Tighter controls to protect heritage of Phibsborough

Tight new development controls designed to protect the architectural heritage and character of Phibsborough village are to be introduced by Dublin City Council.

The council is to designate the largely Victorian centre of the suburb, which lies just to the north of Dublin’s inner city, as an Architectural Conservation Area, which will give it a legal basis to preserve the built heritage of the village and protect it from “inappropriate”development.

The designation means commercial and residential building owners will be subject to tight controls if they want to make any changes to their properties.

They will have to apply for planning permission for alterations or repairs such as painting front walls a different colour, altering shop fronts or chimneys, installing double glazing and even cleaning walls of historic buildings.

The area under protection centres on the junction of the North Circular Road and Phibsborough Road, known as Doyle’s corner after the pub of the same name.

The conservation area largely runs east and west of this junction, from St Peter’s Church where Cabra Road and the North Circular Road meet, to Berkeley Road near the Mater Hospital.

Historic buildings

Phibsborough developed from the second half of the 18th century, but most of the remaining historic buildings are late Victorian, with some Edwardian properties and a number of Georgian houses near St Peter’s Church.

Most of the area being designated for protection is commercial.

Property owners must retain original shopfronts and pub fronts to the greatest extent possible.

Alterations or repairs to shopfronts, brickwork, stonework or render should respect the original material and endeavour to match it in appearance.

The addition of new modern shopfronts and signs to old buildings would require permission, but would be unlikely to be granted.

Where there are existing modern signs and structures concealing older shopfronts, these should be removed. “Every effort should be made to uncover original features to expose their original architectural quality,” the council said.

However, where new shopfronts are being installed, the use of reproduction, “traditional style” shop fronts should generally be avoided, the council said.

Instead, it would encourage “good-quality modern shopfronts” with a “crisp, simple and streamlined design”.

The council last year ordered that the shopfront and signs installed on a Supermac’s outlet in Temple Bar be removed because they were too “traditional” in style.

Shopping centre

The designated protection area stops short of the 1960s shopping centre immediately to the north of Doyle’s corner.

The shopping centre, with its eight-storey precast concrete office block, dominates the village.

It had been earmarked for demolition and redevelopment in the mid-2000s as part of a scheme involving the adjacent Dalymount Park football grounds, but the plans fell foul of the economic crash.

The conservation area also excludes Dalymount, which the council is currently in negotiations to buy from Bohemians football club.

A masterplan to guide the future development of Phibsborough as a whole was drawn up in 2007.

The Phibsborough Local Area Plan included a potential boutique hotel in Mountjoy prison, new parks and leisure facilities, two new primary schools, a secondary school and three skyscrapers.

Plans for the prison were contingent on the new “super prison” at Thornton Hall in north Dublin being built.

The plans are currently under review, with new more modest proposals due to be published shortly.