S1487 The Waterside

The previous pub writeup had a bit of history, and so shall this. Actually, this ends up being quite a bit of history.

This cavernous structure is a replacement for a much older pub on/near this site, which was one of the series of pubs that sat alongside nearly every lock on the Grand Canal. 

Formerly the 9th Lock, and latterly the puntastic Lough & Quay, the pub building was replaced in the early 2000s with a building including a large pub, multiple retail units and a restaurant unit that I don't think ever operated as such - it is now a gym.

Many of the locks on the Grand Canal had a pub (or hotel) beside it, primarily because the passenger flyboats that plied trade on the canal would have stopped at each lock awaiting the water level changes required to pass said lock. This would provide time for crew and passengers to sink a pint. These were also often the official boarding points, so people may have been waiting for the boat to arrive.

This pub was, as you'd guess from the old name, at the 9th lock; and had lock-neighbours with pubs; but they're all gone.

The 10th lock is relatively close to the West, and the 11th even closer to the 19th; so the next lock with a pub that direction was the 12th - where the imaginatively named 12th Lock Bar burned down in the early 1990s (the 13th lock is well in to County Kildare).

Going East, there was nothing at the 8th lock, at least that I'm aware of; but the 7th lock had... can you guess it yet? - the 7th Lock pub; or as it was called latterly, the Killeen House. This pub closed for an apartment development in about 2006, recently enough to still appear in some online directories. I began working nearby in 2007 and do not remember the pub; but my office was directly above a different pub (most recently S4157 Parkwest Tavern), so we didn't travel much.

The 6th, 5th, and 4th locks now all appear very quickly; but the 3rd also had a pub at it - and it finally breaks the naming scheme; but not the thing of being closed; for it was N1117 Blackhorse Inn.

So, the Waterfront is a survivor amongst these lockside pubs. It's also busy as hell, based on my single visit.

On entering the pub, I was asked by a manager at the door as to what I was looking for - and at this stage, I wanted food. There were, however, no tables available so I was sat at the bar to wait for a table and have access to drinks. And, unfortunately, forgotten about. 

After two pints, and reminding them that I was actually waiting for a table, I was whisked to an available one; and service from this point on was impeccably attentive (it had been fine at the bar to begin with). The food was, also, good