City Council refuses retention permission for Shelbourne Bar's “excessive” awning
Cork City Council ruled the pub's awning disrupts the historic street's character, obstructs views of The Everyman Theatre, and exceeds its original permit.
The Shelbourne Bar on MacCurtain Street has been refused permission to retain its awning, which stretches across the ground floor of the exterior of the three-storey pub, covering the footpath.
The awning, deemed excessive by a City Council engineer, was erected in November 2023, while permission to retain the structure was submitted six months later, in May 2024, by Shelbourne owner Philip Gillivan.
In its assessment, Cork City Council’s conservation officer noted that no contact had been initiated by the bar despite the premises being recorded on the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage (NIAH) and “considered to contribute to the special character of MacCurtain Street.”
“In my opinion the visual impact of these works on the buildings is high and adverse, with the awning and its supporting structure obscuring the majority of the ground floor and the associated fixings disfiguring the first floor.
“In addition, the awning impacts significantly on the adjacent protected structure, the Everyman Theatre, with its distinctive entrance canopy and original upper floor proportions. Views of the Everyman on approach from the west are almost totally obscured by the recently constructed awning,” the City Council’s conservation officer noted outlining why retention was refused.
In her adjudication, Martina Foley, the City Council’s executive planner for Community, Culture and Placemaking supported the Council’s Conservation Officer’s assessment, noting that canopies should be “traditional design and retractable”, adding that the Shelbourne’s awning “is visually obtrusive and is contrary to proper planning and sustainable development in the area.”
“It has replaced a permitted modest retractable awning and in doing so has an undue negative impact upon the character of the ACA (Architectural Conservation Areas) area and NIAH buildings.”
Tripe + Drisheen contacted The Shelbourne Bar for comment, asking whether they have appealed or will be appealing the Council’s decision, and if they believe the decision was fair. T+D will update this story if or when The Shelbourne responds.
Update: Following T+D’s story, our colleagues in The Irish Examiner subsequently reported that The Shelbourne owner has appealed the City Council’s decision to An Bord Pleanála, the planning regulator.
In his assessment, an engineer for the City Council requested further information, but noted that the width of the awning seems excessive.
“It covers part of the footpath and stops partially over a potential seating area. Surely if it rains, the rainwater will drip onto the tables.
“The Roads Operations section has not as yet agreed the terms of the licence for street furniture, but it is unlikely to as extensive as shown in the layout drawing submitted. Any proposed street furniture will need to be properly barriered off and provide a clear pedestrian/vulnerable user route with out obstruction.”
A historic street
A local resident who contacted T+D, but who wishes to remain anonymous, as they have dealings with businesses in the area, said it was disappointing the way the planning process played out, especially as traders on the street would be well aware of the area's heritage status and any significant changes to buildings would rightly be scrutinised.
This week, MacCurtain Street will host up to 400 people as part of the Cork on a Fork food festival. Tickets for the VQ Shared Table, sponsored by Heineken-owned Birra Moretti on MacCurtain Street, cost €150 per person.
The street is being heavily promoted as Cork’s most “bougie” street following a multimillion euro transformation of the area, with restaurant critics falling over each other in declaring it as the city’s “foodiest” street and the centre of hospitality.
Not so very long ago Princes Street owned all those accolades.
Just last weekend, a feature in The Irish Examiner highlighted Shelbourne owner Philip Gillivan as one of the key figures who have helped transform the historic street that was once “battered and bruised by neglect and decline, so seedy, so edgy” that it reminded the critic of a scene from a “German arthouse movie about teenage drug addition in the squalid squats of 1970s Berlin.”
Not anymore.
The “Shelbourne is now one of the most popular pubs in the city, its magnificent collection of over 600 Irish whiskeys an attraction in its own right, and a quintessential MacCurtain St experience is enjoying a pint, either inside the pub or out on the ‘terrace’ while dining on smashing fish and chips from one of the street’s newer establishments, the cracking Eco-Fish, across the road.”
To that list of attractions, add the bar’s awning. But for the wrong reasons.
