S1205 Harcourt Hotel

Harcourt Street is known for its hotel nightclubs. The Jackson Court is known for Coppers, the Russell Court for Diceys.

The Harcourt Hotel goes beyond this, with two nightclubs. The mainstream Dtwo, and the upmarket Black Door - so upmarket they wouldn't let me in for not having a collared shirt, albeit this was pre-pandemic - join two bars, the Harcourt Bar and the 1900 Bar in this hotel.

Having been refused entry to the premises before, and not dressed any differently this time; I decided to avoid the entrance, with its bouncer, and go in through the hotel lobby and ask where the bar is

I suspect this was not required, as I was going to the main bar door and not the Black Doors, erm, black door; but I've already written about hotel bars sometimes requiring subterfuge. It worked, and I was directed to the Harcourt Bar internally.

It's not particularly memorable; but this type of bar really isn't for me anyway.

The Incredible Moving Pub(s)

Pubs don't move. Except when they do.

There's been a run in recent months of pub operators moving to a new premises, leaving their old one rather than opening a second branch. There are also cases - recent and more historic - of both the operators and the name moving, or other cases where a pub can make some claim of it's own history on another site. 

The end-2024, early-2025 run of operator moves are interesting as they all involve relatively long moves, but still within the overall area you might consider the pubs traditional catchment.

In March/April 2024, the social media of the recently closed N1116 Clearys in Inchicore was renamed to Tom Tavey, as in N1124 Tom Tavey. This pub had been renamed to The Devils Cut, but had since closed down. And indeed, they are moving in here.

(it's important to note that my visits are points in time and I'm fairly certain that the operator of Clearys when I visited is not the same as those who have just moved to Tavey's - it is 6 years ago) 

Prior to that, the operators of N1195 Lanigans, the previous bar in the Clifton Court Hotel (but not the last one before it's most recent closure) moved in to 1014978 The Wild Duck on Sycamore Street, a return to pub operation closely awaited by some people I know.

Additionally, the operators of 1007228 The Clock took over the recently closed down S1472 Pifko/Pilsner Pub, but renamed it The Liffey Saint 

Clearys->Taveys and The Clock->The Liffey Saint are both ~400m moves; with Lanigans->The Wild Duck being more like 800m.

But what of a pub actually moving? Retaining its name, and potentially some of its atmosphere etc in the process. I've taken note over the years of a few examples, but these won't be comprehensive. And its all still subjective.

One clear example, and the only clear one still trading is the death of S0208 Bernard Shaw, and its resurrection in the up until then N2405 Racket Space, a premises with the same operator. The Racket Space name has been changed to refer to part of the venue only now. A number of these moves crossed the Liffey.

Another case, but one where the new location has since changed, is N2749 Cu Chulainns, Summerhill moving to 1002519 Cu Chulainns of Ongar in Ongar. This has been renamed twice and is now the Ongar House

In times before I have licence numbers, other known moves include the Barnstormers bikers bar moving from Townsend Street (pub since demolished) to Capel Street (now N0084 The Black Sheep); and the famed and ill-fated Irish House pub moving from Wood Quay (since very controversially  demolished) to Grove Road (also since demolished). I'm also aware of at least the name of the Steering Wheel, Bolton Street (since demolished) being moved to S2026 The Steering Wheel, Clondalkin.

There is an edge case amongst still open pubs - after the original John Clarkes in Irishtown (now S0160 Merry Cobbler) was liquidated, the Clarkes eventually took over a nearby pub which now trades as S0158 John Clarkes, and claims a founding date of 1932 - taken from the old pub.

1020014 The Dean Townhouse

My previous writuep covered a very large hotel bar on Harcourt Street. This covers probably the smallest.

The Dean Townhouse is a satellite annex to 1009296 The Dean, a place I've only ever reviewed abruptly and negatively (although I was back to it afterwards for a work event that was fine). 

Being physically disconnected from The Dean; the Dean Townhouse has it's own bar licence, its own bar and its own reception.

Or, realistically, its own bar-and-reception; for one staff member services both, which are co-located in a small space to the front of the hotel. Much of their tasks during my visit involved telling people with reservations for Sophies that it was actually in the main hotel, two doors down.

It's a nice, little, bar; but there is another space in the hotel you might drink in - it has an actually quite large (website claims 169 seated) function room in the basement with its own bar. There is the unfortunately limited drinks selection that all former Press Up (this being Dean Hotel Group now) properties have, though.

1014216 Iveagh Garden Hotel

A lot of the new pub licences in the past decade have been hotels. I suspect if I worked out actual figures we'd find that there has been a noticeable reduction in "traditional" drinking spaces, a lot of replacement with hotel bars.

And these days, those hotel bars are often smaller than they used to be, and not really intended to be used by the public. Some notable cases of this include when I felt I had to buy dinner in 1014503 Hotel 7, or feeling like I'd snuck in to get to the bar in the original 1013980 Premier Inn

So it was quite a surprise to find a vast combined bar and restaurant in the fairly new Iveagh Garden Hotel; with no expectation that I was a hotel guest and no subterfuge required.

Harcourt Street hotels usually have larger, very public bars; albeit with exceptions (see next review for not large, and 1004979 Stephens Green Hotel for one were the bar is a bit buried), so maybe this shouldn't be a surprise.

There isn't a nightclub here, however; so I don't imagine there is huge amounts of outside trade coming in. Bar is reasonable for a hotel, in terms of range, price and atmosphere; and you don't need to get a door code to use the toilets like is quite common in smaller hotel bars.

1021439 Old Fashioned Sams

A huge and slightly rambling new bar and restaurant complex on an awkward site, running from a Harcourt Street basement out to a large, effectively new build structure on Montague Street and Montague Lane. The facades of the old buildings were retained, but the structure inside is new.

Ownership seems a bit confusing here too - the licence suggests a connection to 'Ohana, which is next door on the Harcourt Street side; but it is widely reported as being a Chris Kelly Group premises.

On the evening I attended, Dublin was particularly dead - something that continued for most of my visits in January and February - and the huge premises had a small enough number of staff, concentrating on the corner bar at the main entrance. There were still, however, enough staff to have a barman per customer - and presumably some in the kitchens too!

This is an interesting setup, well designed and well implemented - and should be busier by now than it was on a January afternoon.

1021705 Porters

A new pub that's trying very hard to be old; this pub replaced a bookies in late 2024; although it had had planning for quite a long time before that.

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It'll take a bit of time for the gold trim to weather, the new leather and fabrics to get a bit worn and even for the smell of fresh paint to abate before it looks "genuine" as an old pub, but they've done a decent job.

There isn't anything particularly different or noteworthy about the pub itself, sitting on a street with many well known pubs already - but that may be enough to keep it busy and let it get more bedded in.

1021114 Premier Inn, Newmarket Square

Premier Inn spent a long time with a single hotel in Ireland; but have expanded to a significant chain in Dublin in the space of a few years - with five open and one under construction as of the time of writing this post.

Two of them incorporate former licenced premises in to their sites, so maybe they could call them by the previous name rather than giving them potentially inaccurate locations? This one being "The Liberties" and the Georges Street one being "Temple Bar".

Well, the pub that sat under this hotel was the Red Lion; and the hotel that once stood where the Georges Street one was was, erm, the Red Lion.

Scratch that idea...

Anyway, the actual bar here is tiny, even for an Irish Premier Inn; but is open to the public. I'm not sure why you'd want to come in; but you can. Toilets need a door card to be negotiated from reception, so there's further issues with just popping in for a pint.