Showing posts with label NecroReview. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NecroReview. Show all posts

Saturday, 3 May 2025

NecroReviews: S1593 Cuckoo's Nest

This post is another part of the last barrel-scrape of place I'd missed doing a writeup for; and probably just in time - this will be "promoted" back to just being a RetroReview by virtue of the pub finally reopening, if I ever remember to edit it.

The Cuckoo's Nest is a famed old roadhouse of a pub, sited on the Greenhills Road; and was a regular place for lunches, going away parties and other work events when I worked nearby - albeit lots of people preferred 1009200 The Laurels in Clondalkin for after-work events. I think this was because a lot of them lived nearer and wanted to drive home before drinking. 

The pub served the large residential areas of Kilnamanagh and Kingswood as well as the daytime food trade for the large industrial estates around it; and historically operated as a music venue as well.

The pub closed in 2015, with various redevelopment plans afoot; and was set alight in 2016.

Much redevelopment did occur - with apartments, houses and a new Tallaght Theatre built on the lands surrounding the pub (plus the site of the original Tallaght Theatre); and there seemed to be little hope for the pub to reopen, particularly as planning proposals continued to change.

However, the pub is currently undergoing reconstruction, and while an original date of Autumn 2024 has long since sailed past us, it is likely that it will be open by Autumn 2025.

Saturday, 19 April 2025

NecroReview: S4157 Parkwest Tavern

Another one from the 'trawl the list to make sure everything is written up' efforts; this is a pub that was below my office for most of 2007; and which I would occasionally have lunch or after-work pints in - including the last lunch I ever ate in Parkwest when our long delayed office move got approved to be on at 11am on a random weekday - an urgent "last supper" style booking was put in and we were back up and running in the new office in Tallaght by about 4.

Back then, this was called Bennigans and I assumed it was part of the US chain of Irish bars, which announed they were entering Ireland in 2004 with a local franchiser opening branches in 2005. These were still going in 2008, when the US master franchiser entered bankruptcy; but had renamed by time of their own liquidation in 2009.

However, I can find no reference to this having been run by the Irish franchiser; and also this pub was renamed to "Hennigans"; yet the other Bennigans became Brannigans.  

Additionally, the Parkwest branch was opened in December 2004, by the model Abbi Titmus, some time before the two known Bennigans branches, with the Cork opening in 2005 being mentioned as the first in Ireland. 

This makes me suspect this was coincidentally, maybe deliberately, named and may have had to rename due to the other Bennigans existing and having the trademark, rather than rename when they ceased to be Bennigans. As what must have been a seperate entity, it wasn't affected by their bankruptcy, but a gang linked death in 2009 lead to the pubs closure anyway.

However, this doesn't fall in to my "crypt" category of pubs; those that were closed entirely before 2016, as it reopened in the late 2010s as the Parkwest Tavern. This, however, did not reopen after the pandemic. Parkwest has a continually growing population, so I'm surprised nobody has had another go at opening this since, but as it is still licenced it may yet reappear.

Monday, 14 April 2025

The Crypt: Polly Hops

This pub closed so long ago that I don't have a licence number on file for it. It burned down just before Christmas 2007; and there were never real plans to reopen it so I presume the licence disappeared off the register that year. My oldest copies are from 2010.

My Dad, who doesn't drink, quite liked this pub; and we'd go here semi frequently for food, and I definitely drank there on some of the latter trips.

While I never attended them, the pub was known for its trad music and dancing shows, to which bus loads of tourists would come out for "dinner and a show" packages. This is something that still exists elsewhere, notably in the Dublin mountains and foothills at S0336 Johnnie Foxes, S2031 Merry Plougboy, and 1002618 Taylors Three Rock; as well as some city centre pubs that don't need to do the bus bit.

Newcastle, which you could say Polly Hops was in, at a stretch, has lost two of its three pubs to fire - McEvoys burnt in 2004; and while the McEvoys shell still sits there, the Polly Hops site was rapidly cleared and is now used as a light industrial estate. Oddly enough, the next pub North of here towards Lucan, the Fox's Head, also burnt down in the early 90s.

Tuesday, 18 March 2025

The Crypt: S4512 Captain Americas

After finishing (well, I say finishing - I keep finding ones I've left out) my RetroReview series of pubs which I visited before 2016 and then the NecroReview series of places which had fully closed down by the time I got to do their RetroReview I'm left with a tiny handful of writeups to do that are pubs which were entirely off the register before 2016.

Pubs can be closed and remain on the register for years, indeed one of the places I've given a review on the basis that it's permanently closed still holds its licence (N2030 The Good Bits); and the mid/late 2010s financial recovery reopened a lot of closures from the crash, so very few pubs that I've been to have gone for good. I started drinking in Dublin's pubs in ~2003, and legally in 2005; and I'm actually surprised by how few were off the register within the first 13 years. At the moment I think there's only two.

So we're starting with the only one where I have a licence number on file - I was able to get six prior years of registers from Revenue's Statistics office. 

The only Dublin branch of Captain Americas to have closed, that I'm aware of, this opened in 2007 in the never successful public plaza outside 1008408 Glashaus Hotel and seems to have shut down around 2011. I worked in the area from 2007 and would end up here occasionally for work lunches or events

If you've been to the Blanchardstown branch, it was quite like that.

Saturday, 8 March 2025

NecroReview: N1958 Becketts Hotel

The second of the accidentally dug up missed pubs, this was missed as it has a Kildare address on the licence file; but is not in Kildare - it is very much in Dublin.

It's also very much closed. Branded more as a restaurant than a hotel, albeit it did always have rooms, this did not reopen after the pandemic. 

I was here for a number of family dinners over the years, at least one of which I wasn't driving for; with the last one I remember being in 2014.

Saturday, 1 March 2025

NecroReview: 1001897 Bunker

Some work on cleaning up lists made me realise that two premises were left of my "pubs visited pre 2016" list that have since closed. In this case, it was temporarily off the licence register when I made that list.

Bunker is yet another dead club space in Dublin; but it was only this temporarily - this was the second generation Harry's Bar; the bar area of the 3Arena/Point Depot, and echoing an original Harrys Bar in the original Point.

The bar was completely underground, accessed from either its own staircase entrance or through one of the exits from the underground carpark of the Point Square. It was built to be in the basement of the Watchtower building; which never got above ground level.

A dark and slightly awkwardly laid out place to work as a club space, it still got used as such due to the hideous lack of them in Dublin. 

The venue has been physically dug up as part of the construction of the Exo Building and 1020980 Glasshouse.

Tuesday, 25 February 2025

NecroReview: S4466 Odessa

Back when I worked in radio, we had a Christmas party here. At the same time, a rival radio group had their party on another floor and we strongly suspected they were sneaking down to use our 'free' (to a point) bar by claiming plausible deniability if asked if they were at "the radio party"

Other than that I don't remember much. The premises closed for a refit quite some time ago, with a small hotel planned; but this has dragged ridiculously. The surrounding buildings, on both sides of the road, are or have been re/developed as hotels in the interim so there must be some demand for it - possibly it's just slightly too small.

Thursday, 20 February 2025

NecroReview: S3757 Browns Barn, Citywest

A barn - a stables apparently used for the Bianconi horse coach services - converted in the main in to a barn of a pub and restaurant; this place was a regular location for work lunches and even the odd work party when I worked in Citywest.

I still have a pint glass that a work colleague took from here when heading to a taxi home; and then left in my house before getting back to his.

I don't think that pint glass is why they closed; though, but instead the prevailing economy of the time and possibly a change in where drivers stopped for food - this was really more of a restaurant than a pub, but was quite close to the city, and became quicker in time when the Newlands Cross upgrade finished.

The licence was sold out to the Clontarf Baths restaurant, which itself isn't trading right now (at time of writing), but has been sold to NolaClan and I expect will reopen by this Summer. 


Saturday, 15 February 2025

NecroReview: S3099 Central Hotel

eh, it is still closed but The Hoxton Hotel is going to reopen here and use the licence at some point soon - they were hiring for management grade staff in October 2024. Consider this a holding page before this becomes a RetroReview

I have drunk here, but not in the Library Bar - which may come back something a bit like its old state, but reduced in size. I can't remember much about it - I was 17!

Tuesday, 11 February 2025

NecroReview: S3032 POD Complex

Another club, and indeed another club where I spent a considerable amount of time - but only really in one section of it. While places I visited often, often end up with shorter writeups - you can see how terse the RetroReview posts for my most regular pubs ended up, there's a lot to write about with POD. Thankfully, someone's already written up a lot of what I'd need to do otherwise!

The POD Complex - the "Place of Dance", although I suspect this is a backronym - was Dublin's first modern nightclub, but in a very not modern building. It was in the bulk of the former Harcourt Street Railway Station, including the actual train hall and much of the undercrofting; but not the ticket hall (this is the unconnected S3454 Odeon), or the elements of the vaults in retail use.

POD opened in 1993, founded by John Reynolds, the nephew of the provincial dance hall owner (and former Taoiseach) Albert Reynolds. Reynolds - John - was only in his mid 20s at the time. 

The history is already documented elsewhere, and better than I'll re-research:

“Jesus, this city is wide open for a fashionable club…” How John Reynolds created Dublin’s The Pod - 909originals

The making of Dublin’s The Pod and RedBox nightclubs - 909originals

Going on the physical setup side only, two additional areas were added to the complex, all within the train station - the Chocolate Bar in 1994 and RedBox in 1996.

The original Chocolate Bar became the more rock oriented Crawdaddy in 2004, with a "new Chocolate Bar" opening in 2009 in what I believe was originally a lobby area.

In 2006, the RedBox venue upstairs changed to Tripod; which is where I attended the most - if I have time, I'll dig up some of the many ticket stubs and wristbands I have from seeing some of the biggest DJs that there were in the 00s here. While POD was a dance music nightclub, open pretty much all the time you'd expect; RedBox/Tripod was a venue and hosted anything and everything stylistically.

The entire complex shut for good in 2012; and lay idle for many years before conversion to offices. Some of the space had been offices from the 60s to 90s to begin with. The end wall, once punctured by a runaway train, now has rather more openings in it than when it just had the door to RedBox/Tripod

POD still exist as a festival promoter. John Reynolds died suddenly in 2018, aged just 52. He had been planning a new music venue on Clarendon Market at the time of his death.

Thursday, 6 February 2025

NecroReview: S2957 Tivoli Theatre

And we're back to our regularly scheduled "dead club spaces of Dublin" feature, as this is mostly turning out to be. There's a storied history here too, though, so at least we're keeping some lineage between the previous post and this

This history is already documented well elsewhere on the net - built as a cinema in 1934, converted to bingo use (as so many were), damaged by fire and closed; and then eventually converted to a theatre in 1986 with a ground floor music venue.

Like Andrews Lane, I saw a play here while in school. Like Andrews Lane, I can't remember what it was - 1990s childrens theatre in Ireland produced a lot of very unmemorable plays; and I also have an incredible knack of forgetting what happens in movies, books and plays, even ones I've seen loads of times (for instance, I think I've seen The History Boys four or five times, can't tell you anything other than it has Richard Griffiths in it).

However, I was in the ground floor music venue rather a lot more often, for events ranging from sparsely attended charity gigs through to full crowds for trance events, and also to see Paradise Lost in what was my last trip there in early 2018. At this stage, it was known the venue would be demolished and replaced with a hotel; but the closing date - early 2019 - had not been confirmed yet.

Similar to Andrews Lane, in its latter days, the Tivoli was rather a dump. But with a continuing loss of places to hold club nights, stage plays or even stage pantos, holding on to what we have is more important than ever, and this was another major loss.

Two regular events have survived the closure - the Tivoli Panto is now the Stadium Panto in the National Stadium; and the District 8 club night now exists in different locations in Dublin and Kildare.

Saturday, 1 February 2025

NecroReview: S0775 Ballsbridge Hotel

Finally! A write-up in this series that isn't a club. Despite that, this hotel was a core part of the cities nightlife, in it's past, which is one of the more storied pasts of a suburban hotel.

Built as the Intercontinental Hotel in 1962/3, for the "Irish and Intercontinental Hotels" joint venture between Aer Rianta and Pan Am Airlines; the hotel was built on the original site of the Trinity College Botanical Gardens. Much less well known than the main Botanical Gardens in Glasnevin, these moved out to Dartry when the old site was sold, and are still open to this day

The Intercontinental brand didn't have as much longevity in Ballsbridge, at least the first time around - it has returned in recent years on what was originally the Four Seasons a good distance further out of the city. The hotel was placed for sale in Summer 1972.

In January 1973, the premises became the main Jurys Hotel after the closure of their city centre branch, sited on Dame Street where the Central Bank building was built.

As Jurys, the hotel became know for its cabaret sessions - famed enough to have had a Smithsonian recording in the late 70s, its in-house barbers and its open-23-hours (the one hour off to clear people out and clean the place up, at least unofficially) coffee dock cafe.

The hotel was sold (for €260m!) to developer Sean Dunne in 2005, and closed in 2007 for redevelopment, with the interior stripped out and auctioned off.

However, his redevelopment plans faltered, and the hotel was reopened in 2009, and operated as part of his accidentally assembled "D4 Hotels" chain, as the "D4 Inn". This included, for a time, a discount supermarket in the hotel - "D4 Stores", operated by his then wife Gayle.

Ownership of the hotel passed on, through receivership, to Chartered Land who had it operated by Dalata on a management contract as the Ballsbridge Hotel in its latter years, and it was during these that I finally ticked it off the list, with a few visits for various reasons.

The hotel closed during the pandemic; with the site now going to be the new US Embassy - proof that some hotels do actually close, when it seems that they're being built on every other available site in the city.

Tuesday, 28 January 2025

NecroReview: S0208 Bernard Shaw, Richmond Street

Only sort-of a club space, but I primarily drank here before going to Tripod; as well as the occasional birthday party; or when attending Eatyard next door.

Not massively my type of pub, but with a huge fanbase, this is a definite loss to the Dublin social scene. The replacement venue (N2405 Bernard Shaw) on the Northside isn't quite the same; but is at least in a much better condition building.

I have scoured my phone camera roll, cloud storage and so on to find a photo of the "Enda Kenny rolls shit joints" grafitti which adorned the toilets in here, and was one of the two main defining features of the pub - but I can't. If I ever do find it, I'll come back and update the post with it.

The other defining feature was a Daimler Fleetline double decker bus converted in to a pizza restaurant. This did not make it to the new venue, presumably being too tall for the covered areas there; but the bus lives on at a pub in Wicklow.

The pub lies empty at time of writing, but redevleopment is planned. The main building is a protected structure, but the rambling, shambling outdoor spaces that made up Eatyard and the smoking area are not; so what may re-open - the approved plans have three hospitality spaces - will not be anything like what was there before.

Thursday, 23 January 2025

NecroReview: N2260 The Vaults, Amiens Street

Another club space? How on earth are these dominating a list of the closed venues in Dublin that I visited...

Well, this didn't really start as a club space as such. In the actual vaults of Connolly Station, this started life as a trendy cafe bar that opened late with its own DJs; but it didn't take long for it to be rented out  to promoters for ticketed events.

Opening in mid 2002, as the IFSC expanded towards this side of Connolly, the bar was primarily food-led, and this continued pretty much until it closed - I had a fully catered work Christmas party here; and also became a common location for supporters clubs to watch football matches. I only remembered actually going here for this purpose when checking the newspaper archives for listings - my first drink here was probably watching Brighton play in the FA Cup or similar in 2003 or 2004.

Laid out with two (or was it three?) bar areas to the front of the premises, and a number vaulted function rooms to the back, the food, sports and events business did continue; but most of my trips here were to trance nights; using anywhere from one to three vaults for different DJs. These were primarily promoted by Letrik but I did attend events here with other promoters over the years.

The venue had its problems, but I'd be quite happy to jump off a train and head down the steps in there for a gig again - although I'd probably not make it to 3am anymore!

The Vaults finally closed in 2012, a ten year lifespan that I would have sworn was more like 15-20 had I been asked without checking the dates.

That closure, which the operator blamed on uncontrolled water ingress, pretty much ended any chance of another venue coming in to the space. CIÉ eventually gave up on another bar opening here, and converted the space to relocate their staff medical centre; in what is an odder re-use for a Dublin nightclub.

For those keeping count, that's one hotel, one still empty (January 2025) and one medical centre on the "dead club afterline" tally.

Saturday, 18 January 2025

NecroReview: N2030 Good Bits / Radio City / Isaac Butts, Store Street

Oh look, its another club space on the "closed before I got to write them up" list. That's a surprise...

But there is a surprise here - this place is still licenced; and externally seems to be intact. But there's never been the vaguest hint of it reopening.  The registered owner is Nolan Transport, the trucking firm familar to any long distance driver; and has been for as long as I have records.

The setup here was a more 'normal' bar - originally The Isaac Butt - upstairs, and a basement club - called Radio City downstairs; although in its final incarnation it was The Good Bits upstairs and down. The venue opened at some point in 1999 or possibly late 1998 - event listings start in September '99, but there is a reference to the bar being there in February.

The club space was used for anything and everything, genre-wise - there are lots of writeups of metal gigs there, a promotional piece by the supplier of the sound system showing a very stereotypical mid 00s indie band playing (I have no idea if they are, they just look like one) through to the trance events I was there for.

Even though I was actually sober (driving) for some of those events, I don't remember much about it - nightclub interiors, at night, are never the most easy to differentiate I guess. I also don't really know when it closed - it only became The Good Bits in late 2009 or so, and I think it may have closed by 2011 - the last event reference I can find anywhere is October 2011.

Saturday, 11 January 2025

NecroReview: 1009202 Hangar / Andrews Lane Theatre, Andrews Lane

As I write this, its pretty close to Halloween (yes, the post are currently scheduled that far in advance) so what better time to get vaguely spooky, and follow up my RetroReview series of pubs I visited (for the first time) pre-July 2016 by filling in the gaps I left.

These gaps were left because the premise was closed by the time it came to do the RetroReview - properly closed, not temporarily closed. I did start the RetroReview series during the pandemic after all, when they were all shut.

As before, this is in licence number order, ish - I managed to leave some out, often by de-scheduling a post to replace it with something more important and only realising later - and the first licence up is the former Andrews Lane Theatre on, well, Andrews Lane.

As a theatre-class licence, I can be fairly certain that the hotel that replaced it, 1018129 The Wren is not using a conversion of this licence.

The initial theatre opened in a converted building on the site in 1989, but was sold to developers and closed in 2007. However, like a lot of things sold for development from 2006 onwards; it didn't get redeveloped for quite some time; and the theatre, minus its seating, became a nightclub for the interim.

I'm pretty certain I did attend a play here in school - I had some teachers very in to theatre and I also attended a play in the Riverbank Theatre, now the Merchants Quay Night Cafe; but I didn't drink here until it was a nightclub unsurprisingly. As ALT until 2014, and latterly as Hangar, it survived until 2018 as a club until the demolition crews finally came.

I never particularly cared for it as a club venue; but at the time I was attending Dublin had so many, many more club venues - a lot of this series is going to be a series of the lost clubs of Dublin.

The building was in extremely poor condition, the two rooms didn't work from a sound separation perspective, the cloakroom was a mess and and the toilets were a problem. But I'd prefer we still had the space even with all that. May have been a dump but it was *our* dump, etc etc...

Saturday, 2 July 2016

Pubs visited prior to blog

These are the premises I visited prior to starting this blog in August 2016. The oldest visits here will have been sneaky underage pints in 2003/4; although I've re-visited plenty of these since 2016 also.

I have begun writing them up, to varying levels of detail as my RetroReview series - those I visit more often frequently get a shorter post as I usually write about a specific visit.

1001897 Bunker, Point Square (since closed)
1008359 Weston Aerodrome, Lucan
1008963 Porterhouse, Nassau Street
1009202 Hangar / Andrews Lane Theatre, Andrews Lane - closed since
N1958 Becketts Hotel, Leixlip, (Dublin side of river, since closed)
S0009 Doyles, College Street
S0015 The Ginger Man, Fenian Street
S0018 Bowes, Fleet Street
S0031 O'Neills, Pearse Street
S0090 Hogans, Georges Street
S0092 The George, South Great Georges Street
S0094 Bruxelles, Harry Street
S0106 Porterhouse, Parliament Street
S0107 Lundy Foots / Czech Inn, Essex Gate
S0112 O'Neills, Suffolk Street
S0115 Bankers, Trinity Street
S0119 Teach Tábhairne, Wexford Street (when it was Against the Grain)
S0127 The Swan, Aungier Street
S0140 Clarence Hotel, Wellington Quay
S0149 Leinster Hotel, Mount Street (when it was Howl At The Moon)
S0163 Paddy Cullens, Ballsbridge
S0164 Horse Show House, Ballsbridge
S0200 Ryans, Camden Street
S0201 Bleeding Horse, Nassau Street
S0208 Bernard Shaw, Richmond Street (since closed)
S0237 Kodiak, Rathmines (when it was Copan)
S0253 The Goat, Goatstown
S0304 McCormacks, Dun Laoghaire
S0320 Fitzpatrick Castle Hotel, Killiney
S0323 Stillorgan Park Hotel, Stillorgan
S0366 Johnny Foxes, Glencullen
S0775 Ballsbridge Hotel, Pembroke Road (since closed)
S0967 The River Bar, Burgh Quay
S1308 Kellys Hotel / Bar With No Name, Fade Street
S1510 Patriots Inn, South Circular Road
S2747 Conrad Hotel, Earlsfort Terrace (when the bar was Alfie Byrnes)
S2949 The Old Storehouse, Crown Alley (when it was Eamon Dorans)
S2957 Tivoli Theatre, Francis Street (since closed)
S3032 Tripod, Harcourt Street (since closed)
S3035 Irish Film Institute, Eustace Street
S3037 Dylan Hotel, Eastmoreland Lane
S3053 Cafe En Seine, Dawson Street
S3055 Fleet Street Inn / Buskers, Fleet Street
S3099 Central Hotel, Exchequer Street (currently closed)
S3178 Front Lounge / Street 66, Parliament Street
S3214 Shelbourne Park Greyhound Stadium, South Lotts Road
S3221 Drury Court Hotel / Caribou, Drury Street (when it was PMacs)