Reopenings, Replacements and Renovations

When is a pub a new pub, and when is it just a reopening or a renovation? This is something that's come up a bit recently with people asking me if I've visited N0192 Bonobo - formerly N0192 The Richmond which I popped in to in October 2017, back when I wrote slightly shorter posts for each pub.

I'll inevitably go there at some stage - craft bar in an accessible location - but it raises the wider question. Recently The Well opened on Stephens Green West, in the location of S3908 Dandelion, which I visited before starting the blog (as it was already closed when I started the blog it'd have been hard to have done it since!). This hasn't reappeared on the register yet, but even turning up with a new number does not mean it is actually a new licence, because renumberings happen all the time.

The same question has arisen when 1014760 The Richmond Gastropub in Inchicore - I visited this when it was N1113 The Village Inn many, many years ago - 2007 or 2008. Its the same building, with quite a different pub inside it now. Maybe not as different as the change from the (other) Richmond to Bonobo, or converting a nightclub to a cafebar as with Dandelion -> The Well, but I'm not sure where to draw the line. Bonobo is really just a renovation as the pub wasn't closed for long, but The Well and The Richmond Gastropub reopened long-closed premises.

Currently I'm deeming anything that reopens in the same premises as being the "same pub"; but there will soon be cases of hotel bars appearing on former pub/theatre licence sites. Amongst those I visited as pubs or clubs were S0039 The Long Stone, N0018 The Big Tree, S2957 Tivoli Theatre (may times from 2005 until December 2018) and 1009202 Hangar/Andrews Lane Theatre. Do these visits count, whether the licence number changes or not?

I set my own "rules" here, as there's no actual challenge as such, seeing as at least two people are known to have already visited every pub in Dublin (Mac Moloney and Yuya Abe); so I'm going to wait to decide on the hotel front. I suspect the replacement for the Long Stone is going to be completely unrecognisable from the original and require a re-visit; but the hotel on the Big Tree site is retaining the older corner buildings and the plan is for the bar to be in the same area and still called the Big Tree - not providing much justification at all to require a re-visit.