Council drops plans for art studios at Meeting House Square – but has an alternative

In Meeting House Square, a dance troupe in black performed to the bounce of a reggaeton track, while a friend filmed.

Bunting from Culture Night still hung over the open space.

Behind the dancers, the windows of the former Eden Restaurant were covered by a relatively new advertisement for Peugeot, and an older peeling one for the Dublin Fringe Festival, an occupant of the building’s top two floors.

Almost three years ago, councillors had been pressing for the empty restaurant to be renovated and used again for something artsy or cultural – partly blaming its vacancy for the desolation of the plaza during weekdays.

So, the former restaurant had been earmarked for refurbishment by Dublin City Council, which planned to convert the vacant premises into artist workspaces.

But those plans have now been dropped after the council concluded that the site isn’t suitable to progress, show minutes from a meeting of its Artist Workspaces Committee, a subcommittee of the arts strategic policy committee, on 1 September.

Instead, an empty shop nearby on the corner of Essex Street West and Fishamble Street has been provided to the city’s Arts Office by the Temple Bar Cultural Trust, with a view to converting this into studio spaces, the minutes show.

Formerly the ISB Mobility Shop, this new option would be preferable, said City Arts Officer Ray Yeates on Monday. “I’m personally happier with the Mobility Shop, because it’s in a better condition.”

Whereas Eden Restaurant would require €500,000 to get done up, the ISB Mobility Shop could be done for roughly half that, he said. “It will probably need a little bit of rewiring and a clean-up, but it will be cheaper and we could get it open quicker.”

It could take about a year to deliver these new workspaces down by Fishamble Street, according to the minutes.

But once completed, this project would contribute to the council’s target of delivering 60 spaces as part of its Space to Create, a government pilot scheme that helps local authorities to deliver more artist workspaces.

The council is aiming to hit most of these targets by 2027. But it’s all dependent on planning permission, Yeates says. “The problem is always planning.”

While there are some alternative ideas for the former restaurant in Temple Bar, like a hub for tour guides, Yeates says, nothing official is being put forward to the council at this time.

A preferred alternative

The former ISB Mobility Shop is at the end of Scarlet Row, a block of shops, offices and flats at the tail of Essex Street West.

It had been a mobility shop until 2017, according to images on Google Street View.

On Monday evening, the corner shop was shuttered and the interior gutted. A disassembled toilet bowl lay next to cardboard boxes.

Somebody had cellotaped a sheet of paper in the window. Its most recent occupants, the Dawson Boutique, had closed for renovations, it said.

That sign had been in the window for at least six years, images on Google Street View show.

It is a property that could be considered either for studio space or a gallery, or both, said Yeates, the city arts officer.

He points to units that the council rents on James Joyce Street, the Unit 4 incubation space or the Oonagh Young Gallery, with the latter being a particularly influential model, he says. 

“It has her practice in the back, but also a gallery in the front. It’s a space like that we’re looking at,” he says.

Eden Restaurant has been left in a terrible state, says independent Councillor Mannix Flynn, who is also on the board of the Temple Bar Cultural Trust, a subsidiary company of Dublin City Council, which owns the property.

So much work would be needed to bring it up to meet health and safety standards for artist spaces, he says. “This doesn’t stack up. You’d be spending an awful fortune to turn it into artist studios and then it’s very limited.”

It would take re-wiring, a bigger clean-out, and works for disability access, he said – and may not even be practically suited for studio space.

Says Yeates: “Because it opens onto Meeting House Square, it would probably need a public facing use, providing passive and active engagement with the square.”

There are some ideas floating around for the former restaurant, but nothing official, Yeates said. “Maybe it could be a set up for tour guides.”

Quicker, cheaper

The former ISB Mobility Shop could also be done for less, and faster, with works costing an estimated €250,000 and taking roughly a year, Yeates says.

One question is whether the shop needs “change of use”, he says – in other words, planning permission to be used for something other than a shop. 

“That’s a matter for the planner. But if it’s already zoned for retail, it may be accepted that a gallery is a retail space,” he said.

If they don’t need to change any planning provisions, the council could get going on this very quickly, he says. “If it needs planning, I could be waiting six months before we could really agree to do it.”

Getting the former ISB Mobility Shop up to scratch could help deliver on the council’s target of 60 planned artist workspaces as part of its Space to Create scheme, Yeates says. “We think we have the 60 in the sites already that we have.”

The Department of Culture, Communications and Sport, in 2023, allocated €3 million to the council to develop those 60 spaces as part of its pilot scheme to increase the number of artist workspaces throughout the city, according to a press release from the department.

Those sites include Merchant’s Quay, where 20 studio spaces are planned and a live venue.

The budget for that project has increased from €6.5 million to €9.5 million following a value audit and increased construction costs, according to the minutes of the Artist Workspace Committee meeting on 1 September.

An unnamed donor is to contribute €4 million to those studios, the minutes show, with the project currently at the pre-Part 8 planning stages and its completion expected by 2027. “Part 8” being the process through which the council applies to itself for planning permission.

One challenge the council is encountering, however, is its plan to develop an arts and community building at the top of Bridgefoot Street, across the road from the Swift pub, the minutes show, noting that it is “difficult to progress”.

It is the site behind the house on the corner of Bridgefoot Street and Thomas Street, Yeates said.

For that, €1.5 million had been allocated under the council’s current city arts plan.

That site has become contested, Yeates says. “It needs to be sorted by the property department. That doesn't make it viable for the temporary units we were thinking about putting on it.”