We are featured in The Irish Times in the August Issue!
We are so proud to be featured in the August issue of The Irish Times discussing the history and new life of Keavan’s Port Hotel in Dublin.
“When UK chain JD Wetherspoon opens Keavan’s Port, its flagship pub and hotel on Dublin’s Camden Street, it will mark the completion of the company’s single largest investment in its 41-year history.
Bought for €6million, the three-year restoration on Camden Street Upper and Lower of eight Georgian townhouses and a chapel with the addition of a three-storey modern extension featuring a 12-metre- high glazed atrium, cost €27.4 million. According to Keith Paine of KDPA architects,
the UK company involved, well known for work in the hospitality area and with Wetherspoon, this project was the most challenging. “It’s the biggest we have ever done (for them) and cost more money and stress than any of the others,” he says.
At any one-time there were some150 people working on the building and the stop/start restrictions of the pandemic and coping with an outbreak of Covid added to the challenges.
What has been achieved has made a massive impact on the street. The former long line of run down,
derelict buildings that once included a convent, a chapel, a stained glass works and even a boxing gym has a new life and raison d’etre. The entire length of the front elevation has wig pointed brickwork (a highly specialised craft skill) by conservation specialists The Nolan Group. It features the spectacular bullseye rose window and stained-glass entrance doors to the hotel (restored by Joe Sheridan in Kilkenny) framed by an ironwork arch, railings and lanterns by Bushy Park Ironworks. Slattery also mentions the invaluable work of planning consultant Suzanne McClure of Brock McClure in the project.
The interior of the pub is vast and full of light thanks to the huge atrium which marks a clear definition between the old buildings and the new rear extension. It overlooks the beer garden below, an extensive area that would have originally been interlinked residential gardens. At the pub’s front entrance, the immediate focal point is the restored chapel dating from the 1890s, now a restaurant with confession box dining areas and mosaic floors restored by Laura O’Hagan. The domed ceiling in the apse that once overlooked Beau Jacks boxing ring has been returned to its former glory.
The 89-bedroom hotel which will open at the same time includes bedrooms designed especially for guests with disabilities. “You have to think about the people, the end users and the conversations people have in pubs, but everything has a playful nature as well,” says Gregg Elliott, director of kdpa who has taken a particular interest in the social history contained in the buildings.
“Great pubs evolve over hundreds of years – so we are trying to give this one a kickstart. It is bringing in history in a new way–a contemporary use of familiar qualities to make a real connection. We are giving this another layer.” “
Article by Deidre McQuillan