare success story. Some retailers on the street, however, express frustration about street-drinking and its consequences.
Dublin City Council said it does not comment on individual outdoor dining licences but that the council has been “actively engaged with businesses on Drury Street through a dedicated working group since last year, with the shared goal of improving and enhancing the street for businesses, residents and visitors alike”.
“Dublin City Council remains committed to supporting a thriving and vibrant business environment across the city.”
Ultimately, any tension Drury Street throws up is not about it being pedestrianised. It’s because not enough of the surrounding streets are. Without pedestrianising surrounding streets beyond the adjoining Castle Market, Drury Street becomes a bottleneck. What’s successful is people wanting to hang out on the street. What’s not successful is allowing cars to squeeze pedestrians out around it.
Parallel to Drury Street is South William Street, partly paved with cobblestones and utterly unsuited to car traffic – and yet that persists. In a snapshot of footfall published by traders’ organisation DublinTown last February, footfall on South William Street was down 54 per cent from the same week the previous year. This is terrible news for that street. Another parallel street, Clarendon Street, has virtually no street life, with most visible activity being cars in and out of a car park. Were both these streets pedestrianised and outdoor dining and markets facilitated, this entire area of the city would be hugely enhanced.
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“Pedestrianisation is a positive thing,” Ray O’Donoghue, Dublin City Council’s night-time economy adviser, also known as the Night Mayor, said on Friday, “I’d love to see in Dublin where you could walk one spot to the next fully pedestrianised.”
O’Donoghue recently launched Dublin By Dusk, a new initiative where galleries will open later on the last Thursday of every month, beginning on May 28th. O’Donoghue said, “It’s about trying to make more of what’s already there.”
Making more of what’s already there is a good mindset. And this extends to street life. That means more terraces, more public seating, and more pedestrianised space so that retailers and restaurants don’t feel overly infringed. It’s about making the ecosystem work – and core to that is people. The more street life is facilitated, the nicer a city is.
Drury Street is not without its bumps and issues. But this doesn’t make it a problem to solve. Its positive attributes make it something to replicate.
