Tied Houses in Dublin

Its a generally accepted rule that the tied house system, common in the UK, never applied in the majority of Ireland, being specifically a Cork oddity. However, this wasn't the case in the past and indeed isn't really the case now.

These days, the boom in craft breweries has lead there to be a number of brewery-operated premises in Dublin. The Galway Bay chain is the largest, there is also the Porterhouse chain; and Brú House (Brú Brewery) and Bar Rua (Carrig Brewing) are also brewery-controlled.

In the past, there were at least two breweries with small tied estates in Dublin.

Watkins Jameson Pim were the second-largest of Dublin's breweries and their history is well documented elsewhere - this detailed article on Come Here To Me! is a good starting point. They had at least two pubs in Dublin, both of which took the fairly traditional name for a brewery-owned pub of "The Tap", and which they continued to operate long after the end of their own brewing.

One of these was on Patrick Street and was demolished for road widening in the 1980s - it last traded as Dunnes; and another was N0197 The Tap on North King Street which is currently closed but about to reopen with a new name. The latest I can find reference to them operating these premises is 1956 story of the manager being tried for theft from the company.

There is still a company called Watkins Jameson Pim (1976) with its registered address at the old brewery house - but they produce Dalkey Mustard. After the cessation of brewing there are various news articles about the company being involved in property trading in Bulloch Harbour in Dalkey so there is presumably a solid link between them. I have also found some evidence that they had at least one other tied house outside of my scope, in Roundwood, which they were selling in 1952.

Beamish & Crawford held a large estate in Cork, but they did enter Dublin also. I have been able to trace 7 Beamish owned premises in the city during the 1940s. Those pubs still remaining include the S0042 Windjammer and S0122 The Jar, with the recently closed N0098 Welcome Inn having also been in the chain.

Finally, Guinness started purchasing pubs, mostly large suburban premises, in the 1980s but has since divested of what had become a decent enough estate. These never operated as tied houses.

This is a subject I intend to research more - find out the full extent of the estates I'm aware of, see if any of the other former breweries had their own and also when divestment occurred.

2021 Update: A 1931 licencing application by Beamish for a bulk transfer also shows the following as having been tied premises at the time: N0148 Meaghers and N0099 The Big Romance, neither of which are recorded as such by the 40s. 

I have also found reference to a Mountjoy Brewery tied property on Cook Street (in the 1910s), a Mitchells Distillery tied house (in the 1900s - and almost unheard of as a concept except in the Netherlands) and accusations that Guinness used "soft ties" in the form of purchase and capital development loans in the 1920s.

Later 2021 Update: A search for something else entirely (well, still pub based) found a licence application for the pub latterly known as the Sligo Bar on Parnell Street by the Phoenix Brewery, giving their address not as their HQ at 89 James Street, but in the pub latterly known as O'Reillys at 88 next door - which in 1897 they were advertising as the Phoenix House. Phoenix ended up, eventually, being owned by Watkins Jameson Pim via many sales but the pubs were disposed off before then.

2022 Update: I have been working through a 1955 Thoms trade listing, which turned up two of the former Beamish premises being given Beamish related names when sold off. N0098 Welcome Inn was trading as the "Beamish House", and S0122 The Jar as "The Knuckleduster" (which I hadn't connected as being Beamish-related until reminded of this branding for Beamish stout by Dublin By Pub)

2024 Update: I have found a reference - in a 2024 era Business Post article - claiming that N0250 The Villager in Chapelizod was a tied house of the nearby Phoenix Park Distillery. I've not found any further info on this though, although I know it was sold in 1904 which is the year the article mentions for this.

I've also written about Guinness's late 20th Century pub estate

 

Further 2024 update: I have landed on a 1907 reference to the Recorder of the Court for Dublin City having a personal opposition to tied houses, which certainly would not have helped the propagation of same. This is more likely to be mortgage ties rather than owned and managed houses like Beamish's premises

Irish Independent, October 7th, 1907