Planning permission denied for hotel on Dublin’s Cobblestone pub site

Last month saw activists campaign to save the Cobblestone from the proposed development.

Dublin City Council has refused planning permission for a hotel to be built on parts of the Cobblestone pub in Smithfield, the Irish Times reports. The refusal comes after much objection and protests from locals and patrons of the cultural institution. In outlining their decision to refuse permission, DCC said that removing part of the Cobblestone, which makes an "important contribution to the cultural offering in the area" would set an "undesirable precedent". The Council's planning authorities said: "It is considered that the proposed nine-storey over basement development would be overbearing and significantly out of scale and character with the prevailing architectural context, and would represent substantial over-development of this highly sensitive site." Their refusal continues: "The proposed new four- to six-storey development over the existing structures would completely overwhelm the protected structures and would cause serious injury to their amenity, architectural significance, legibility, special architectural character and setting." The DCC ruled that a hotel development on the site would be "unduly dominant in the streetscape and visually incongruous". Additionally, the Council said that the proposed development would "not make a positive contribution to the urban character of the area". They added that the demolition of the Cobblestone would "represent an unacceptable loss of historic fabric and would cause serious injury to the setting of the protected structures". News of the refusal was welcomed by many, particularly on Twitter. Green Party TD Neasa Hourigan said: "Do I dare hope for the future of a cultural space in Dublin? Cobblestone hotel application has been refused. Down to the people power of everyone who got involved." https://twitter.com/neasa_neasa/status/1465267074528387075 MEP Ciarán Cuffe echoed his colleague's sentiments and tweeted that he was "pleased to hear" that the proposal to build a hotel had been refused. https://twitter.com/CiaranCuffe/status/1465288933475065866