St Mary’s Church

John Keatings have asign up saying that they are going to open a bar there next year

This church has been idle far too long….after unsuitably being a painting & decorating store as well as a book shop I suppose a pub will get the custom.
Wolfe Tone I think was baptised there and Arthur Guinneass has some connection also.

that sign is up a few years now RoryW

it is indeed a shame

St Marys’is probably a perfect exemple of what you do with derelict or redundant buildings which happen to occupy prominent sites.
It would be good if they at least made an effort to integrate it with the park pending its redevelopment. At least get rid of the weeds!

Ah the We (John Keatings) have moved sign has been up for years but the Pub/Restaurant opening 2002 is of more recent vintage. I did here from someone that work was about to start on this soon. Here’s hoping. As for the interior – the Ryans decor store ruined most of it.

On a different tack, have you noticed that they have started building something behind the Penney’s store (about time too) on Henry Street – does anybody know what they are building?

I think they are building a car park and appartments

Is that the John Keatings that sold the old pub so McDonalds could build another bugger shop.

I think St. Mary’s was even a Greek Orthodox church for some time and I’m sure it has some link to the nearby St. Mary’s Abbey too.

…… CORRECTION …… Burger Shop

Thank god you cleared that one up!!!

Just read last night that St. Mary’s is the only surviving church from the 17th century
in Dublin.

john keating is putting a pub aind resaurant into the church… i don’t know what the time-frame is, but it is being designed at the moment. there are conservation consultants working on the project…

According to Dr Edward McParland, St Mary’s was among the churches needed for new parishes in an expanding city:

“Begun in 1700, with its tall short nave, steep roof and bulky tower it has a medieval silhouette. But its plan comes from Wren (at St Clement Danes), and its east facade has the best baroque window frame in the country.”

Willam Robinson (architect of the Royal Hospital Kilmainham provided the design for the window frame (see the east front of the Chapel). Robinson ‘probably’ designed the greater part of what McParland calls “this transitional and gauche composition”.

I see that they are currently boring holes outside this place (for a crane?) and that the conversion work has begun.

as far as I know the basement is to be developed-if so they might be putting down secant piles to form a retaining wall.

Why hasnt the square opened to the public other than the skateboarders yet?

Probably want the park to be in pristine condition when the whole development is completed-though that would seem to be quite a way off
maybe they are waiting for a suitable notable, with space in their diary, to open it!

About time they did something with the church.
Does anyone know who designed the office block on the side of the square opposite the old hospital entrance?

The modern block is by Scott Tallon Walker and the one straddling the corner of Wolfe Tone Street and Mary Street was by WG Murray in 1865 and was built as a draperfy warehouse. AFAIR it also briefly contained a cinema in the 1920s (remember this from an exhibition in the IFC last year) and no it wasn’t the Volta before everyone climbs in with the name.