RetroReviews: S3454 The Odeon

This RetroReview is up next, because I checked my revisited list and found it sitting there as one I've not written up yet.

The visit was in 2019, from when I started doing the revisited lists; but never mind. I think that means I have a writeup published or scheduled for every Dublin pub I've visited since August 2016, be it new or a revisit.

So this pub is a train station. Its not a pub *in* a train station, like the selection of Railway Refreshment Room licenced premises we have in Dublin (S3132 O'Reillys, N0002 Madigans, S1512 Galway Hooker, N1879 Bloody Stream); it is a train station. Or, it was a train station.

Harcourt Street Railway Station operated for just under a century, from 1859 to 1958; when it - and the line, which connected Harcourt Street to north of Bray - closed. The station building continued to operate as, aptly for my purposes, a bar and restaurant and also the CIÉ Liquor Museum, for about a year afterwards but the building was sold and converted to offices. 

And offices it remained, until the 1990s; when it was converted in to two licenced premises - the train shed and basements becoming the S3032 POD nightclub complex (which will likely be the last RetroReviews to get written when I go back and fill in places that shut pre 2016, cause I'll do them in sorted order); and the booking hall and railway offices becoming The Odeon. 

POD opened in 1993, with The Odeon opening in 1998. The "The" in the name seems to be semi optional, it isn't always used; and the name itself needs some explanation - the Odeon cinema chain had left Ireland in the 1950s and only re-entered under their own name in 2012, having managed the UCI and Storm chains for a few years before. The pub opened when there would have been no clash with the name.

So, after all that history, should you expect a particularly historic interior? No. The 60s office conversion put paid to most of the interesting features; and while the interior is that of a quite classic and plush bar; it's not a railway ticket hall, let alone an original railway dining room - you need to go to aforementioned Galway Hooker for that.

[The] Odeon ends up being an "events bar" for me for whatever reason - I've attended everything from 21st birthdays to company Christmas parties there; and had my own leaving party from the job I spent the single longest period in (I've worked for longer in one company over two stints) there. I suspect that may be quite a major element of their business, with the premises no longer even opening Sunday or Monday