Wednesday, 20 December 2017

1007597 The Bell

A 1960s/70s replacement building for a much older pub that was on the site before.

A quick diversion in to spatial history here:

Pubs in Blanchardstown are in general vast in size. This is because it has always remained in the old Dublin County Council area, and prior to the 2000s, had the "one mile" rule applied for new premises. This didn't quite work out as requiring them to be one mile apart, but did ensure they were relatively far away from each other, with the huge housing areas of Blanchardstown having pubs on almost a grid system.

If you look at the map, ignore the Blanchardstown Centre related licences and look at the Blakes Tavern pin this becomes quite obvious.

This added up to Blanchardstown having at times one of the worst, or the worst, pub to population ratio in the country and ensured that, just to serve demand, the pubs were gigantic. The Bell is no exception.

Like some of the pubs earlier in the day (which will be below this post), most of the tables were reserved for Christmas parties and the remaining areas were quite busy so I only found a perch near the toilets. Its a suburban pub, its nothing worth shouting about, but it does have a very good off licence adjoined. This is good both in range in and in refrigeration - huge range of conventional and craft beers, most chilled.

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