> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.dublininquirer.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Council looks to host pop-up uses in one of its vacant buildings on Capel Street - URL: https://www.dublininquirer.com/council-looks-to-host-pop-up-uses-in-one-of-its-vacant-buildings-on-capel-street/ - Published: 2026-09-29T23:56:44.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-29T23:56:44.000Z - Description: Reviving 114 to 116 Capel Street is part of the council’s wider effort to meet recommendations around tackling vacancy made by the Dublin City Taskforce, a council spokesperson said. - Author: Michael Lanigan - Tags: vacancy, City Desk The lights were on inside the ground floor of the former Oman Antiques building on the northern end of Capel Street just after noon on Tuesday. Located in numbers 114 to 116, the exterior of the building was largely well-kempt, save for a big white plank of wood covering one of the windows. The white board was covered in posters and graffiti tags scrawled in different coloured markers. Two of the other arched windows on the ground floor were decorated with posters from Circus Xtreme, which runs with the promise of “making circus great again” over a series of dates between late September and early October. Built in 1871, the three-storey Victorian building was once a theatre and showroom, according to the National Built Heritage Service website. Later it served as the headquarters of the United Trades Council and Labour League in 1935, [the site says](https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/building/50010566/oman-antique-galleries-114-116-capel-street-dublin-dublin?ref=dublininquirer.com). It is now owned by Dublin City Council and they have no plans to sell it, a spokesperson for the council said on Tuesday. Instead, the council is getting ready to bring it back into use, said Karl Mitchell, the executive manager of the City Co-ordination Office at the Community, Gaeilge, Sport, Arts and Culture Strategic Policy Committee on 21 September. First, its ground floor will get a “meanwhile use”, he said. In other words, a for-now, temporary, use, while they work out a longer-term plan. The first tenant will be the Irish Architecture Foundation as part of its upcoming Open House 2026 festival, he said. “But we hope from there that the building will be activated on short stints. So it could be a craft maker, could be someone doing pop-up stores.” Between 10 and 18 October, it will be a free public venue for architecture and culture, as well as a meeting point for visitors and volunteers, an Irish Architecture Foundation spokesperson said on Tuesday afternoon. The move is part of a renewed effort to use more of the council's vacant spaces in the city centre for something, even if temporary, stemming from a recommendation in the Dublin City Taskforce [October 2024 report.](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28698594-capital-city-dublin-city-taskforce-report/?ref=dublininquirer.com) ## **Costly and complex** Local councillors had previously pushed for Dublin City Council to re-open 114 to 116 Capel Street as a replacement building for the Complex Arts Centre. On 3 December 2025, the Complex had announced, via a petition, that they had been served a notice to leave their premises in a warehouse on East Arran Street. Six days later, at the [December Central Area Committee](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28698406-with-reference-to-the-minutes-of-the-meeting-held-on-9th-december-2025/?ref=dublininquirer.com), Green Party Councillor Janet Horner tabled a motion, proposing that the council consider re-purposing the old auction house as a space for artist studios. It is a travesty that artists were being evicted right around the corner from Capel Street, she said, while the council wasn’t “looking for every possible solution, including our own stock of buildings that would be perfectly suitable for further artist spaces.” It wasn’t going to be a simple one to bring back to life, Horner said, speaking by phone on Monday. “Like, it does need significant fire safety work. The upper floors are not usable at the moment.” Vanessa Fielding, the CEO of the Complex, said on Tuesday evening that the council did invite them to visit the property. “At the same time, of course, it’s a limited space, and it wouldn’t have accommodated all the bits to the Complex that we would have needed to make it viable.” [At the 23 March meeting](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28698364-draft-minutes-of-the-artists-workspaces-committee-dated-23rd-march-2026/?ref=dublininquirer.com) of the Artist Workspace Committee, a sub-committee of the council’s Arts Strategic Policy Committee, members agreed that there was no viable council-owned solution that they could offer to the Complex. The required funding of between €7 and 8 million was unachievable, the minutes from the meeting say, noting that the Arts Office would remain alert to potential future spaces. ## **Public facing** The effort to revive 114 to 116 Capel Street forms part of the council’s wider effort to revitalise the city centre through the Dublin City Taskforce, a council spokesperson said on Tuesday. [In its October 2024 report](https://assets.gov.ie/static/documents/capital-city-dublin-city-taskforce-report.pdf?ref=dublininquirer.com), the taskforce recommended the development of a “meanwhile use strategy and plan to utilise the city’s vacant spaces” in order to give people a “compelling” reason to visit the city centre. Currently, the council’s City Co-ordination Office is in the process of completing some works to ensure that the ground floor complies with building and fire safety regulations, the spokesperson said. That will enable it to be let under a Short Term Temporary Licence to the Irish Architecture Foundation for their upcoming Open House festival in October, they said. “It is hoped that this initial work will allow the ground floor of the premises to be used for other meanwhile uses.” The upper floors require a lot of safety work, City Arts Officer Ray Yeates said on Monday. “To get it moving quickly, they want to get the ground floor going.” It’s not a large space, he said. “But probably, it could get fifty, sixty, seventy people into it safely.” But it must remain public facing, he said. “So it’s a mini venue or exhibition space would be the way to go.”