This is possibly one of the most old-fashioned premises in the city - and not in the way you may imagine.
A "Railway Refreshment Room" in the classic sense, this is a large dining room to the side of Heuston Station. There are some seats at the bar and some more couch-like seats to the side but the bulk of the room is laid out as dining tables. Barring the large TVs it is likely very similar to how it appeared in the 19th Century.
One of the 'early houses' of Dublin, few people go here except for an early pint or before taking a train so there is little requirement for a more traditional pub interior.
They don't actually sell Galway Hooker, although the bar name predates the beer name and they are named after a boat type.
Wednesday, 24 January 2018
S1433 O'Sheas Merchant
A vastly touristy pub / restaurant opposite the (even more touristy) Brazen Head. River frontage section of the building is in fact the restaurant, you are expected to drink in the Lower Bridge Street section.
S3234 Handel Hotel / Oscars
Formerly Handels and Karma, and the sister bar of Oscars in Smithfield, this is one of the nicer hotel bars in the city centre. It was oddly quiet for a Saturday early evening - but mid January does that to places - and most of the tables had reserved cards timed for later in the night.
The walls at the back of the downstairs are lined with hardback books, as is common enough in Dublin pub decor of late. Usually these are whatever they can find in the nearest charity shop, and consist mostly of old World Book encyclopedia volumes and Readers Digest condensed editions. Both of these were on show here - but there was a small section which featured a book by Margaret Thatcher and biographies of Ted Heath and John Charles McQuaid - making it possibly the most Conservative place to drink in Dublin that isn't the Conservative Club!
The walls at the back of the downstairs are lined with hardback books, as is common enough in Dublin pub decor of late. Usually these are whatever they can find in the nearest charity shop, and consist mostly of old World Book encyclopedia volumes and Readers Digest condensed editions. Both of these were on show here - but there was a small section which featured a book by Margaret Thatcher and biographies of Ted Heath and John Charles McQuaid - making it possibly the most Conservative place to drink in Dublin that isn't the Conservative Club!
Monday, 8 January 2018
January 2018 licence update
The licence update up until 31/12/17 was made available today
New:
1013188 Etihad Lounge, Dublin Airport
1013563 National Gallery
1013568 T2 Bus Boarding, Dublin Airport
1013579 Bohans, Meath Street (replacing S1455 which had been delisted a significant time ago)
No removals or renumberings of existing licences.
New:
1013188 Etihad Lounge, Dublin Airport
1013563 National Gallery
1013568 T2 Bus Boarding, Dublin Airport
1013579 Bohans, Meath Street (replacing S1455 which had been delisted a significant time ago)
No removals or renumberings of existing licences.
Sunday, 31 December 2017
2017 Summary
2017 was the first full year of this project,
As well as populating and maintaining the map (1350+ past and present pubs, all manually placed), I have visited 101 premises for the first time. December was the busiest month for this - 18 new premises; with January being the quietest with only 1.
This has had a net impact of only 88 on the target figure, due to changes in the total number of pubs; with 286 of 1004 licences listed having been visited as of today.
On the licencing side, there's been 24 additions - a few of which were existing pubs missing from the list but the bulk of which are actually new pubs; with 11 removals - most of which had been closed for years. In terms of actually open pubs, there is a small increase from closed premises reopening outweighing existing premises closing without licence cancellation.
I've visited everything from tiny pubs to huge venues, semi private bars (with public licences, of course) to transit locations with millions passing. Pubs visited go as far West as the Springfield Hotel, South as the Blue Light and North as, well, the airport - North County Dublin is in next years plans!
I've spent probably more time on this not actually in pubs - between trawling newspaper archives, Thoms Directories, the Dublin City Archive and other sources researching for the map, articles posted on the blog and other future projects.
Next years plans include the previously mentioned focus on North County Dublin - I have substantially completed the North city centre now yet have little done in NCD except for some premises in Swords (last visited in 2006). I intend to start taking photos some places to break up the text-only format and to start writing more on the history of pubs and licencing.
Pub #300 isn't too far away and I'll be trying to select somewhere important enough for it. #200 was the Blue Light and #250 the Long Hall so somewhere with history is essential.
As well as populating and maintaining the map (1350+ past and present pubs, all manually placed), I have visited 101 premises for the first time. December was the busiest month for this - 18 new premises; with January being the quietest with only 1.
This has had a net impact of only 88 on the target figure, due to changes in the total number of pubs; with 286 of 1004 licences listed having been visited as of today.
On the licencing side, there's been 24 additions - a few of which were existing pubs missing from the list but the bulk of which are actually new pubs; with 11 removals - most of which had been closed for years. In terms of actually open pubs, there is a small increase from closed premises reopening outweighing existing premises closing without licence cancellation.
I've visited everything from tiny pubs to huge venues, semi private bars (with public licences, of course) to transit locations with millions passing. Pubs visited go as far West as the Springfield Hotel, South as the Blue Light and North as, well, the airport - North County Dublin is in next years plans!
I've spent probably more time on this not actually in pubs - between trawling newspaper archives, Thoms Directories, the Dublin City Archive and other sources researching for the map, articles posted on the blog and other future projects.
Next years plans include the previously mentioned focus on North County Dublin - I have substantially completed the North city centre now yet have little done in NCD except for some premises in Swords (last visited in 2006). I intend to start taking photos some places to break up the text-only format and to start writing more on the history of pubs and licencing.
Pub #300 isn't too far away and I'll be trying to select somewhere important enough for it. #200 was the Blue Light and #250 the Long Hall so somewhere with history is essential.
Friday, 29 December 2017
N0195 Mission
A sister bar to N0215 Dice Bar, sharing their access to some exclusive beers produced by/for the owners. I finally got to try one of these, having not known or noticed when visiting the Dice Bar.
This may actually be bigger than Dice Bar internally, having two and a half or three levels depending on how you count them, but operates much shorter hours - one staff shift six days a week seems to be the norm.
The corners around the O'More Bridge had three pubs until maybe ten years ago; at times recently there has been none as Mission itself is fairly recent and there has been a large number of short-term occupants of the building. Despite large quantities of apartments it seems the area doesn't have the volume of locals to support the number of pubs it once had.
This may actually be bigger than Dice Bar internally, having two and a half or three levels depending on how you count them, but operates much shorter hours - one staff shift six days a week seems to be the norm.
The corners around the O'More Bridge had three pubs until maybe ten years ago; at times recently there has been none as Mission itself is fairly recent and there has been a large number of short-term occupants of the building. Despite large quantities of apartments it seems the area doesn't have the volume of locals to support the number of pubs it once had.
1006953 Oscars Cafe Bar
A permanently busy premises in Smithfield which effectively seems to be more a restaurant with a bar licence than an actual pub at this stage. While not as restaurant-y as some of the other places like that (TGI Fridays, Captain Americas etc) it doesn't seem like somewhere you'd go for a pint on its own - the other pubs on Smithfield Square are more suited for that.
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